Alan Mauthe was the hitting coach for the Lowell Spinners, the Red Sox affiliate in the short-season New York-Penn League. A 42-year-old native of Vancouver, British Columbia, Mauthe completed his second season with the Spinners in 2006 and his fifth overall with the Red Sox organization. A member of the Canadian National Team from 1985-88, Mauthe represented his country in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea and owned and operated the Extra Innings Baseball Academy in Vancouver prior to joining Boston’s Gulf Coast League affiliate in 2002. Mauthe is currently working on an instructional video called “The Perfect Swing Path Hitting System.”

RSN: How would you describe your style as a hitting coach?

AM: I’m pretty laid back, and want to get players to understand why things need to be done in order to be successful. I consider myself a communicator. At times I’ll be a father figure, but I want the work to be done in the right manner, too. I want things done with a purpose. That includes hitting off a tee, in front-toss, during BP, and hitting in the game. I believe in getting a result, and then evaluating that result. And I expect effort. It’s hard to get me angry, but like most coaches I’ll get ticked off if the effort isn’t there.

RSN: What is your approach to communicating with young hitters?

AM: In my opinion, the “hard knocks, in your face, my way or the highway,” era is gone. You have to get players to trust you. Without that, you won’t get the most out of them. If they doubt you, they won’t buy into what you’re teaching them. When players come here, the first thing I want to do is watch and find out what their routines are. The last thing I want to do is try to change what works for them.

RSN: What do you do when there are differences of opinion?

AM: I’m big on video, because video shows facts. Frame by frame, it doesn’t lie. If the player is wrong, we’ll know. And if I’m wrong, we’ll know. Hitting has always fascinated me, because it’s so difficult to do. A few years ago, I studied video of a number of successful major league hitters to break down all parts of their swings to see what they do differently, and what they do the same. Of course, all hitters take bad swings, but the best do it less.

RSN: Mechanically, what do all good hitters do the same?

AM: They get into a good, strong, athletic position to hit on time. If you don’t get there on time, it’s hard to take a good swing. From a mechanical standpoint, the styles of hitters are much different — the length of his stride, open stance or closed stance, where his hands are when the pitcher starts his delivery — but when his front foot hits the ground there are only subtle differences. At that point, you need a strong foundation and your hands in the right place. That’s one of the main keys.

RSN: You often hear people talking about hitters doing a good job of “staying back.” What does that mean?

AM: There’s a big misconception with staying back, because all it really means is not getting your weight on your front foot. When you stride, your head and body should actually go forward a bit, but when you land your balance is going to be 50/50, or a tad more weight on your back side like 60/40. If you’re on time, you’re in a good position to hit.

RSN: Earlier this season, I overheard you talking to a player about how he has a great swing in batting practice, but that it doesn’t always carry over to the game. Is that something you see very often?

AM: It’s not that uncommon. For one thing, there’s a tendency to think differently with a guy in scoring position than there is with no one on. You want to drive the runner in, so you start thinking about hitting it to the outfield rather than simply having a good at-bat. What you want to do is focus on the process, not the result. You want to try to eliminate the field from your thought-process and focus on getting a pitch you can drive, squaring it up, and letting the rest take care of itself.

RSN: A lot of guys in short-season ball seem to have warning track power in batting practice. How does that impact their swings, and what do you say to help them?

AM: That’s a good question, because I hear it so much. Guys will say, “I had more power in college.” My response is to tell them that they’re using a wood bat now, and that the ball won’t travel like that anymore. They notice that balls aren’t going out as easily as did with aluminum, so they try to hit it harder. But when you do that, when you try to exert extra effort, your body tenses up, which slows everything down. Your bat-head drags through the zone, so rather than gaining power, you actually have less.

RSN: Of the guys in Lowell this year, who has the most power?

AM: Moises Santa and Junior Moreno have some real pop. Zach Daeges and Aaron Bates can also get into a ball. And someone who shocked me one day, because he hadn’t been showing it, is Jon Still. He hit several balls out to left center in batting practice late in the season, including one over the clock above the scoreboard.

RSN: Despite coming in with similar resumes, Still and Bates had very different seasons offensively. Why did Still struggle at times, while Bates put up good numbers and earned a promotion to Greenville?

AM: In the time they were here, the one thing that separated them was that Aaron was better at swinging at the right pitches. Aaron is good at taking pitches on the outer part of the plate and driving them to the opposite field, and he did that pretty consistently. It doesn’t take long to figure out what a guy handles and what he struggles with. There aren’t any hitters who will hit their highest average everywhere in the strike zone, so they need to be patient and wait for their pitch. Pitchers are smart enough to recognize strengths and weaknesses, but they make mistakes, too. A big difference in a guy who excels is that he zones up to his strength and when the pitcher makes a mistake he jumps all over it. Aaron was doing a better job of that than Jon.

RSN: Still picked up the pace later in the season. Was better pitch-selection the primary reason?

AM: That was a big part of it, especially from a power standpoint, because your power isn’t going to play out if you don’t swing at the right pitches. Another important part of him figuring things out was not trying to hit the ball so hard — to just put a good swing on the ball. But overall, even when he wasn’t going well he was pretty good at not taking his struggles into his next at-bat. He did a good job of controlling his emotions and staying even-keeled.

RSN: Of the players you’ve worked with the last few years, which do you feel could become hitting coaches someday?

AM: Zak Farkes is someone I could see being a good teacher someday. Jed Lowrie has a ton of knowledge and goes about it the right way, so he’s another. Thinking about it, there are actually quite a few. Regardless, they’ll need a lot of patience. Much like the approach you need up at the plate, that’s a big part of this job.