Pickup 101 Testimonials

I cannot even begin to tell you the difference this has made in my life... If you make a commitment, you will get the results you're looking for relatively quickly. - Joe, Business Analyst - Contra Costa, CA

I wanted to put my two cents in about my experiences at PU101.

So I have been working with these guys for the last two months. I cannot even begin to tell you the difference this has made in my life... It was obvious to me that reading is not what will get you results.... I was really trying to decide which program to invest in. Too be honest, most workshops have mixed reviews. I have heard many great and bad things about [other workshops] from students and through reviews. I had only read a few reviews of PU101 since there aren’t as many reviews, but I hadn’t read anything bad either. Also, they were cheaper and closer to me…SF Bay Area. I signed up in April, but due to scheduling and life I wasn’t able to take anything until the end of July. I have now completed the Art of Attraction Course and their Art of Rapport/Day Game Class.

I have absolutely no negative feedback.

Yeah, thats right..none. If I were you; I would be super skeptical of that comment. How is that possible? Even at the best there should be constructive criticism. I will get to that, but in no way should this be taken as a negative feedback.

First off, from a business/customer service perspective I feel that they have a really solid program together. They spend a lot of time changing the class based on lengthy feedback that they get from their students. This is everything from what students find to be the most valuable topics/exercises to scheduling enough breaks (but not too many), to tweaking the overall style of teaching. I understand their workshops are excellent because of the feedback. On top of that I felt that the instructors were as accommodating as possible. This isn’t a customer service oriented industry, but it should be and these guys are changing that.

Second, because of this first point I believe they have found the most effective way to communicate their information and actually make lasting changes on the students. Intellectual learning is great. Lectures where this stuff is explained can really bring you to new levels of understanding. The thing is, despite all of the knowledge in your head, I don’t believe that translates to actual skills. It’s like understanding the mechanics of a golf swing. You could learn the physiology, timing, and movements and really comprehend what it takes to swing a golf club, but it will not translate into actually being able to swing a golf club as well as you might think. You might even be able to help other people fix their swing, but knowing how to swing a golf club and actually finding your natural rhythm is radically different. PU101 really sets themselves apart with the amount of exercises. I’m sure many of you have heard that communication is 93+% non-verbal so that only 7% of your communication is the actual words that come out of your mouth. Much more of your communication has to do with your body language, tonality, voice inflection, and facial expressions. I think that this is really overlooked in this community based on what I have read on these forums. PU101 spends more time teaching the non-verbal and actually practicing this. Like with the golf swing, this is learned overtime through repetition. This is HUGE. This is one of those concepts that you may not even truly understand until you see it done. Luckily, I had the opportunity to see this in action before signing up. It was blatantly obvious to me that this was a huge piece in the communication. Anyone who has seen Sensei demonstrate this will immediately pick up on what I am talking about.

The other great part to this is the simplified structure. PU101 will build you a custom routine stack. They really believe that you have attractive qualities about you and that you should communicate those, instead of someone else’s. This makes the stack SUPER congruent. They give you something to say that works with who you are so that you can focus on the more important NON-VERBAL parts of the interaction. What really attracted me to the PU101 structure is how organic and natural it is. Once you learn to use your body language, tonality, vocal inflection and facial expressions to communicate, you really don’t need your stack. This is because they are actually training wheels to changing yourself. Once you become natural at using these other forms of communication, you will quickly realize what you say isn’t really that important. Although I have routines that I can fallback on, I can apply what I have learned into a completely natural conversation. A lot of people who use direct game really enjoy that aspect to it, because you can be very natural in direct game. PU101 teaches you how to naturally use indirect game. I don’t know of any workshops that are teaching that.

The last part that I want to address is the follow up. PU101 realizes that they have a great workshop. They also realize that despite a great workshop, you can still fall back into your old ways. You can make all kinds of progress at a workshop over the weekend, but if you do not keep the momentum, then you will really revert back. PU101 has really been focusing on building momentum for their students because that is how people really change. PU101 really has put a lot of effort to running a solid business and this follow through with building the momentum with the students is probably the most significant part. I have literally been working almost weekly for the last two months with them.

I started with the Art of Attraction workshop. After I went out twice a week practicing my skills on friday and saturday nights. Every week, I had a group phone call with Lance to address sticking points with the guys from my class. We each got individual feedback and questions answered. After two months, I then took the Art of Rapport workshop. This has all contributed to building momentum in my game.

