I've had a gentleman similar to this.

How often is he flying? My guy only flew on weekends which compounded the problem. He was also a sharp guy, successful in his career, musician, etc. Despite a lot of coaching he didn't seem to progress as she should. After his stint of solo work, we started reviewing pretty hard. I'd ask him to perform a soft field takeoff and not only would he not know how to do it, after I walked him through it he said he's never done anything like that before. We certainly have before, dozens of times. Towards the end he got pretty defensive, he started not wanting to fly and cancelling. I know money was tight with him. He had two kids entering college. He cited that as why he wasn't showing up.