Yeah. I had it to a point where I was quite consistent with it once, but I can't even do it now. It's advanced, it requires momentum, a lot of confidence, great fundamentals, great verbal game and a great vibe. Not for beginners at all.
I gave this a lot of thought a few months ago as I'm starting over as a beginner myself basically. With a lot of knowledge and experience, but no recent success or momentum. I forgot a lot of what I had internalized and am re-learning from scratch. So I can see the problem:
- Street stops require confidence that comes from success, so not a good place to start.
- Online game is rigged against us these days (always was, to be honest... more on that below)
- Social circle is risky, and with low momentum if you strike out on a female friend it's embarrassing
- Clubs are too loud, competitive, dark, all that
- If you go after girls that are too hot, with low momentum you will be smitten
- If you go after girls that aren't hot enough, it won't really build your confidence
The list goes on... but it's a total catch 22 all around, yes? No matter how you look at it, it's just road blocks everywhere. It basically seems impossible from the perspective of a guy who's not currently getting laid to get even 1 girl, leave alone a real playboy lifestyle. I can really relate to this perspective now. Which I think is great. I think it's going to help me help other guys out better once I'm back on top.
Yeah man, this "teaching total newbies direct game on walking targets that look like models" is absurd. I'm not sure how it ever caught on, but I'm sure it contributed to the general negativity guys have towards dating these days (along with the apps).
But so what's the solution? What kind of game can you even run when you're low on confidence and momentum and vibe and social skills? These are my thoughts:
- Don't try to get the girl yet. This is not step 1 in your development. Three steps to build your social skills with men and women in general:
- Build a social life. At the VERY minimum, you should meet people twice a week. Once a week do a group thing, and once a week hang out with a friend one on one. Better to do this 3-4 times a week rather than twice.
- Add females to your social life! You need to become as comfortable shooting the shit with women as you are shooting the shit with guys who have the same interests as you. If you can't talk to a girl for a few hours and have it be fun, how can you seduce one?
- Become a "scenster". (I know the word has negative connotations... whatever). Find out where cool venues are to go out at night and start hanging out there. Not the loud ones. Just befriend people there, don't go for pickup yet. See and be seen, make some friends.
- Once you do start to talk to girls, avoid all the difficult sets. Focus on 2 kinds of sets only as a beginner:
- Groups! I know group sets seem scarier but they're actually a lot easier. You can just talk to the girls who aren't your type or to the guys in the group, so there's no intimidation factor. Just practice befriending the whole group for now.
- Lone wolves. Talk to girls who are alone, but not the ones who are walking. Focus on girls that are just standing around somewhere, or seated. Stopping a girl that's currently walking somewhere is just a lot harder than talking to a captive audience
- Remember! Do not do any of this (approaching either groups or stationary lone wolves) until AFTER you have built your social life, added female friends and started just befriending people in the "scene" of your city. Approach is step 4! Not step 1.
- Finally, when you try to get girls on dates, I recommend focusing on a very narrow range of girls in terms of their looks.
- As I said above, you don't want to go after girls that are your ideal type. They will make you nervous but more importantly, even if you get them, there's a huge chance you will be smitten with them, fall in love quickly or otherwise lose control of the situation
- Also avoid girls that you aren't actually attracted to for "practice". If you sleep with girls you don't actually like, I find it can actually hurt your self image and make you less confident rather than more.
- Target a "narrow range" of girls that you feel drawn to and that you find sexy and attractive and that you would like to have some fun with, but that are not your ideal type.
In my experience, online has always been shit for average looking guys. I never did that well with it. I got some lays here and there but even 10-15 years ago it was a huge numbers game as pictures are front and center and you can't convey your charisma, body language, etc.
Tinder has made this worse, I guess on dating sites guys used to date down 1-2 points and now it's 3 points but the concept is pretty much the same. Online game was always frowned upon among pickup artists, a supplement at best, a cop-out at worst.
It also doesn't really train your skills because once you do get a girl from online to meet up with you, she's pretty much down. She's looking for a guy, she liked your pictures, it's pretty much a done deal. Tinder lays are piss easy (if you can get the dates, which is hard for average Joe).
I don't, what did he say?
So, my diagnosis was spot on, yes? As I guessed, you have deficiencies in your normal social life. I mean I get it, I can be a loner for weeks and months and be perfectly content. But then when the itch to meet a girl stirs, it seems like an insurmountable feat!
I think of charisma as a "social muscle". Yours just HAS to be atrophied from 29 days a month alone in your room, there's no way it isn't. And in that state, you can't expect to do well on dates. Leave alone on a street stop direct opener!
So since you have a gym and fitness background, the "social muscle" concept will make sense... at the very least a muscle needs to be warmed up and stretched before it does something difficult... but really it should be grown consistently, by stressing it 3-4 times a week + recovery.
Nice!
I hope this was helpful. I went into more depth because I've been meaning to write this about 5 months ago when I first came up with the concept (summation: don't start with approaching, build a social circle, add females to it, make friends in the scene, chat up groups and lone wolves indirect, and focus on the narrow range in terms of looks).
There's more to it and I will share the rest in good time but this is a good primer. Follow the steps above and your charisma and social skills will improve. You will have a lot of friends and meet girls through your friends. You will be socially proved, confident, and more talkative. Then approaching girls becomes a lot easier too.
-Karea Ricardus.