Getting It Right by Alan Maher   Recently I watched a local high school soccer practice. It was an interesting experience. The coach showed all the players a three player pass combination. He then organized the team into small groups of attackers against defenders. They all wore pinnies and were spread out all over the field. The coach and his assistant ran from group to group to make corrections.   It did not go well. The passing was not good and the running off the ball was not good. The players had a hard time controlling the ball-keeping possession. I was fascinated.   I thought of Montessori who wanted an error free classroom. (The practice field should also be error free.)   One example in Montessori is a long block with holes of different sizes. Each hole had a cylinder of a different size. The student had to place the cylinder in the proper hole. Either it fit or it did not fit. This developed eye-hand coordination in young children. Error was reduced because the cylinder could not be put in the hole the wrong way.   The knob on top of the cylinder was well designed. The proper way to hold it was with the thumb and first two fingers. This gave the hand practice on the proper way to hold a pencil or pen! Well planned and well designed.   We can do the same thing in soccer. We need to try to make exercises error proof. An easy way is to start without opposition. Make it work. Give players time to pass and run without the pressure of opponents. We tend not to do this. Then they make mistakes. Lots of them.   In Montessori the purpose is to do the exercise correctly from the beginning and then have many repetitions. The repetitions give the learner reinforcement of what is to be done. Neural memory is developed. Motor memory is developed. And a strong positive sense of satisfaction is achieved. In the classroom the teacher does not move about to disturb the children and distract them from the task at hand. But on the soccer field we love to do this. We keep adding opponents to the exercise. And we yell.   The soccer field is anything but error free. We thrive on error.   I have seen teams practice in Holland in a very quiet atmosphere where the task was attended to with visual clues but very little was spoken. The players had a chance to concentrate on the task before them. Then there were endless repetitions without interruption by the coach. And the whole thing was reinforced in the body of every player.   Try to make it error free. It will pay off in the end.