As a football coach, he has stated that his favourite formation is
4–4–2. As a head coach, de la Barra had mainly led clubs from the South zone of Chile. In the top division, he coached Deportes Concepción three times, Naval, also being the assistant of
Luis Ibarra in the first half of 1990, and
Everton de Viña del Mar twice. In the
second level, he coached
Ñublense in 1994. In the
Tercera A, he coached Fernández Vial in 2010. At youth level, he worked in the
Universidad de Concepción youth ranks from 1996 to 2017 ==Personal life and death==