These are the things that are so ingrained in your playing that you just can’t stop doing it no matter how hard you try. 
For me I’ll be playing along working on a pattern smoothly and all the sudden out of the blue I’ll start doing these twitchy, jerking motions, jumping around crap with my picking hand that just comes out of nowhere? I also have this thing that’s so drilled in my DNA to spazz out and start playing faster (sloppy) once I’m playing the lower notes going high to low with my fretting hand. I feel like I’m someone that’s walking down the street perfectly fine, then all the sudden I develop a gimp leg that trips me up. Has anybody ever seen Charles Barkley’s golf swing? I think professional teachers have tried to fix that problem and they’ve all been stumped. What should I do?
This could be a far more complicated issue than can be fixed with simple words.
Tho maybe try super slow movements. Weird ticks like this can possibly be related to focal dystonia, where the brain bunches together what should be separate 1234 motions all into one trigger.
Does it effect you after some beers?
BTW I’m not a Dr, even tho I might look like one. (don’t tell the ladys…)
I’m curious to see what others have experienced here.
As I’m relearning picking technique, I’ve noticed similar things.
The old patterns of string hopping come back when ramping up the speed.
Trying to burn these motions in fast just goes back to the old pattern, so
for now I’m sticking to moderate speeds.
I’ve had similar experiences. “Diming it” on the speed tends to bring out old hyperspeed picking habits and attempts to go way too fast, so I try to stick to 160 sixteenths or so for actually practicing, since that seems to be the speed where I need to use “good technique” but is slow enough for me to actually make adjustments as I go along.
Damn! You know what, there may be something to the focal dystonia thing. My hand doesn’t curl up or lock up or anything it’s more of a twitchy thing. When I wake up in the morning and have my coffee and start playing I’m pretty free of any issues and the longer I go the more it starts creeping in and my brain and fingers say FU. 
I don’t seem to have any issues with my playing with beer but after nine JagerMeister shots I for some reason become very sloppy and disoriented 
I have something similar with my left hand. Sometimes my finger fire before they should. And I even sometimes have my biceps twitching even if I don’t do anything particular which looks funny )
It’s hard to fight but some stuff helped me. First, simple workout once in a two-trhree days. Nothing serious, just couple of pushups on hands or fingers and biceps curls with my backpack instead of dumbells. Second, I play a phrases with a forced hammer-ons and totally relaxed alternating. It heps a little.
As for right hand… it’s hard to say.
I slow things way down to a very comfortable tempo and focus on really feeling locked into the beat. If I’m comfortable, grooving and “locked” in I’m not doing any of those tension movements or tics.
For me they come out due to stress, frustration or fatigue. So like I said, I counteract that with comfort, enjoyment and ease.
That “comfortable” tempo totally varies on the day. If my arms are really sore from work or ive been really woodshedding and putting in long hours on technique and pushing the envelope it can be pretty slow.
I’ve learnt to embrace those days and play some slower easier stuff and give my body a break, similar to training.
Ive been really drilling alternate picking speed and legato work, hours a day and yesterday I just played
Coldplay and The Strokes covers for two hours and messed around with some clean patches.
The more time I spend with my guitar, relaxed and at ease, the less those tics come out.
I also practice mindfulness inside and outside of my
playing. I filmed myself practicing one day and noticed how much I squeeze my feet when I’m playing challenging passages or places I’ve integrated excess tension. I actively check in now on how my feet are doing. I also do Michael Jordan tongue, if I watch my playing back and see my
Tongue grooving and lizarding I know I was way too tense.
A parting note, I find overdoing different things with too much tension integrates them into my playing long term. I used to be SO anxious when I would try sweep arpeggios, I just always tried to go fast. I had to completely blow up my foundation and start over because just thinking of sweeping caused my whole body to armadillo.
Anyways, my coffee break is over lol.
Hope you enjoyed the book and happy picking!!
Haha, I also used to do this before I found CtC and overall became more aware that tension really hampers playing. I’m happy that I was able to get rid of squeezing my foot, but other similar issues do remain. Like subconsciously starting to squeeze the outer edge of my picking hand palm (the karate chop part) when I need to play something that my brain thinks “may go wrong if I’m not careful”.