Drayer: The coach who helps Mariners maximize the next frontier

Chances are you have heard numerous Seattle Mariners players talk about “Bern” – aka Adam Bernero, the club’s mental performance coach – in interviews when they are explaining their successes. Entering his eighth year with the Mariners, Bern has been a constant in many of their lives, coaching a different but nonetheless important aspect of the game. Many view mental performance as the next frontier in getting the most from one’s talents, or even playing beyond that talent.

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In Bern, the Mariners have a confidant who has been in their shoes playing in parts of seven major league seasons. He experienced then what many go through now, but in his era and those before, players didn’t have easy access to the tools and skills needed to deal with all that comes with the mental side of professional baseball.

“I didn’t have any clue about that stuff when I played,” Bernero said. “It was, I’ve got a baseball, I throw it hard that way, and that was it. I wish I had more.”

For his post playing life, Bernero sought out that “more” – first coming to terms with the shock that came when his struggles did not end when baseball ended, and then through earning a master’s degree in sport and performance psychology from the University of Denver.

Today, Bernero can be seen with the team in uniform, meeting them where they are, at home and on the road – be it in a dugout, the upper-deck stands of an away park, a hallway or occasionally an office (not his, he doesn’t have one) – talking through challenges, giving options to help a player break through those challenges and ultimately supporting that player.

“I think so many people, young men it seems like, there’s a lot of emotion and things that are unsaid, because they don’t have a place to feel validated or trusted,” Bernero said.  “So, giving them the space to say that thing that’s in their body, on their mind out loud, is incredibly important for them to feel free when they play. I don’t know how many opportunities they have for that, so I just try to get those opportunities. And if there is some openness, then really holding that in a sacred space, because when guys are sharing something, I feel honored when people share something with me.”

One conversation with Bernero barely scratches the surface of what he does, but you have to start somewhere. And that somewhere was at 7 a.m. walking the outfield on Field 1 in Peoria – something he does multiple times a day with the players. The video atop this story sheds a bit of light on what goes on in coaching the new frontier in baseball and the interesting direction it is going.

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