Make That Old

I recently had the privilege of watching a youth baseball game - roughly 6th-8th graders. If you know anything about baseball, you know that players are taught to run through first base on any single, whether there’s a chance they’ll be thrown out or not. One of the players hit a ball to right field between first and second base, and while he ran hard towards first, he slowed his pace to more of a trot and instead of running through first, he stopped at first base and was thrown out by the right fielder. He was understandably upset.

After a few minutes, I walked over to the dugout to see how he was doing. He was in tears, and when I asked him what was wrong, he replied “I don’t know why I didn’t run hard and run through first. I don’t know why I did that.”. I understood where he was coming from. I’ve been in his shoes, as many youth have. Sometimes, even for unknown reasons, we make mistakes. Those mistakes can become emotional, whether from embarrassment, frustration, or both. And when we dwell on them, it can be hard to move on and learn from it.  

I asked him to take a few deep breaths; long and slow inhale, long and slow exhale, to regain control of his headspace. Once he was more calm, we talked about how it’s okay to be upset. We also discussed how the best thing he can do now is make adjustments for next time, because he can’t go back and undo what already happened, but he can use it to improve. His next at bat, he ran hard through first base, and as a result, beat out the throw and was safe. 

That’s where the idea of “make that old” comes in. I’m a big Steph Curry fan. Steph has always been an underrated player; he was told he was too small, not good enough, never going to make it. Even today, as a 4x NBA champion, NBA Finals MVP, 2x NBA MVP (including the only ever unanimous vote), 9x NBA All-Star, NBA All Star Game MVP, NBA Western Conference Finals MVP, and NBA All-Time 3-point leader (currently at 3,390 and counting), to name a few, he’s still not given the respect he deserves. 

So in 2017, he launched a personal campaign to “Make That Old”. All the talk, the haters, the doubt, and at the time, losing the NBA finals in 2016 - instead of dwelling on it, he used it as fuel - not to prove others wrong, but to prove himself right. And he did just that. He and the Warriors won the NBA Finals in 2017, and he celebrated by wearing a shirt that said “Made That Old”.

  When I first saw the campaign, I loved it and how it applied to sports in general; from internal and external doubt, to recovering from mistakes in the moment. I thought it applied perfectly to this youth baseball situation. This young player regretted not running through the base even though he knew he should, so we shifted his outlook from dwelling on what he didn’t do, to focusing on what he can do next time to make that old. 

Sports and life are full of mistakes. We too often dwell on those mistakes, or work to prove others wrong, when in fact it would better serve us to focus on what we learned, how to improve, and ways to prove ourselves right. That mindset comes from a deep confidence that you can do it, you are good enough, and you do belong. It takes time, commitment, and dedication to craft that type of mindset - trial and error, highs and lows - but it is possible. 

Is there a memory or mistake are you holding onto? Something that you can work at, so that after your adjustment and purposeful effort pays off, you can look back and say, ‘Made That Old’?

You can view the Make that Old Commercial Here.