scary how incompetent they seem
Surely that sort of basic communication about what you're doing should be one of the first things you learn...
But I was thinking about training more in another sense. If your instinct tells you to do something that is opposite of the right thing than you should receive more training to brake your instinct. In this case the right thing to do was probably to push the nose down to gain speed. But if your instinct tells you that going down is not the right thing you won't do it. You should make a concious decision and you are not in the position to do that without prior exposure to the situation.