The story behind the go-ahead hit that changed everything and the emotional regulation training that made it possible

The Moment That Defined a Championship

June 2025, Oklahoma City.

Bottom of the sixth inning.

Runners on second and third.

Two outs.

Texas Tech leading 1-0 in Game One of the NCAA Women's College World Series Championship.

For most athletes, this moment represents pure pressure. Your team's season and potentially your legacy hanging on one at-bat. Especially when you're 0-for-10 in the tournament.

For Reese Atwood, it was different.

As she stepped into the batter's box, something remarkable happened.

While 15,000 fans screamed and millions more watched on television, Reese found her center. Despite being 0-for-10 in the World Series so far.

NiJaree Canady, Texas Tech's ace pitcher and reigning national player of the year, was trying to walk her intentionally. The smart play. The strategic play. Load the bases and set up a force play at home rather than let the cleanup hitter beat you.

But Canady's execution faltered. What should have been ball four drifted into the strike zone instead of floating safely wide.

Reese saw it. A lifeline in the middle of her worst tournament slump.

She regulated her breathing. She connected with her preparation. She accessed what LIFTT Leadership calls "Higher Self energy": that state where clarity, confidence, and composure converge.

When the pitch came, Reese made the split-second decision that defined her championship legacy. Despite recently struggling, she trusted her training and swung at what everyone expected to be an intentional ball.

She lined it into left field for a two-run single.

From trailing 1-0 to leading 2-1. Championship momentum shift.

At the most crucial moment possible.

But this story isn't just about athletic heroics. It's about the months of internal work that made that moment possible.

The Foundation: Building Championship Character from Within

Behind Reese's spectacular championship performance was months of internal work with LIFTT Leadership: a partnership that transformed her game and her entire approach to pressure, leadership, and personal excellence.

"LIFTT has made me better in all sorts of ways, just in life in general," Reese explains. "Inside softball, outside of softball, family things, just everything. LIFTT taught me how to recognize my emotions and be able to translate those into higher self and lower self and just be able to respond better to hardships in my life."

LIFTT's approach focuses on self-leadership: the idea that before you can lead a team, you must first master the ability to lead yourself. For elite athletes like Reese, this means developing emotional accountability to perform consistently under the most intense pressure.

The Science Behind Clutch Performance

What separates champions from talented athletes often isn't physical ability - it's emotional regulation under pressure. Research from the neuroscience of peak performance shows that stress hormones can hijack decision-making and motor skills unless athletes have trained specific coping mechanisms.

LIFTT's methodology teaches athletes to recognize their emotional states in real-time and consciously shift from what we call "Lower Self energy" (fear, reactivity, overwhelm) to "Higher Self energy" (clarity, confidence, connection).

The ability to regulate emotions during high-stress moments is essential for accessing your existing skills when they matter most. For Reese, this training proved crucial during her record-breaking 2024 season, when she set five Texas single-season records while maintaining remarkable consistency under pressure.

From Freshman Phenom to National Champion

Reese's journey with LIFTT began during her sophomore year, already an established star but seeking something deeper than individual accolades. Her freshman season had been solid: 11 home runs, 43 RBIs, a .291 batting average, and All-Big 12 Second Team and Freshman Team recognition. 

Still, she sensed there was another level available if she could master the mental game.

Through LIFTT's structured approach, Reese learned to identify the difference between productive stress and overwhelming anxiety. She developed breathing techniques she could deploy during at-bats. She created personal mantras that helped her return to what LIFTT calls "Higher Self energy" when pressure mounted.

The results were profound. 

Her sophomore season exploded: 23 home runs, 90 RBIs, a .423 batting average, and recognition as both the D1Softball and Softball America National Player of the Year. 

Beyond the statistics was something more valuable: unshakeable confidence in pressure situations. 

Reese’s junior year became her emergence as a championship-level leader: leading Texas with 21 home runs and 88 RBIs while earning All-SEC First Team honors and NFCA Catcher of the Year recognition as she guided the Longhorns to their first-ever NCAA championship.

The Leadership Evolution

As Reese's individual performance soared, something else emerged: authentic leadership presence. Despite being naturally introverted, she began leading through what she calls "skills and abilities" rather than trying to become someone she wasn't.

"LIFTT definitely taught me to be who I am," Reese reflects. "We came to a conclusion that I won't be the best vocal leader just because of being an introvert. So just using every resource I have to lead with my skills and my abilities, and be aware of who I am and not want to change that."

This authentic leadership style became contagious throughout the Texas roster. Teammates began exploring LIFTT, adopting similar approaches to emotional regulation and pressure management.

Reese noticed the change immediately. "I started seeing my teammates develop more emotional responsibility," she reflects. "Instead of crashing out in tough moments, they were crushing it. Players who used to get rattled were staying composed and making big plays when we needed them most."

The team developed what LIFTT calls "collective Higher Self energy": a shared commitment to staying present and connected during challenging moments.

The Championship Series: When Internal Work Meets External Pressure

By the time Texas reached the College World Series, they weren't the most talented team, but they were the most emotionally prepared. While other teams fought against pressure, the Longhorns had learned to work with it.

Game One against Texas Tech became the perfect test. Early struggles. Mounting pressure. Everything they'd trained for emotionally, compressed into one crucial moment.

"What I love about Reese's championship moment is that it represents accessing the skills she already possessed under the most intense pressure imaginable," reflects our LIFTT Founder & CEO, Eric Thompson. "That's what emotional regulation training provides: self-reliability in the moment, when you need it most."

The two-run single was spectacular, but the emotional composure that enabled it was the real championship performance.

