There's a Very Good Reason Why Athletes Spit So Often

Watch virtually any sporting event taking place at a high enough level, and you’re pretty much guaranteed to witness one thing: athletes spitting. Is it photogenic? Not really. But there is a very good reason for it — one that goes beyond tradition and superstition. In a detailed look at spitting in sports, The Athletic’s Rustin Dodd explored the roots of this practice, and found that while habits do play a role, there’s also a scientific case to be made for expectorating on the playing field.

In the article, Dodd quotes several athletes who spoke highly of spitting as part of their gameday routine, which makes sense: elite athletes often have superstitions, and actions that help keep one’s mind clear and focused can play a big part in great performances on the field. Dodd points to a 2017 study published in the journal European Journal of Sport Science. The paper’s title, “Carbohydrate mouth rinse improves morning high-intensity exercise performance,” gives readers a good sense of what to expect.

The researchers who conducted the study determined that “[oral carbohydrate] rinsing solution significantly improved the morning performance of [countermovement jump] height, 10 m sprint times, bench press and squat repetitions.” As David Kohn noted in The Guardian the following year, this wasn’t the only study to show that carbohydrate rinsing — essentially, sipping a performance drink and then spitting it out — could have a beneficial effect on athletic performance.

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Trent Stellingwerff, one of the authors of another study that reached similar conclusions, hadn’t expected the results. “We were really shocked. The rinse has an instantaneous effect,” Stellingwerff told The Guardian. “It allows subjects to perceive that the task is easier.” It might not be the most photogenic practice, but there are reasons both physical and psychological for it.

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Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…