More concrete example, when I was a kid I liked the trampoline a lot. One day I learned how to do backflips on the trampoline and after loads of practice, I nailed the back-flip over and over again. Then I wanted to show my parents my back flip. So I called them outside and tried to do it, but couldn’t, I kept stuffing it up. I’m sure the answer goes along the lines of being nervous in front of a crowd, but why does this even happen in the first place?
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In many activities, as you’re finally “getting” it, you’re building up pathways in your brain to build up muscle memory. That is, you are training yourself to do a sequence of things in an order with less need to consciously control the minute details of those actions. The problem is that when you’re being watched, you may become hyperaware of your actions and try to consciously control too many things than your brain can correctly handle, overriding the budding muscle memory and leading to mistakes.
Distraction place a big role.
We are social creatures, and when others are around, part of our brains are going to be on standby waiting to manage social interactions. When other people are around, it is harder to devote your full attention to your task.
There’s a effect called [Hawthorne effect](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect) where you act differently when you know you are being watched.
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