I don’t have many examples, but to bring one or two up one was my scuba diving course in Thailand.
The dive instructor showed everything and we copied him in a pool. And everytime we had to do all the things I just looked bad.
Another example was climbing. They show how to tie the knot to harness, everyone successfully manages to tie the knot and I am standing their like an idi**.
The thing is what I observed is that if I have time to do things on my own and no pressure I seem to do “okay” and once I can do it I do it blind.
Anyone else experience this? What can I do? I am at a point I am afraid to learn new things because of failing infront of others.
One thing that helped me is to imagine the worst, best, and likely scenarios to occur. Like tying a knot. Worst: I cannot do it, everyone there laughs at me and the instructor says I am the dumbest person they’ve ever seen. Pretty unrealistic. Best: I do it perfectly the first time, help everyone else, and they all think I am some sort of genius. Likely: it probably takes me a few times, but I’m certainly not the worst the instructor has seen. Everyone else takes one or two tries and mostly sympathizes that the knot isn’t trivial to learn.
Worst: You tie the knot, go climbing, fall down, knot doesn’t hold, you go to hospital or die.
That’s not realistic. It’s a beginner class, they aren’t going to take you on something dangerous and make you tie the knots holding yourself on the first day.
In my personal experience, if I learn it wrong first, then I will keep that mistake. That is why learning it right first is so important to me, and I can only do that in peace, without disruptions from bystanders.