Inside, the Yankees beat off the mechanics of Aaron Judge’s punches

Well Jake Mintz
FOX Sports MLB Writer

You already know the thing: a dude the size of Everest, plays for the most famous team, is very good at baseball, does a lot of home runs, etc. etc. Aaron Judgewhich has 21 homers in 52 games and this season at a pace of 63.

The Detroit Tigers will have 30 homers on the team by Monday.

Although Judge’s physique is often the first to be discussed in his offensive game – and I mean he has 6 feet 7 and 280 with excess pounds – his swing is much more than “ha- ha, big guy go brrr “. Many huge strikers flashed bright and short, trying to make enough contact to benefit from their impressive juice.

The referee’s ability to hit baseball at medium speed, as well as hit the ball harder than anyone else on the planet, testifies to his absurd athleticism, yes, but also to his attention to detail.

To delve deeper into the mind of the AL MVP leader, FOX Sports asked Judge to share his three main commandments of strikes.

1. Twisting the hind thigh

Before I even had time to ask one question, the judge already had a “back thigh” in his brain. This is by far not the most important component of his swing.

“That’s where the magic happens,” he said.

Those unfamiliar with the mechanics of striking may not consider the lower half important – you end up hitting the ball with your hands – but for Judge and many other strikers the lower half, and especially the hips, is the key to turning on time and with force.

“The whole point is that I’m being wrapped, wrapped around my thigh,” the judge said. “They could have just cut off my first leg. That’s how I think about it. If I only had one leg, I could still hit.”

The concept of “twisting” or “thigh” is the movement of blows that occurs during the load phase, in which the beater squats slightly in the hind leg, slightly rotating on this leg towards the catcher. This allows the attacker to fire forward, powerfully rotating toward the baseball, like a coiled spring. It’s a subtle move, so subtle that it’s hard to pick up at full speed, but almost every elite hitter in the big leagues does it, whether he thinks about it or not.

2. Control the load

While Judge’s reel is crucial, he recognizes that it’s pointless if it doesn’t sync properly. Many strikers tend to twist, resulting in a lot of head movements, making it much, much harder to track baseball.

“Once I get the reel in my thigh,” the FOX Sports judge said, “now it’s about controlling that movement forward and kind of hovering there. If I can hang up and pause while I just wait for the ball, I feel like I’m in a good position to hit. ”

Look at this slow, open shot of the judge and you will see the pause he is talking about.

So much movement happens before it even unscrews from the thigh. Notice how Judge’s front leg rises and falls, his SCAP muscles are loaded and his arms are pulled back, and he sits on his hind thigh, while his head remains perfectly still and balanced over his hind thigh. Here’s what he means by load control.

“I’ve heard David Ortiz talk a lot about it,” Judge said. “There’s this clip I kept on my phone where he’s talking to Alex Rodriguez, and he’s talking about thinking as if his rod runs from head down through the thigh and down to the legs through the hind leg.”

Staying balanced and steady for milliseconds before turning and shooting with incredibly strong force towards the ball is an extremely difficult task. That’s why so many strikers who swing hard and hit the ball hard are so often knocked out. The force is equal to the movement, and this is equal to the movement of the eyes, which makes contact more difficult.

So while Judge is still running at a fairly high strikeout rate, he’s able to keep his balance and soar in his pause often enough to … you know … lead the league in Hammers and stay in the pace to set Yankee record for one season.

3. Yes, yes, yes, no

This is a concept you’ll hear right up until the Minor League. Major League veteran Nick Castellanos once described it to me as controlled aggression. The idea is that at every site a striker should think about doing harm, about defeating baseball. Any ounce of passivity before serving will result in uncertain scope and stroke limitation.

The judge thinks so too.

“I’m on every court. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 3-0 count, the first inning in the game, the full number is nine. I’m thinking of swinging on every court until my eyes tell me no. If I’m there, upstairs, just trying to watch the ball, I’ll be in a bad place. “

The judge compares this feeling to archery: if you don’t fully fit in, if you distract your shot, you’ll be more timid to approach when your target appears. Staying at full intensity and maintaining focus on every venue is outrageously difficult, but that’s part of what makes the grand league mentality so different.

Aaron Judge is great, yes. Yes, he’s a hilarious sports dude. But he also has an approach to impact that allows you to make the most of your natural abilities.

Jake Mintz is the louder half @CespedesBBQ and baseball writer for FOX Sports. He is a fan of the orioles who lives in New York, and thus he leads a solitary existence most of October. When he’s not watching baseball, he’s almost certainly riding a bike. You can follow him on Twitter at @Jake_Mintz.