Re:Transcendence of the Menial (Score 1)

All of these tasks originally required a lot of conscious control and expenditure of brain power (and in the case of skiing, a lot of bruises). And as long as it stays at this level, it stays awkward and stilted. It is at the point in which you transcend the raw mechanics and are capable of controlling it at a higher level (which is what this study found), that the skier becomes graceful, the video game player can race through flaming rotating death traps in super mario brothers, and the space shuttle control can quickly and adroitly manipulate stuff.

This is all very true, but I noticed a strange fact with myself: be it driving or skiing or playing baseball or whatever, every time I undergo this transition from having to schedule every movement consciously to everything coming natural to me I seem to get worse for a while - that is, I fall more often, I miss more throws, and so on. This used to be an endless source of frustration when training as a kid, it's kind of maddening when you notice that the more you practice the less you are able to accomplish. Eventually, with enough patience and some more training I usually start to improve again.
I guess I'm just wondering if I have something weird in my brain or if this is a widely known fact.