Editor's Note: After falling off a lawn mower when he was two years old, Prater was taken to OU Medical Center where he had to have three fingers removed from his right hand.
One thing that was never allowed to be said in my house was, “I can’t.”
We had to figure it out, because you can’t just not do something. If I couldn’t get it, my dad would help me figure it out. It might be a process of him helping me and me repeating it.
Tying my shoes was something that was tough for me early. I wanted to say, “I can’t”, but Dad wouldn’t let me. So, I stuck with it, just like I have everything, and I’ve grown out of it, to where now I know I can do anything that anybody wants to do.
It’s a mentality that I developed at a young age.
I was two years old when the accident happened with my hand. It’s a mentality that you grow up with, and you know you’re going to have to outwork people just to be as good as they are.
You’re going to have to put in twice the work, twice the reps, just because of what you’re dealing with. I had to tie my shoes twice as many times as everybody else. But that mentality stuck with me over time, and now it shows when I work out.
I have to run sprints twice as hard as somebody else, or I have to run twice as hard as I did yesterday. It’s a mentality that you develop at such a young age that it becomes part of your DNA, part of who you are.
One thing that was never allowed to be said in my house was, “I can’t.”
We had to figure it out, because you can’t just not do something. If I couldn’t get it, my dad would help me figure it out. It might be a process of him helping me and me repeating it.
Tying my shoes was something that was tough for me early. I wanted to say, “I can’t”, but Dad wouldn’t let me. So, I stuck with it, just like I have everything, and I’ve grown out of it, to where now I know I can do anything that anybody wants to do.
It’s a mentality that I developed at a young age.
I was two years old when the accident happened with my hand. It’s a mentality that you grow up with, and you know you’re going to have to outwork people just to be as good as they are.
You’re going to have to put in twice the work, twice the reps, just because of what you’re dealing with. I had to tie my shoes twice as many times as everybody else. But that mentality stuck with me over time, and now it shows when I work out.
I have to run sprints twice as hard as somebody else, or I have to run twice as hard as I did yesterday. It’s a mentality that you develop at such a young age that it becomes part of your DNA, part of who you are.
|
My mentality on the mound ties back into my hand and my work ethic.
Who I am on the mound comes from things I’ve been through. That bulldog mentality comes from the things I went through growing up, having to work extra hard or do extra work – the work ethic. A lot of my progression as a pitcher is who I get to work with day-in and day-out. Skip Johnson is the best pitching coach in the country. Tim Overman is an unbelievable strength and conditioning coach. I’ve had, arguably, a top-10 starter in the nation competing with me day-in and day-out. Skip, who’s coached how many big leaguers, is working by our side and helping us. We all developed a team mentality, just down in the bullpen, and that’s aside from us being a team altogether. |
The mental game, the relationships and the team that I’ve had around me is what has progressed me in my career.
We call it green light.
That’s the state of mind you want to be in. You want to have a green light. You get on the rubber and you want everything to be clear. You’re focusing on the next pitch. In control. Looking at what is in front of you.
One thing Skip has really helped me with is always getting back to green light. That’s really helped me from my sophomore to my junior year. It’s all about staying in your best mode to compete.
During my sophomore and freshman years I struggled with getting out of control and trying to do too much. We worked on my mental game and getting back to green light. One pitch gets hit and then I’m right back to green light, still attacking hitters and still getting outs. I’m able to be more efficient.
Tim has a really good approach as to what baseball players need. He has a good system that has produced a lot of good players over time.
It’s a mixture of being strong enough to do these things, but also being flexible enough to repeat them. Just seeing what it’s done for me. I’ve gained 40 pounds since I’ve been at the University of Oklahoma. It’s a mixture of all the strength and conditioning, the stretches, the mobility, everything.
When I came to OU as a freshman, I was 88-90 with my fastball, extremely out of control, jerky mechanics, throwing max effort. We put a little bit of weight on, cleaned up my mechanics, cleaned up my arm action.
