Why are my palpation skills so rubbish?

[apparentlyblue]

I practice holistic massage where palpation is pretty irrelevant but am going on to do a diploma in advanced and deep tissue massage in a few months time. I've been trying to work my way through trail guide to the body in an effort to get up to speed butof much I'dbe lying if i said i could feel any fibre directions at all! I myself am very slighty built with very thin skin and soft fat and i can only just make out the fibres of my own trapeziu let alone anything deeper and everyone else who seen to be made of much denser tissue are just a solid unreadable mass.
I did a workshop on trigger points andi realise that everyone else there had much more experience than me but no one else seemed to struggle even to feel the things when they were right on top of them... I knew they were there because others could feel them re i kinda thought that maybe i could feel them but i felt like i was just imagining the sensations and would do no better palpating for them than just guesswork.
So i guess what I'm asking is, did everyone have this kind of trouble when first learning to palpate or do do my fingers just not work as well as everyone elses?
I do work in a factory using my hands and my finger pads have somewhat toughened skin , could that be what is making a difference? Am i just doing something wrong? Or am i just doomed to be a holistic therapist forevermore!?

Rant over.