Rosanna - I fully agree with you - talking from the U.K. viewpoint. I suspect that in this case Bucket may not have had very good spin recovery training on his FI course or during his PPL course. I gained my confidence in the art when I was as a student sent to practice spin recovery solo. My FIC instructor (the late F.C.H. Taylor, god bless him) also was very keen on spinning - the entry to and the recovery from. Some advanced training in spin recovery techniques is needed here as suggested by Human Factor.
P.P.