Art of Rapport was exactly what I needed after two months of practicing pure attraction. Having just finished this class, I am still on that post workshop high. I have been very consistently practicing my attraction skills. I think that I have a very solid attraction game, but what I realized is that is only half of the equation. Attraction is very powerful, yet fleeting. It works similarly for women as it does for men. When a hot woman is standing in front of you, you get that visceral feeling of attraction. When she leaves that visceral feeling leaves as well. You might have a memory of how you felt, but it is not lasting especially when another hot women is standing in front of you. When you’re right in front of a girl being the attractive guy, you give them the same feeling, but as soon as you’re gone, the feeling leaves. The might remember it for awhile, but it will not stick. This is where gaining rapport is extremely important. The instructors went into depth on how to gain wide and deep rapport. The first day was all about going into rapport. They helped us develop deep rapport stories that made each of us vulnerable. They also had exercises for transitioning from attraction to rapport which isn’t always the easiest thing to do. The second day centered around daygame using the indirect approach. This ties in with the first day because merely approaching a lot of times is enough to get attraction and then your only job is to shift into rapport. The second day we learned the direct approach. Then once again we went out and did day time sets using both direct and indirect.

The last part of this is the quality of the instructors. My experience is that the instructors are not there to show off, but to help you out. Whatever skill level you come in at; they know what you need to do to get past your sticking point. If you have approach anxiety, they realize tooling you and making you feel lame isn’t an effective way to get you past that. There aren’t any egos in this group, but everyone has mad skills. I also think a lot of students relate to the instructors because they are normal guys, with normal lives, that happen to have exceptional love lives. I have seen quite a few PUA’s (instructors included) in the field and I still have to say that Lance is the most impressive. I think PU101 has been a little secret because they don’t have the same notoriety as [other workshops]. I think this has been the most powerful workshop I have heard about. If you make a commitment, you will get the results you're looking for relatively quickly.

I just had an awesome experience with these guys and wanted to share it with this group since I spent so much time reading reviews before I decided on a workshop. I wanted to contribute to the group my take on it.

- Joe, Business Analyst - Contra Costa, CA

I finally decided to sign up for a workshop after realizing that despite my strong natural game, I was lacking the motivation to go out and the formula and strategies to keep me from bailing on obvious opportunities. I was resistant to the idea of running routines and spitting game in place of a more flowing banter, but I also wasn't feeling comfortable or happy with my own confidence at approaching any time I wanted.

But I also knew that as a 34-year old with a stable and successful day job and a penchant for getting 8 hours of sleep per night, everything I read about [other workshops] seemed a bad fit. I never plan on moving to LA or Vegas, I don't really care for New Rock boots, and I go out to bars to drink and enjoy myself, not to run 25 sets a night. So what's a man to do? ...PU101 became my obvious choice.

I was definitely pleased to see they had added a new program that seemed to fit just what I was looking for: the Art of Rapport. It promised an approach to game that allowed you to meet women at any time, by incorporating the techniques of creating attraction and forming connections into your existing lifestyle. The idea of being able to game a woman on demand at the gym, safeway, bookstore, etc., was just what I was after. So I signed up, and steeled myself to the idea that I was going to have to finally admit, in public, and to others, that I was not quite as smooth as I wanted to be.

Turns out I was right. The guys who run and teach Pickup 101 had exactly the kind of game I always have convinced my friends I have (but don't really). They combine different styles and different approaches and blend them into the same basic philosophy, and it all seems to work in a holistic way, like blending every available martial arts into one fighting style that allows you to do whatever you need to fit the situation. Without going into too much detail, I can say that the packed 2-day course covered, in detail, and with copious in-house demos, practice, rehearsal, and field work:

which venues are best for daygame
how to open someone in the day so they are comfortable
how to use kino immediately in the day
warmups that reduce approach anxiety to near zero every time
indirect openers written from each students own stories
direct openers for day time
moving rapidly from attraction (within seconds) to rapport to create connections
using day2 planning to skip over phone game altogether and eliminate flakes
deep storytelling to get practice at being vulnerable, not just faking it, so that the woman can feel a real connection to you
real-time practice day2s with lovely ladies brought in just for that purpose... like 15 minutes of a real date followed by instant feedback
drills on simple and wickedly effective manuevers for footwork and body positioning to isolate women without them even realizing it, and pulling them into your space within seconds of meeting them
the best spots in town to do daygame

I found that their approach, which focused on the idea that you can move to rapport as quickly as you want anytime you are outside of the high-energy club environment, was perfect for the life I live now. They also emphasized that while they could teach the techniques, it was the followup, and practice afterwards, that would determine how successful we would be in the field. But I found just during the weekend, after locking up entirely and freezing on my first two approaches, I went from feeling like I was totally out of my element (having never really done a full daytime approach before), to the stage where on the second day, I got a number/day2 4 times out of 8 approaches (and of the 4 that missed, I got boyfriend excuses on each one... we didn't have enough time to go into how to push through that... maybe next time!)

