Before this year’s French Open women’s final, Coco Gauff had a decision to make. Rap or gospel music in her headphones before the match?
“When I’m feeling super nervous,” Gauff said, “I listen to gospel because I am like, OK, I need a higher power or something to calm me down.”
A player’s choice of music might seem like mere superstition. But academic research has shown the type of music an athlete listens to before a match can have a surprising and consequential impact on performance.
Christopher Ballmann, an associate professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, says it can lead to increased focus and effort, more explosive performance and faster sprint speeds in a lab environment
“It’s both psychological and physiological,” Ballmann said. Dive deeper below.
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Ben Shelton, Coco Gauff and the science behind pre-match music at the U.S. Open
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