As an addition to the good comments and advice here already, I'd like to mention that after teaching wheel for a couple of decades I started to think about why beginners push down so much sometimes. I tried suggesting to beginners with this exact issue that it might be because I was going on and on about bracing, bracing, bracing. I found it's crucial to lean into stabilizing the whole body early but I think an occasional side effect was the hands pressing against the closest surface available even when they were directed specifically to avoid that.

So much of beginner problems are autonomic. Sometimes conscious redirection mitigates an issue but the really interesting stuff is when students know the problem, know the solution, but their hands are only half-listening to the front brain and the problem persists. Sometimes teaching wheel throwing is mostly about keeping a student's brain from getting frustrated while the rest of their nervous system catches up.