Posted on 02/27/2008 3:41:27 AM PST by SkyPilot
Edited on 02/27/2008 8:09:32 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
A 9-year-old tennis player who grunts like her idol, Maria Sharapova, when she's playing has been kicked out of a tennis club in Australia.
The Melbourne Herald-Sun reports (via Sports by Brooks) that the girl, Lauryn Edwards, was told that she could no longer play at the Mt Carmel Tennis Club in Sunbury because an opposing player complained that "the grunting had become too much." Lauryn's father explains his daughter's grunt and the response to it:
"It's pretty slight and now and again she hits it hard and makes a loud noise and that's it," he said.
"From just one comment, this has all blown up stupidly.
"There's no rule against it, so they've made a rule against it."
Some people may find it annoying, but the fact is that grunting has become a part of tennis, especially women's tennis. Sharapova's grunts have been estimated at about 100 decibels, and if her opponents can tolerate it, so can Lauryn's.
try going to any fencing match and you will hear screaming ... yes from the ladies. sports are emotional! arrrrrrrrrrh!!!
You beat me to it.
Big difference between grunting a little and shrieking like a banshee.
Fact is, the grunting or shouting or shrieks help make more powerful shots.
LOL!!!
PLS- That’s good.
On Fox and Friends this morning Alisyn Cammerota was grousing about a grunter in the FNC gym. Get over yourselves people! Sports and exercise are physical and noisy.
Is it any wonder that golf is declining in popularity while NASCAR has record attendance? There were half a million people at the Daytona 500 this year. Sports fans enjoy cheering for their favorites. Fewer and fewer people relish the idea of color-coordinated outfits, polite applause and dead silence during putts.
And fewer and fewer people exercise and enjoy manners, civility and good taste. True enough.
I don’t think golf is declining in popularity as a spectator sport at all. Now when Tiger goes, well that’s when the problems will set in. However, it is declining as a participatory sport because many of the players over the past ten boom years are now players with families and they don’t have the bucks and the time as they did when they were single or childless.
It's also a distraction and is used to hide the contact sound of the racquet and ball. It should be banned.
As compared to Sampras who was a jerk his entire career. At least he didn't screech.
Yes, and using a potato cannon also makes more powerful shot. What’s your point? Should there be no rules? Potato cannons should be permissible?
If it’s a ‘potato cannon’ game, then why not? Should we ask Basketball players to wear shoes that squeak on the court less? It’s integral to the game.
But potato cannons are not allowed on the court. Only the competitors, their rackets, balls, and their own exertions.
As leaps of logic go, you are Bob Beamon
There is only two occasions when it’s acceptable for a woman to be grunting or shrieking. Childbirth and what led up to it.
Every time I see your nic I have to chuckle. I grew up on 98th and Manistee. Are you still in Hegewisch?
Yeah - escaped to Streamwood for a decade, back on the south side now. Want me to pick you up something at the fish shack by the bridge?
I never understood golf as a spectator sport, anyway. I would much rather spend four hours smacking the ball than watching somebody else do it on TV. If I want to see somebody make the perfect shot, I can always replay the vision that I had in my mind’s eye before I shanked one into the woods (again).
Is is still called Calumet Fisheries? I workde there for two years. I Mexican Inn still there? Best cheese tacos in the world.
Well, I think that leap of logic was Wind Aided...
Shrieking must be balanced against the rule against distracting your opponent and general good sportsmanship. The idea is to hit a good shot and beat your opponent by out playing him. If the purpose of the shriek is to mask the sound of the ball or to distract your opponent, then it is poor sportsmanship, to say the least, and may violate the rules of the game, depending on how they are worded.
So the person making the judgement must, you know, make a judgement as to whether the shrieking is intentional or interferes with the opponent's ability to play the ball. I suspect a lot of the shrieking going on is stategic in nature and has absolutely nothing to do with gaining power. It appears that, in this particular case, the club agrees.
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