My take: Pickup101 does a great job of reading where every student is in his game. They have the same basic strategies for everyone to follow, but they let you play to your strengths. It's not a matter of creating a clone army that runs amok and babbles the same stories to every unsuspecting passerby... they really work at making you comfortable and confident in your sociability before sending you out. They are not only great instructors, but genuinely social and friendly guys who you can totally picture talking shit over a beer and a football game on a Sunday afternoon, as well as pulling the hottest club girls on a Friday. That's the kind of versatility I wanted to enhance in my game... the idea that you can be a normal guy, but be such a great normal guy, and know how to put it on display and communicate it, that women can't help but be attracted.

I'd recommend it to anyone who wants better results in all social areas of their life, and wants the quickest, most lasting results with women. They teach you really how to connect and start a sexual relationship with a woman, not just how to harvest massive amounts of numbers.

I did forget to mention one other thing. If you aren't comfortable talking about yourself, do some work first before coming here. The whole idea of rapport, as they teach it, is that you open up yourself in such a way that the women feels comfortable following you there. If you can't do that, you're not ready. But if you are secure enough as a man to show that you have a real side, they help you start to show that in a way that women can't help but respond to. It's powerful, because it's real, but it's hard to do, and hard to commit to. Way scarier than just babbling about jealous girlfriends or horses and ladders.

- Sean, San Francisco, CA

The Art of Attraction focuses upon the first crucial 10 minutes of pickup. Approximately 1/3 of the time was spent on the instructors talking, about 1/3 on practice, and 1/3 in the field. This allows a nice transition as they first give you the knowledge, then improve your game with practice, then you do the real thing.

The best things about pickup101 imho are the following:
- The instructors seem to sincerely care very much about the students improving their game. The instructors do not feel the need to show off in the field. Their number one priority is the students (whereas in other workshops the #1 priority for the instructors sometimes seems to get laid and the students are priority #2).
- Personalized stories/routines. Instead of just giving students textbook routines the instructors work with the students to develop stories that are congruent with them. I listened to a lot of the same stories over and over again and some of them weren't so good saturday morning. However by sunday evening some of these same stories were so good I could not help but crack up even after hearing the same stories 5-10 times.
- Practice. You cant learn pickup by simply reading, listening, or watching someone good. You have to actually practice it. The 1/3 of the time practicing before going into the field was an excellent middle ground. The kino/body language practice was excellent. By practicing one's material in front of instructors (and girls) before doing so in the field helps tremendously.

- Jason, North Carolina

I am a successful software engineer in my early 30's. One of my concerns before taking a workshop was that the instructors would be too young or too trendy to be relevant to a professional person like myself.

One of the things that I respect about the PU101 operation is the maturity of the instructors, and the integrity in the way they about their business. This pleasantly surprised me immensely. They are decent people and they immediately put me at ease.

- Russell, Software Engineer - Palo Alto CA

I'm brand spankin' new to the pickup game... I have ok success with women. I'm pretty outgoing and all...

However, I really need to actually have game, have some structure, a game plan... I needed the FUNDAMENTALS.

Sensei and Wilder focus on the basic core/key concepts aka the fundamentals. I know when I master what they taught at the workshop I will be a seriously skilled pickup artist and have some money game. There are just a handful of basic concepts. However it doesnt seem most guys out there have a grasp of these key concepts.

Due to the small amount of people we get plenty of individual attention, and watching Sensei and Wilder in field is awesome! Anyone out there who is new to all of this pickup stuff (like me) should definitely take this workshop!

- Rob, San Jose CA

I can't say enough good things about this workshop. It was, for me, a life-changing event.

For years, I've watched guys who I thought weren't as good-looking, smart or successful as I am make it with really hot women, while I've been struggling to get dates with the "leftovers". The world didn't seem fair. I figured some guys just "had it", and I wasn't one of them. But in the AoA workshop, I learned that being successful in attracting beautiful women is a learned skill, a skill that with some practice and persistence, just about any guy can master.

I would not have believed this had I not experienced it firsthand. During our "field trip" to a club, I approached a group of eight very attractive women and engaged them in conversation for nearly half an hour. Prior to the workshop, I would not have even attempted to meet anyone at this club, thinking it was out of my league.

The underlying philosophy of the workshop is that women will respond in predictable ways to certain cues and behaviors. And so, by managing how you present yourself and what you say and do, you can elicit interest and attraction from even the most attractive women.

