Jog Like A Marine

My college years were filled with inspirational one-liners and elaborate stories meant to teach valuable lessons by way of my head baseball coach Rich Hill. At the time, many of these messages fell on deaf ears or left me scratching my head as I searched for their meaning. But, as I reflect on that time in my life, there are definitely a few that still hang with me to this day. One of my favorites being, “Jog like a Marine.”

Coach Hill would utter this phrase often and initially I thought it was dumb. I found it silly to compare the lives of a bunch of young 20 year old’s who play baseball to that of a highly disciplined and trained military operator. Until one day my sophomore year, it clicked. The saying had nothing to do with emulating an actual Marine, rather, he was talking about how we should carry ourselves.

A majority of human communication takes place not through the words we say but rather our body language and expressions. People will judge you and make decisions on who you are as a person through observations of how you carry yourself first and what you say second. So as much as we may not want to admit it, how we dress and how we walk or whether we greet someone with a smile or if our facial hair is trimmed and clean truly matters.

In an environment where you are always being evaluated by scouts who hold your dreams of playing at the next level in their hands, it became evident that how I carried myself was important. So one day I started to “jog like a marine” everywhere I went on the field with a proud chest, brisk pace, and intentional running form. The result was that I now represented physically the person that I was mentally. It showed confidence and hustle and a seriousness about my job that I wanted the scouts to recognize without having a conversation with them.

The purpose of presenting yourself in a certain way is simply to reflect on the outside who you are on the inside. I’m all for growing out the beard and wearing clothes until they have holes in them, I think that’s called style in LA anyway, but just be aware that how you show up physically is important. A perfect example is our favorite coach, Logan. You will never find him at the gym without his shirt tucked into his shorts and this is because he is telling everyone that takes his class that he is ready to do his job. It is his “uniform” in a sense that communicates professionalism in a space where it is necessary.

Be yourself always and remain authentic to who you are. Just know that you are silently communicating with everyone you come in contact with. Let them see who you really are!