By staying so heavily weighted on his back side, carrying that sensation of squatting 300 pounds through his hip, Judge has improved his pitch selection and his balance. In the early part of his swing, it is as if the lower and upper halves of his body are operating independently — throughout the leg kick there is little movement from the waist up. Although many hitters lose power when their front foot comes down after the leg kick, when Judge’s front foot lands his body remains back — and his hip still loaded — waiting to unleash the torque from his hips.

That force was unbridled this month on a 3-2 fastball at the knees from the Blue Jays left-hander J. A. Happ. The pitch was hit at 118 miles per hour and on a line (the ball left the bat at an angle of 18.2 percent, his lowest launch angle of any home run this season), and it left a dent in a metal door casement in the Yankees bullpen. The distance was put at 453 feet.

“That’s as hard a ball as I’ve ever seen hit,” Martin said.

Judge’s ability to hit the ball so hard also helps explain why he is hitting for such a high average, .319, fifth in the American League entering Sunday’s games. While he still strikes out a lot — 112 times, on pace to shatter Curtis Granderson’s franchise record of 195 for a single season — Judge hits ground balls so hard, they often scoot through the infield. He is hitting .411 on balls in play, second best in baseball.

It would figure that such an enormous man with long limbs, or levers in baseball parlance, would find adaptations to his swing to be laborious. But Judge has long been skilled at translating what he sees, hears and feels into the movements of his swing. If there is a glitch or a fundamental change, he can translate the fix quickly.

“His proprioception — what his body parts are doing when he’s not looking at them — is off the charts,” said Mike Batesole, Judge’s coach for three years at Fresno State. “I can take Judgie right now and in half a bucket fix his swing. Some guys it’s a two- or three-day process. We’re going to start here, work our way through this kink and that will help with the next kink. He’s not that way.”

When Cockrell and Thames sent Judge away last fall, they wanted him to consider ways to better incorporate the lower half of his body. They also wanted him to re-evaluate his approach. With 95 major league plate appearances under his belt last season, he had an idea how pitchers were trying to get him out. It was the study guide he used to begin preparing for the test of his first full season.

“What am I taking to the plate to face this guy? What is this guy trying to do to me?” said Thames, who began working with Judge at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2015. “He’s looking in a certain location and he’s ready to go.”