It does seem to me that if your training about 4 or 5 times a week that its taking a long time to progress it took me about that long but i only train 1 hr a week i had to train myself a lot to compensate. The only way to find out is to ask it may be that you are not completly understanding how to improve even though u know what you have to improve. I think training 5 times a week is a bit much and obviously you are finding it hard. Reduce to about 3 times a week and have the whole weekend to rest and do some light training.
It might be a better idea to get a freind to do it with you if you have to train this way although some knowledge is better than no knowledge at all although dont go around calling yorself a master or whatever, thats where the problems start but i trust your intelligent enough to realise that yourself
To turn i just rotate my front leg 180 so that it is facing backwards and just let the rest of my body follow it around. Always keep your eyes where you want to kick as this helps maintain correct distancing and targeting
Try a feint close to their face if your lucky and they are not very well trained they will move their weight to the back leg and will allow you to sweep them.