Why Do Women Olympic Fencers Scream?

[ktaylor310]

I really want to know the answer to this question! I actually tried to look the answer up on Google and was comforted to see a lot of other people asking the same thing - so I'm not the only one unnerved by this!

Is it motivation, pain, what??

[banners56]

with trying to influence the judges. Though i doubt that it really influences anybody

[Logan]

Maybe similar. Tennis players 'grunt' a lot, but in that case there are no judges being influenced. The ball is either in or out, but they continue to do it. Maybe partly a matter of influencing, but I suspect behavioral associations, motivation or even something phyiscal plays a role.

[ktaylor310]

Hmmmm.... You know I thought about the tennis grunt. But the lady fencers scream after the hit - not from exertion. Also, in tennis not everyone grunts. In the olympics it was across the board. Almost sounded like they screamed out of frustration, but it makes more sense that they would scream before the hit for motivation. How does this influence the judges?

[Logan]

Any fencing judges around here? lol.

ok. theory2 ... since it is a judged score, maybe one person started doing it and their opponent responded in the same manner to make sure there wasn't a perceived advantage and equalize the scoring. From there the dominoes started falling and everyone started screaming, I guess

[ktaylor310]

So... hyper-drama snowball reaction?? I like it!

[savvy_sal]

I thought they both screamed so that the judges cannot deduce who was struck - they need to look at the replay to judge it? Although that doesn't really make that much sense to me, since if you were the one who struck your opponent, why would you bother to scream?

[homebizseo.com]

They scream because they are fighting with swords.

[ktaylor310]