Foreign/Non-Standard (USFSA) Progression? Young Students and Old Students?

[TheAquarian]

After a super long absence I finally found an OK place to skate with a coach that seems really nice here in South Korea.  I talked, watched, and skated  some of her other students and found myself really puzzled by their progression.   

To start I'll give the basics for me and the skaters I talked to:

Me
Age: 30
Time Skating: about 8-9 months (not counting 6-7 months of down time)
Amount of Practice Per Week:  15-25 Hours (prior to moving to Korea), incl  2-3 30-60 minute private lessons

Korean Skaters
Age:  12
Time Skating:  2-5 months
Amount of Practice Per Week:   (guessing) 12-20 hours, incl 2-3 60 min,  semi-private (2-6 students) lessons during winter break
( I'm guessing this is dramatically decreased during school due ice time clashing with school time. )


Spins:

These girls can SPIN.   They seem to be working on things waaaaaaay more advanced than I have learned even though they've apparently been skating half the time.   All I can do are 2 foot spins... and I kinda suck at them.

Jumps:

They have learned bunny hop, and maybe waltz jump/3-jump  but they don't seem to have much interest in practicing it. 

I spent most of my time practicing my waltz jump since it was the last thing I learned before coming here...  I wanted to get my confidence about jumping at higher speeds up before lessons.

Mohawks:

They do these sooooo gracefully.   I can of course do them as well,  but I feel like mine are very crude by comparison.   I was kinda intimidated to be honest.

Crossovers:  

I've seen them practicing forward crossovers a bit,  but I was stunned  by their reaction to my first attempt at practicing backward crossovers and half swizzles in Korea  "Whoaaaa...   So good." (I was actually doing a really bad job compared to when I was still in Korea).   In fact I haven't seen them do anything backward except the tail end of Mohawks.



How exactly does this work?   Initially when I saw them skate throughout the week I assumed that they were way better than me at everything because I'm used to being in that position at the rink, however upon reflection I can see that actually  they are light years ahead of me in some things (namely spinning),  and yet seem completely practiced in more or less anything that involves moving backward for more than a few seconds at a time

Is this normal for younger skaters compared to adult skaters, or is it a difference in the way skating is taught in Korea vs the USA?   

Lessons should be interesting for me this coming week because in Korea kids and adults are separated.    I will be taught along side 10-16 year olds in semi-private lessons (true private lessons don't exist here unless you are lucky and everyone else doesn't show up).

[jjane45]

IMO younger skaters love doing freestyle elements and are generally less excited about basics suchas crossovers. I do think super crowded ice without dedicated fs sessions makes it more difficult to skate backwards or setup jumps? Definitely more of a cultural thing to me.

[AgnesNitt]

Some kids and adults are spin obsessed. I've seen girls on public spend  what seems to be their whole time spinning.  

The no backwards skating thing is weird, I agree.

Do the little kids look where they're going any better than the kids in the US.

[nicklaszlo]

Sounds like poor coaching to me.  Kids whose freestyle elements get ahead of their edges usually cannot control the freestyle elements very well.  This definitely happens at my (American) rink.