152 I Can Read You Like a Book E
trying to turn average Americans into marching soldiers. The nor-
mal marching gait is called quick-time. A cadence of 120 steps per
minute, a stride of 30 inches heel to toe, and prescribed arm move-
ment of 9 inches to the front and 6 inches to the rear is the pre-
scribed gait for an American soldier while marching. A drill instructor
drums the proper lilt, or spring, to the military marching step into
your head with “stop bee bopping” or some other cliché to remind
you that marching leaves no room for creativity. Just do what you
are told by the person calling the commands. When I say that cul-
ture has a pronounced impact on gait, think about marching like that
almost every day for 15 years and you have the most extreme
example I can think of. Muscle memory from that repeated experi-
ence will forever change the way you walk.
I will use these components to analyze gait: speed, stride, lilt,
and focus.
Speed
Speed correlates to a sense of urgency. It’s funny to see a man
who has never run a day in his life struggling to make his way at high-
speed through the airport. Maybe airport security should have a “lum-
bering ape” alert so people can drag their children to safety. The
running man who “never” runs has no muscle memory to support
that speed, so even without a baseline, you can determine with cer-
tainty that his emotional state is “urgency.” While speed can be
achieved by simply lengthening the stride, most people do not have
the option of lengthening stride enough to fulfill this sense of
urgency.
