The whole crowd went quiet as junior Devin Lee went up to spike the ball during the final match of the AAU Boys National Volleyball Championships.
“I went up, and then I hit the ball with a super loud grunt,” said Lee. “No one was talking. I hit the ball out, and then just got a lot of stares and laughs [because I grunted].”
According to Meredith Wekesser, clinical assistant professor of kinesiology at the University of Illinois Chicago, when athletes grunt, neurons in the body fire faster, priming the body to react quicker.
Grunting gets the heart rate up and pumping, triggering the sympathetic nervous system, which activates the body’s fight-or-flight response and helps it prepare for competition, Wekesser said.
According to Jayson Patel, head strength and conditioning coach at Glenbrook North, grunting helps athletes produce more force and a better power output.
“So for example, football, baseball,” said Patel. “Short, quick, fast bursts, that’s when you incorporate things like a grunt because of the amount of force generated in a short amount of time.”
Grunting can be implemented while breathing heavy, when abdominal pressure and core stability are created and need to be released, Patel said.
“You blow all that air out, and that’s when the grunt comes into play,” said Patel. “And that’s something that’s intentionally practiced with. [Grunting] could be performed during any movement in the weight room, which can then carry over to how you go about your [performance] on a field, on a court, wherever it may be.”
According to Scott Sinnett, professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii, he found substantial increases in force for movements like kicking while studying the influence of grunting on athletic performance.
“We had a kicking bag, and we required some MMA practitioners to kick the bag with a grunt or without a grunt, and they were able to kick about 15 percent harder [while grunting],” Sinnett said.
According to Lee, the intensity of his grunting depends on his energy and mood.
“If I’m angry, if I’m mad, if I’m more energetic, or even if games are coming to an end or the score is tight and close and there’s more pressure, then I’ll definitely grunt a little louder,” Lee said.
According to Sinnett, research has proven that grunting can help create physical force, or increased strength and power, while playing a variety of sports.
Athletes were able to hit a ball faster, lift more weight and increase their grip strength when grunting, Sinnett said.
According to Lee, grunting helps strengthen his arm swing so he can hit the ball harder.
“It keeps me in rhythm,” said Lee. “If I try not to grunt, it just messes up my timing, my rhythm, whatever I’m doing.”