there is a slight divide here.
IME Contra and Irish Set are more complex and the leeway with music v dance is much much smaller.

One of the reasons I like ECeilidh is that it is accessible to newbies. And helping them is an art form I enjoy. There are things that don't work like grabbing & pushing but pointing and gesticulating works well.

As I invariably say "there are only two rules, 1)smile 2)keep moving".
That doesn't work with Contra. The dialect is alien, and the fun thereof is "getting it right". As can be inferred from the OP.

And while we are ranting, my two penn'th:
Callers, please consider the precise words. What they mean to you and dancers who know this dance, is not necessarily what is obvious.

Contra example: "left and right through up and down" went wrong, and the comment to me was "he didn't say how many" - me & many others were expecting a very familiar extended left & right down and back up the other side.

what he meant, and he had to patronisingly demonstrate (not actually correcting his words) was: "half left & right through with corner/shadow/other" (because it started up and down the lines)

his attitude was - well lets just say Dunning-Kruger would have recognised it!