Yesterday I happened upon an article about grunting. Yep, you heard me right, I said grunting. Well, you actually didn't hear me, since you're reading this, but if you had spent any significant time watching Maria Sharapova play tennis, you might not be able to hear me anyway. That is because she has a grunt that is so loud that it could, in fact, damage your hearing.
According to an article in Time magazine, grunting in tennis is becoming so distractingly problematic, that the Women's Tennis Association is considering putting "limits on how loud players can grunt during matches." This is an idea that surprisingly (at least on the surface) is supported by Sharapova.
Grunting is nothing new in tennis. Monica Seles was a world class grunter back in the 90s, with a odd guttural and high pitched grunt that, while watching from my couch, would make me jump every time she hit the ball. So the idea that the WTA was considering trying to reign in the screamers didn't particularly surprise me. What I did learn, however, was two-fold.
First I learned that current grunters would be grandfathered in, should new rules be put into place. Sharapova, probably the loudest grunter playing the game today, would be allowed to continue here high-pitched yelps while newer players might have to muzzle theirs. This exemption makes it pretty easy for Sharapova to agree with the limits. After all, she gets all the benefit of quiet concentration while still being able to annoy the crap out of her opponent. That seems pretty win win.
What was more interesting to learn was that Sharapova's grunts have been measured at 101 decibels. Not being an expert on sound, I turned to Galen Carol Audio's handy Decibel Comparison Chart (available at http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/loudness.html) to better understand just how loud Sharapova is during a match.
According to Galen Carol Audio, normal conversation is around 60-65 decibels or dB. Sharapova's 101dB grunt is between a motorcycle (100dB) and a power mower (107dB). That's pretty loud! Even more importantly, sustained exposure to sounds above 95dB can cause hearing loss, so her 101dB grunt repeated over and over for several hours can be doing damage to those around her.
But decibel level is just one component. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, duration of the sound and proximity to the sound are also key factors to hearing loss. They say, "a good rule of thumb is to avoid noises that are 'too loud' and 'too close' or that last 'too long.'"
Hmm...to loud, to close and too long? I wonder if Sharapova is actually hurting her own hearing with her style of play. Her grunts are clearly too loud, she can't get much closer to her ears than her mouth, and she emits these sounds repeatedly and regularly for hours at a time during both play and practice I would imagine. I'm no ENT, but hat seems like a recipe for hearing loss to me.
I guess time will tell if Sharapova is doing more harm than just distracting her opponents. If I were her, however, I would probably invest in a really good pair of earplugs. I'm just saying.
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