bouncing off the runway

Yesterday I chatted with a retired man flying a model airplane. He said
he'd taken lessons in a plane with conventional gear in the 1950s. On
his third lesson, the instructor had him land. It was perfect.

After that, every time he landed he would bounce and float above the
runway. His instructor didn't know what caused it. A senior instructor
went up with him and observed that when he touched down, he didn't
continue to hold the stick back. That caused the tail to rise and the
plane to lift off.

That doesn't make sense to me. I've always understood that with
conventional gear, excess speed is the cause of bouncing and floating.
With the main wheels forward of the center of mass, your angle of attack
will increase when you touch down, and the plane will rise if you still
have flying speed.

If a pilot touches down too fast, I've understood that he needs to keep
the tail up and use the brakes without nosing over.

If the instructor had told him he was touching down too fast because he
wasn't holding the stick back far enough during descent, that would make
sense to me because a higher angle of attack induces more drag.

The man said the problem was that he had failed to keep the stick back
after touchdown. Does his recollection make sense?