The Ripple Effect: Team Culture Built on Internal Strength

Reese's individual transformation contributed to something larger: a team culture built on connection, understanding, trust, and authentic leadership. Players supported each other's growth, celebrated internal development alongside external achievements, and created an environment where vulnerability and strength coexisted.

"The accountability was incredible," Reese observes. "We weren't just holding each other responsible for physical mistakes anymore. We were helping each other stay emotionally ready to perform. As a team we had tools to help them get back to crushing it and bouncing right back."

They were returning to presence, returning to trust, returning to the internal systems they had practiced all season. This culture became their competitive advantage during the championship run. While opponents tightened under pressure, Texas stayed fluid. They made adjustments calmly. They supported each other consistently.

Beyond the Trophy: Legacy Skills That Last

Reese’s aspirations for professional softball and representing Team USA in the 2028 Olympics will be supported by the skills she developed through LIFTT, because it extends far beyond athletics. The emotional regulation, self-awareness, and leadership presence cultivated are transferable assets that will serve in every future challenge.

"Looking back in 30 years, some of these little moments that feel huge right now won't mean as much as I think they do," Reese explains. "The person I'm becoming through this work is what will matter."

This perspective represents the ultimate goal of internal leadership development: creating skills and emotional resilience that transcend any single achievement or setback.

The EQualizer Effect: Leading Without a Title

One of the most powerful aspects of Reese's leadership style is what LIFTT calls The EQualizer: the ability to bring balance and clarity to challenging situations without needing positional authority. Whether in team meetings, pressure moments, or relationship conflicts, she learned to hold space for complexity while driving toward collective objectives.

This skill has applications far beyond softball. In corporate environments, family dynamics, and community involvement, the ability to regulate your own emotions while helping others access their best selves becomes a force multiplier for everything you're trying to accomplish.

The LIFTT Methodology: What Made the Difference

For athletes, coaches, and leaders interested in developing similar internal strength, LIFTT Leadership's approach offers a structured pathway:

The 5 Pillars of Self-Leadership

1. Self-Awareness: Understanding your emotional patterns and triggers

2. Self-Compassion: Developing the ability to maintain confidence through setbacks

3. Gratitude Framework: Training your brain to recognize strength and opportunity

4. Self-Care: Creating sustainable practices that support peak performance

5. Power Base: Building authentic relationships that amplify your impact

The LIFTT Method: Real-Time Emotional Regulation

When pressure mounts, LIFTT-trained athletes use a four-step process:

• Label: Identify what emotions are arising

• Imagine Future: Connect with your best future self

• Transition: Use breathing, movement, or mantras to shift energy

• Take Action: Make one small choice that aligns with your goals

"These are practical tools athletes can use in the batter's box, during recruiting conversations, or in any high-stakes moment," emphasizes the LIFTT methodology.

The Championship Approach: Pressure as Portal

What set Reese and the 2025 Texas Longhorns apart wasn't avoiding pressure, it was transforming their relationship to it. Through LIFTT training, they learned to see intense moments not as threats to survive, but as opportunities to access their highest potential.

This shift in approach created the ability to use high-stakes situations as gateways to elevated performance rather than obstacles to overcome.

It was the culmination of months of training her nervous system to stay calm, her mind to stay clear, and her heart to stay connected to something larger than the immediate moment.

The Path Forward: Internal Leadership for Athletic Excellence

For athletes at every level, Reese's story offers a blueprint for sustainable excellence. Physical talent provides the foundation, but emotional regulation and self-leadership determine how consistently you can access that talent when it matters most.

The most successful athletes in softball, basketball, or any other sport share one crucial skill: they know how to find their center when everything around them speeds up. They've developed what LIFTT calls "Higher Self energy" and can access it on demand.

Physical preparation gets you to the competition. Internal preparation determines how you show up when you're there.

Building Your Own Championship Foundation

Whether you're an athlete seeking that next level, a coach looking to develop more resilient competitors, or a leader wanting to perform consistently under pressure, the principles that shaped Reese's championship moment offer a practical starting point:

Start with awareness. Notice your patterns under stress. When do you perform best? What triggers anxiety or overwhelm?

Practice regulation. Develop specific techniques for returning to center when pressure mounts. Breathing exercises, visualization, and physical reset routines all contribute to emotional stability.

Connect to purpose. Link immediate challenges to longer-term vision. Reese's clutch hit was about winning a game and contributing to something her team had been building all season.

Embrace authentic leadership. You don't have to become someone else to lead effectively. Reese's introverted leadership style became her strength because it was genuine.

The Championship That Changed Everything

The 2025 Texas Longhorns did so much more than win a national title. They demonstrated what becomes possible when athletes develop emotional clarity alongside physical preparation, when they prioritize personal growth alongside performance, when they recognize that the internal game supports the external one.

Reese Atwood's championship moment (that clutch two-run single in the pressure cooker of Game One) demonstrates the power of internal leadership training to help high performers access their existing abilities when the stakes are highest.

As she continues her journey toward professional softball and beyond, Reese carries with her tools that transcend athletics: emotional regulation, authentic leadership presence, and the ability to find her center when everything around her speeds up.

Her two-run single was a life-changing moment. The skills that made it possible will last a lifetime.

Are you prepared for your next championship moment? We're training teams across the nation. Discover how LIFTT Leadership can transform your approach to pressure and performance at https://lifttleadership.com/athletes.

LIFTT Leadership's emotional resilience training for championship athletes, Fortune 500 executives, high performers and elite coaches focuses on self-leadership as the foundation for sustainable excellence.