The Tennis Week Interview: Pat Etcheberry

If all television networks provided close-captioning for all the shrieks, squeals and screams reverberating around Roland Garros and Wimbledon, they might fill a typical TV screen.

Tennis traditionally encourages silence — from the chair umpire’s stately “quiet please” request to fans refraining from yelling or cheering while the ball is in play — but are players who shriek, scream and grunt pumping up the volume on power or merely trying to muffle the sounds of their shots springing from the strings in an effort to mute opponents?

Pat Etcheberry, who has been one of tennis’ top trainers and conditioning coaches for decades, believes there is more than sound and fury to the shrieks and screams you hear from some players. Pointing to the fact, Olympic weight lifters and martial artists often grunt while exhaling, Etcheberry believes tennis players can tap into maximum power by grunting while exhaling in their execution of shots.

“I can document and I can show you how much more power a player can generate when he or she grunts. I can prove it through a computer program analysis,” Etcheberry says. “I can have you hit a forehand grunting and hit one without grunting and I can document to you that you will generate more power grunting than not grunting. The more you exhale, the more power you can generate. That’s why Olympic weight lifters grunt as they exhale when they lift and that’s why you see martial artists grunt when they throw a punch or a kick… The problem is when people hit the ball and scream and then keep screaming when the ball is on the other side of the net — that is not helping anyone and that upsets people.”

Etcheberry has made a career of helping tennis’ top players hone their bodies into elite condition. Etcheberry’s client list looks like the names engraved on tennis’ most prestigious trophies. He has trained Pete Sampras, Jim Courier, Andre Agassi, Monica Seles, Jennifer Capriati, Justine Henin, Martina Hingis and Jelena Jankovic.

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