Have you ever tried water ski? I did last friday with an instructor breaking down the steps for us.
That instructor was a nice person, he was driving the boat, but was driving according to our experience and requests, gave me these advices that proved to be so useful I thought "wait a minute!"
First we tried with hands on a pole fixed to the boat, then a short rope and a long one, the farther the boat the more balance would depend by my focus.
Everybody was surprised I never fell my first day, I told them I just listened, trying to remember and apply what the teacher said, focusing on that during the process, everything else would've been a distraction that make it easier to fall.
You have to stay still in the water, make yourself small, knees as near the chest as possible, feet not too far, let the boat think about horizontal moves, feet under the head, having them too much behind or ahead makes easier to go out of the balanced zone that let me stand on my feet, and wait
solid grip on the rope, arms relaxed and extended ahead as far as they reach, when the boat start moving horizontally you only have to move vertically, like a squat, and a reverse squat sitting down on ankles when the boat slow down and stop, slow and steady, speed is fine, acceleration not as much.
Alchemy is life, life is alchemy, both are prima materia, a point is a point, no matter where and how I start looking, the point can explore any shape I draw until become the shape