That’s just from the baseball side. That doesn’t include all the things Skip helps you with going through school or whatever it may be. Having somebody there who you know is on your side is huge.
We call it green light.
That’s the state of mind you want to be in. You want to have a green light. You get on the rubber and you want everything to be clear. You’re focusing on the next pitch. In control. Looking at what is in front of you.
One thing Skip has really helped me with is always getting back to green light. That’s really helped me from my sophomore to my junior year. It’s all about staying in your best mode to compete.
During my sophomore and freshman years I struggled with getting out of control and trying to do too much. We worked on my mental game and getting back to green light. One pitch gets hit and then I’m right back to green light, still attacking hitters and still getting outs. I’m able to be more efficient.
Tim has a really good approach as to what baseball players need. He has a good system that has produced a lot of good players over time.
It’s a mixture of being strong enough to do these things, but also being flexible enough to repeat them. Just seeing what it’s done for me. I’ve gained 40 pounds since I’ve been at the University of Oklahoma. It’s a mixture of all the strength and conditioning, the stretches, the mobility, everything.
When I came to OU as a freshman, I was 88-90 with my fastball, extremely out of control, jerky mechanics, throwing max effort. We put a little bit of weight on, cleaned up my mechanics, cleaned up my arm action.
That’s just from the baseball side. That doesn’t include all the things Skip helps you with going through school or whatever it may be. Having somebody there who you know is on your side is huge.
|
Winning the Wilma Rudolph Award last year was an unbelievable experience.
Some of the people I got to meet there, sometimes you realize your situation may not be that bad. I felt like all of us who won the award were doing it for the right reasons. We didn’t want the award because we wanted the fame or anything like that. We wanted the award because we wanted to shine a light to all the younger kids that might be going through something, to say that you can be something bigger. You don’t have to give up. Look what we’ve done. Look where we are. We want to be a motivation to the younger generation. When we played in the Shriners Classic, I did an interview and got to meet a couple of the kids who are patients at the hospitals. That was a cool experience because that’s where I went for my rehab. I went to Shriners Hospital in Shreveport, La. It was a grateful moment to see that I’m lucky to be where I am. |
If you could win every game, would you?
Skip says it all the time, and everybody says yes. But who’s really willing to make that commitment? Because that commitment level to win every game is like nothing you’ve ever seen.
We’re going to compete and we’re going to get better every day, whether we can play or not. If we’re playing intrasquads in the fall, we’re going to compete against each other and nobody in the country is going to outwork us.
The culture we’re building is, everybody keeps improving, everybody is pushing everybody. It’s something we’ve been working on, and that’s really helped me with my game.
That’s the culture we’re building at the University of Oklahoma, and I’m lucky enough to be a part of it.
Right now, I’m at home working 35-40 hours a week and still getting my baseball work in, still doing workouts, still throwing every day. It’s just a commitment level that we talk about at OU.
We just have to keep grinding every single day and get through this. Nobody is getting to go to work, nobody is getting to do what they want. But we can make the best of this situation.
Skip says it all the time, and everybody says yes. But who’s really willing to make that commitment? Because that commitment level to win every game is like nothing you’ve ever seen.
We’re going to compete and we’re going to get better every day, whether we can play or not. If we’re playing intrasquads in the fall, we’re going to compete against each other and nobody in the country is going to outwork us.
The culture we’re building is, everybody keeps improving, everybody is pushing everybody. It’s something we’ve been working on, and that’s really helped me with my game.
That’s the culture we’re building at the University of Oklahoma, and I’m lucky enough to be a part of it.
Right now, I’m at home working 35-40 hours a week and still getting my baseball work in, still doing workouts, still throwing every day. It’s just a commitment level that we talk about at OU.
We just have to keep grinding every single day and get through this. Nobody is getting to go to work, nobody is getting to do what they want. But we can make the best of this situation.
Project Coordinated by Eric Hollier. Photos provided by Ty Russell and OU Athletics.
