Breaking things down really works

I have a tendency to repeat things over and over without every quite getting it right when trying to master new things. Strangely enough this is rarely effective!  I'm well aware that slowing things down and isolating short passages, note combinations, or even one hand at a time is a good way to master difficult sections, but what about movements that seem impossible to control?

 To give an example,  one of the things I need to do is to stop my LH pinky (4) from rebounding so high when I release it from a string.  This is a particular problem when my hand is stretching and thus is under more tension. In an exercise going up and down the same string with one finger per fret (1234321) if I remove 4 while putting down 3: poof!  4 is an inch above the string.  I found there was no way I could stop this when performing the exercise.  It seemed out of my control...  So I tried breaking it down and performing just that one movement - i.e. 3 goes down while 4 releases - still no joy.  Next step was to slow it down to the point I could control it - it turned out it had to be almost in slow motion, but at glacial speed I could in fact keep 4 hovering above the string on release rather than springing way up.   So far so good.  But slow is one thing, faster is quite another, right? Surprisingly, after a dozen or so repetitions I found I could gradually speed up and the movement was still under control.  Next step, try the whole sequence, but no, we had the suborbital pinky again.  So instead of adding the whole sequence, I just added one movement (3-4-3), again at very slow pace.  Only when that was working well and I had done a number of repetitions did I speed that up. Finally I repeated the process with the whole sequence and yes it works!   Honestly this sounds like a long drawn out process but it was surprisingly quick to reprogram that movement...  Full disclosure  - it's not yet perfect.  Initially I find it helps if I "remind" my fingers before plunging right into the exercise but I have confidence that it will eventually be the new norm.  It might of course help if I did the recommended 10 repetitions at a speed I can do it perfectly before moving on...

Based on this success I have a number of things I need to work on in that same exercise - finger pressure for finger 1 gets heavier the further I move up the fretboard - maybe I should practice that really really slowly just LH concentrating on buzzing the string.  Finger placement - again maybe LH only one placement at a time would work for that.  I'm hopeful that using this technique, of looking for ways to break things down to ever smaller parts  I will be able to get a handle on some things I didn't think were possible...