That technique would be beyond me at this stage - I have done courses in Calculus, Linear Algebra and Logic and can finally understand most of the syntax and flow in research papers, though I still don't feel at all competent, seeing that I feel I could not recreate the proofs they come up with.

I think that is my issue - I can read lots of maths, I can do the exercises but I am not sure how to go about 'doing something real' - ask me to write any software you can think of and I can do that, but I feel I am missing some fundamental point / learning in maths. Or maybe I am over thinking this, and haven't had a concrete problem to play with.