Your're thinking of the shape of the pot. You're not thinking about the angle and other factors of your hand or other technical details. The student, on the oth

Your're thinking of the shape of the pot. You're not thinking about the angle and other factors of your hand or other technical details. The student, on the other hand, has to concentrate on the mechanics of it. When that's automatic then you can think about the artistic part of it instead. As you said, it's not mindless, just at a different level. You focus on what you want to achieve, not about the grits and details of how to do it. You're not really conscious about the latter.