Then move onto the 3' beat and so forth until you can PICK out each beat individually. In the beginning I hated open floor shines. All I wanted to do was to learn turn patterns. I found shines to be a waste of my time. Little did I know that by doing shines I was learning to hear the clave.
Lets face it, many open floor shines are pretty complex.
With each shine you have to get in at a certain time and know where you are throughout the entire shine in order to stay on the proper timing. Not an easy thing. He has to break down the shine according to the count. But not only that, he also drills the shine into you by either counting out loud or by counting out loud as the music is playing at the same time. As I said you are being drill to hear the clave without realizing it.