Aaron Judge: On the Brink Of Being the New AL Home Run King
Using Performance as Feedback for Future Behaviour
Wednesday night I watched Aaron Judge hit his 61st home run while watching the Blue Jays/Yankees game from my sofa. This ties the American League home run record set by Roger Maris back in the 1961 season (coincidentally 61 years earlier). With seven games and roughly 28 at-bats left in the season I’m sure Judge will break the record.
Judge is on a phenomenal run this season, having stayed healthy, his ability to perform at his best has allowed him to produce his highest offensive numbers and is a legitimate threat to win the Triple Crown.
Going in to this season Judge took a calculated yet large risk, betting on himself, having not re-signed a contract extension with the Yankees that was in the neighbourhood of 220M. As a free-agent at the conclusion of this season Judge can now be had to the highest bidder and the rumours abound that during the off-season a team will offer Judge north of 300M.
A Pure Swing
As a die-hard Jays fan, it pains me to see the Yankees close in on another AL East pennant, however it is a pleasure to watch Judge hit baseballs. He is a physical specimen, his swing is technically sound generating tremendous bat speed and power as he extends through the ball.
Even with no background knowledge of the baseball swing it is easy to see the necessary physical capacity that is required to launch baseballs 400 feet. We have discussed at Absolute, what we deemed to be the four fundamental physical capacities of high performance, starting with absolute strength, joint capacity, reactive strength and speed-strength. Every single one of those qualities is demonstrated during his swing.
Performance is Used as a Feedback Mechanism
Recently at Absolute we wrote about what we considered to be the hierarchy of coaching. To us that hierarchy involves understanding the nested organization of ecosystems and planning a road map of physical preparation that bridges the two levels that exist in that organization. This creates a necessary feedback loop about current physical states of the athlete and their current levels of performance.
This feedback loop has the utmost importance to the practitioner as it provides immediate information regarding the athlete and how to execute and manage a plan that allows for the achievement or maintenance of optimal levels of high performance. *For the sake of explanation, I am referring to simply one feedback, however as practitioners it is understood that there are always multiple feedbacks that we must be paying attention to and gathering information from.*
As we know feedback loops can be positive or negative. A positive feedback is a reinforcing loop that allows for the system to maintain its current interactions to meet demand. On the other side would be a negative feedback which creates a signal to the system that a change in the interactions must occur. It is for this reason that a negative feedback is referred to as a balancing loop.
As mentioned above there are multiple loops both positive and negative, occurring simultaneously between the level of performance of the athlete and the four fundamental physical capacities. In addition, those feedbacks would be influenced by many other internal and external feedbacks which must be reconciled.
In Judge’s case that feedback loop would be positive, in that we would like his current level of performance to be continually reinforced so that both his biological and neurological systems are able to produce repeated swings that generate future home runs.
Very simply we want more of the same.
The Future of Aaron Judge
Perhaps the only negative with respect to Judge is his age (31), so signing him to a long term deal does have its risks for any team considering doing so. However, considering his productivity and his ability to stay healthy it would come with a substantial return of serious offensive production particularly if he is able to navigate an appropriate plan created by those within his inner circle.
If we at Absolute were tasked with Judge’s off season plan, it is imperative that we establish his current Point A, which represents his current physical state.
It is crucial that we have his objective measurements of his current joint capacities, tissue qualities as well as neurological tolerances as can be gathered from the Functional Range Assessment. This information can be correlated to his swing mechanics as witnessed above. This gives us an indication on his current movement thresholds and how large of a buffer he has access to with respect to those thresholds. In essence, we want to know the quantity of available movement in all his requisite zones of movement. In addition, based on his current level of performance we would want his current training numbers regarding his absolute strength, reactive strength and speed-strength. This information provides us with an understanding of his current well of maximal strength, as well as the quality of strength within those zones of movement.
This information helps create the plan to establish Point B. Keep in mind Point B represents the optimal physical state of the athlete. In Judge’s case right now, his current physical state is as close to optimal as possible, based on our knowledge of the feedbacks that regulate the two states.
To execute his plan would be to use our baseline information about his quantity and quality of movement and to maintain his current internal ecosystem over time using the appropriate training inputs at the appropriate intensities. If at any time, there are deviations in performance representing neurological stagnation, Point B then changes, as it would then be necessary to change the internal dynamics of the system.
The execution of this plan would lead Judge to be able to sign for the maximum amount of money for his desired term, while at the same time continuing to allow him to perform as the best pure power hitter in baseball.