At this point in his baseball life, 70-year-old Ron Washington does not need to watch film to formulate his next lesson for one of his infielders. He can dissect it into small pieces before injecting his wisdom.
“I’ve been around a long, long time,” Washington said. “A long, long time.”
His ability to instantaneously break down situations, he said, is a gift from all the people he’s been around throughout a lengthy career as a manager and a coach. He’s taken ideas and philosophies from smart baseball minds and has made those his own by enhancing them.
At his core, Washington – who has seen and experienced everything in this game – is still a student of the game. He’s living proof that the best never stop learning, even if they’re teaching others.
“That’s what life is about,” Washington told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “You got to keep learning. I don’t think you can continue to be successful if you don’t continue to learn. I don’t care how much you know. A little child can teach you something – you just got to be open for it.
“And when you’re teaching, there’s two people who are supposed to be learning. You’re supposed to be learning what the student needs, and the student’s supposed to be learning what you’re trying to give him. So both of us are learning. If I’m in a process with someone and I’m the only one teaching, that process is not going to go very well. You always have to let the pupil be a part of the education.”
As the Braves’ infield coach, Washington often is on the field hours before a game, working with one or more of his infielders. From Ozzie Albies (when he’s healthy) to Dansby Swanson to Matt Olson and others, the Braves’ infielders soak up Washington’s knowledge.
But here’s what the players might not realize: As much as they learn from Washington, he learns from them. A coach must know what his players need.
“And you do that by letting him talk, by listening,” Washington said. “Because if you’re not listening, you’re not learning. And you can’t learn if you don’t listen.”
“You let your student talk so you can learn what he doesn't know, and you can learn also what he does know."
Washington’s eyes are beneficial in breaking down situations, but his ears help him build relationships. “You’ve got to listen to what they’ve got to say because what I’m going to go do with you, I know it’s good,” he said. “But you got to gain trust, and the only way you gain trust is by listening. Make them understand I’m listening.”
The Braves’ infield guru is beloved by his players. One reason is because he listens as well as he preaches.
“That’s a huge part of being any type of teacher or leader or servant,” shortstop Swanson said. “You’ve got to be willing to listen. And I think he does a good job of that because we go to him for a lot of stuff, so for him to be constantly one to learn from us – and I feel like he knows that the more he learns from us, the better he can also help us. He alludes to that a lot. Definitely glad that he’s in our corner.”
Washington views teaching as a two-sided relationship. When he played for the Dodgers, his infield coach, Chico Fernández, often screamed and hollered. But Fernández would let his players scream and holler right back at him.
Fernández encouraged this – that is, if his players were yelling the right thing.
But if they were wrong about something?
“If you were screaming and hollering the wrong thing, you got your tail tore up again,” Washington said. “If you’re going to be opening your mouth and you’re going to be screaming and hollering and you’re going to be talking back, just be right. It’s OK, just be right. Because if you’re wrong, that gives me some more ammunition to scream and holler at you some more.”
Washington took Fernández’s lesson and made it his own. He didn’t apply it the same way, though. Instead, he worked off the foundation, seeing what worked, what didn’t and how he could create something even better. This process, Washington said, is necessary.
With players, Washington preaches: “Treat the cause, not the symptom.” But to do that, the coach must know what his players need. And with his ears open, Washington hears out his guys.
“Throughout the course of the season and (working with) a ton of guys, I’m sure it’s easy to lose the little things and let some stuff go by,” Olson, the starting first baseman, said. “But Wash is on every pitch, every swing, every ground ball. He’s watching and taking note. He knows when to say stuff. If you ever come to him, he’s got an answer for you because he’s already seen it and paid attention to it. It’s a good guy to have.”
Washington understands some coaches view it as being their way or the highway. He isn’t one of them. He grew up under coaches who allowed him to say what he wanted, even if it was wrong. And if it was, they gave him the correct answer.
This is how he approaches working with the Braves.
“You let your student talk so you can learn what he doesn’t know, and you can learn also what he does know,” Washington said. “And you also will learn what you can feed him, and you also learn how much you can feed him.
“Just by listening and letting him talk.”
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