A recent study has revealed what many of us have known for years. If you make an unholy grunting noise as you hurtle a tennis ball towards someone at 180km/h, their reaction times might be diminished.

In an experiment that proves that everything important in science has been discovered and we’re running out of things to spend grant money on, it was “revealed” that tennis’ loudest grunters, like Maria Sharapova and Rafael Nadal have a distinct advantage over their more courteous opponents.

Test subjects were shown hundreds of video clips of a player hitting a tennis ball and had to quickly decide whether the ball was going to be hit left or right. Some of the shots were coupled with simulated grunting, which is probably every bit as horrible as you can imagine.

In a statement that analysts are referring to as “impossible to say with a straight face”, one of the scientists explained:

“The findings were unequivocal. Basically, when the video clips did have a grunt, the participants were slower to react [and] had lower accuracy levels.

I’ve never been accused of being in peak physical condition and I’ll admit to the occasional grunt when lifting myself off the couch but that’s because I’m lazy and exercise is hard. However, as professional athletes I feel you should be able to exert yourself with decorum. It’s worth noting that I don’t even watch tennis and I get annoyed by grunters. So imagine what players like Martina Navratilova (who has publically stated that she thinks grunting is tantamount to cheating) must feel like when standing face to face with an opponent that sounds like they’re taking a swift kick to the abdomen.

[Source: BBC]