About

About AMPlify

The AMPlify Mission

The Mission is simply to help you AMPlify Your Performance!

We are passionate about helping athletes, and all those people who support athletes to continually grow, learn, and evolve, making peak performance more and more consistent. We believe that mental training with sport psychology techniques can not only help performance and increase enjoyment in sports, but also, in life.

AMPlify your Game, AMPlify your Life!

Meet the Founder - Brian Baxter

Brian has been working with athletes and teams for over 15 years since earning his MA in Sport Psychology from John F. Kennedy University in California.

He joined Sport Psychology Institute Northwest as a sport psychology consultant in 2007, and took over as director in 2011. Now as the Director of AMPlify Sport Psychology, he is constantly evolving his craft.

Brian’s interest in sport psychology developed during his time as a high school football kicker/punter, college soccer player, and USSF C license soccer coach, where he found the mental game to be important, but under-taught. He believes strongly that training the mind is as important as training the body, and has dedicated his professional life to helping athletes achieve their goals, play up to their potential, and improve enjoyment in sports and in life.

As a lifelong athlete, he brings an ability to understand the sacrifice, commitment, hard work, and pressure that comes with high achievement. His two-pronged approach includes first creating a deep rapport and trust with each athlete, and second tailoring a plan to teach sport psychology techniques that will help that athletes break through blocks and reach the zone more and more often.

As a coach with 25+ years experience, Brian also specializes in team workshops and coaching education. Performance enhancement through mental strength is a key sport psychology philosophy used in all group workshops. Brian’s focus for groups will help dealing with pressure in sports, improve focus and confidence, and boost leadership and communication.

As a sport parent for 12+ years now, Brian brings a unique angle to help parents be the best support for their young athletes as possible with his Parent Education Workshops.

As a public speaker for 10+ years, Brian has delivered presentations at conferences and organizations not only in his hometown of Portland, but all over the country including Idaho, California, Florida, and Maryland.

Brian is originally from Gainesville, FL. After stays in South Carolina, North Carolina, and California, he and his family moved to Portland in 2005 because they wanted to stay on the west coast, but in a smaller city with better access to the outdoors. They love being in the Pacific NW and consider it home. His wife Debbie is a photographer, and they have 2 boys: 19-year-old son, Hawk, and 11-year old son Zavier.

AMPlify Coaches

Our Mental Performance Coaches have decades of experience as athletes, coaches, parents, and in sport psychology.

Jimmy Yoo, MA Sport Psychology

Jimmy has been a consultant for the SPINw team since 2010. He specializes in peak performance, and works in highly competitive environments where focus, split-second decision-making, and confidence are keys factors for success.

Jimmy’s mission is to help clients successfully perform under pressure. To do this, he has created a performance model that allows people to maximize their potential and consistently perform at their best in competitive environments. He combines advanced scientific methods specific to the field of sport psychology along with his personal experiences as an athlete, coach, and mentor to provide an approach that is based on a peak performance mindset and developing mastery. The result is a performance plan that allows a person to train by fully engaging both mind, body, and spirit toward their personal best.

Jimmy provides services to a broad spectrum of clients that includes youth, high school, elite, and masters level athletes; coaches; referees; high school and college students; parents; business professionals; performing artists like dancers and actors; people competing in mind sports like chess, poker, and eSports; and people who may just feel stuck and are seeking guidance. Sport psychology services include sport performance enhancement, stress management, recovery from injury, team cohesion, team motivation techniques, and career transition.

Jimmy recognizes that, like athletes, everyone is required to perform on a daily basis. We all navigate our own competitive environments and can benefit from peak performance training. Ultimately, Jimmy’s goal is to help people to successfully navigate challenges, achieve peak potential, and to find a balance in their lives that allow them to enjoy the moment.

Jimmy was a three-sport athlete in high school. He earned varsity letters in football, wrestling, and lacrosse. He also played Division III college lacrosse and received his undergraduate degree from Wittenberg University. He completed his Masters in Sport Psychology from San Diego University For Integrative Studies. It was here that he was able to study under Dr. Robert Nideffer, renowned psychologist and author of The Attentional and Interpersonal Style Inventory (TAIS), an assessment device used around the world for selection, screening, team building, and performance enhancement.

As a parent, volunteer, high school and travel team lacrosse coach, masters level lacrosse player, snowboarder, avid hiker, and fly fisherman, Jimmy applies his passion for sports, peak performance, and mindfulness to his personal life.

Glen Coblens, MS Sport and Exercise Science

Glen Coblens has over 30 years of coaching experience at youth, high school, college, professional and international levels, winning three gold medals in international competition, a National Championship and coach of the year honors. He founded PDX Hoops, providing individual and small group training and mentoring youth coaches. Glen has been instrumental in forming youth programs for Portland area high schools and is a member of the Oregon Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

Glen created Benchwarmers Basketball, now Pacific Rim Basketball, a non-profit organization for competitive traveling teams, developing youth as people through basketball, building it into one of the largest independent basketball clubs in the area.

As a consultant for AMPlify, Glen counsels athletes, teams, coaches, parents, officials and program directors. He developed the Competitive Skills Training (CST) program teaching athletes to incorporate visual imagery, relaxation, positive self-talk and goal setting to enhance performance and improve self-esteem, enjoyment and satisfaction. Building on CST, Glen created 3’s for VICTORY, a reference guide for athletes to achieve success.