This isn't about mimicking "canned" opening lines or trying to become a carbon copy of the instructors. Memorizing canned material can only get you so far. Which is why I appreciated that in this workshop, there was a strong emphasis on developing an approach and technique that fits each individual. Each person is coached on coming up with an identity and an image that they feel comfortable with and that is likely to work for them. Rather than trying to turn out pick-up artist clones, the instructors clearly believe their mission is to help you discover your unique inner value and convey it effectively to women. I found this approach to be very empowering. Fundamentally, it's about getting clear about what makes you special, and communicating that to others in a powerful way. Once you can do this, you'll notice dramatic improvements in many areas of your life, not just meeting women.

The workshop is given over three full days, beginning Friday at 1pm and going until late Sunday evening. The general format followed each day is to first present and discuss a topic and the theory behind it. Next, there are practice exercises with feedback and evaluation from the instructors. This allows each participant to gain some mastery over the techniques and principles before applying them in real world situations. Then, at about 9:30pm on Friday and Saturday nights, the group goes out on a field trip visiting several different clubs, and everyone gets to practice what they've just learned.

This progression from theory and understanding to controlled practice to real world practice builds mastery and confidence. The instructors understand that "pick-up", like any new skill, is best learned by practice, evaluation, refinement, and then more practice, until it becomes second nature, and you're getting the results you want. I think this is where the workshop proves most valuable. Anyone can learn pick-up principles by reading or listening to materials on the subject. But the only way to really master the skill is through repeated practice. And at this workshop, everyone has many chances to practice, while getting plenty of feedback and coaching.

The basic framework of the pick-up process taught here can be summarized as follows: open, unlock, build attraction, qualify, develop rapport, isolate, and close for a next meet. If you're new to the art of pick-up, like I was, some of these terms may seem foreign, but the concepts are straightforward. Basically, first you want to meet a woman, then get her interested and attracted to you in a sexual way, then evaluate whether she is someone you want to pursue, then establish a personal connection, and finally get her contact info and plan what you'll do next together.

The order that these steps occur is important. One of the key insights I gained from the workshop is that "attraction" comes before "rapport". I'd always thought is was the other way around. In fact, I'd always believed that the more rapport and connection I could establish with a woman, the more attracted she would be to me. But typically women would respond by saying they "wanted to take things very slowly", or worse, "just be friends". I now understand that this is what happens when you build rapport BEFORE attraction.

The first day is all about "Opening", or how to initiate contact with women you want to meet in a bar or club setting. The underlying concept here is that acting "alpha" is a surefire way of eliciting sexual interest and attraction from women. It doesn't matter if you consider yourself to be a shy quiet type (as I did), there are always things you can and should DO to convey the right attitude. And so the workshop stresses acting in ways that are bold, courageous and confident. These include approaching groups of women by yourself, telling funny stories, and engaging in playful teasing and cocky/funny banter. These types of behaviors don't come naturally for many of us, but can be mastered with intention and practice.

A key to acting confident is knowing ahead of time what you're going to say and how you're going to behave. For this reason, much of the first afternoon was spent practicing delivering opening lines, telling opening stories, and managing body language. Rather than using canned openers, everyone developed their own material. The instructors were great at working with each participant individually to come up with an opening routine that fit their personality and image and that they could deliver convincingly because it was meaningful to them.

Then it was out into the field for some real world practice. The two workshop leaders, Wilder and Sensei were joined by several assistants in escorting us to the clubs. Because the workshop was small, the ratio of participants to instructors was never more than two or three to one. This insured plenty of individualized attention and coaching. I was truly impressed with the professionalism of the instructors in the field. They were clearly there to support us, and seemed to know just when to demonstrate, when to stay back and observe, or when to prod us into doing something outside our comfort zones. In short, they were effective in helping us stretch and grow in our skills.

Our mission that first night was just to practice approaching and opening as many sets of women as possible using the material we'd worked on. I was amazed to discover that by combining the right mindset (letting go of attachment to a particular outcome) with a little preparation and practice, I was able to do things I would not have thought possible. During about three hours at two different clubs, I approached and opened some twenty or more sets or groups of women. And this from a guy who stopped going to bars years ago because he was afraid to approach anyone!

I should mention that not all participants were at my beginning level. Everyone in the workshop comes in with different abilities and experience. But the instructors took care to learn at what level each of us was at in order to set reasonable goals and expectations for each of us. This is the kind of valuable individualized attention that can only happen in a small workshop, and can make the difference between achieving breakthroughs or having a frustrating time.

At about 1am, we all returned to home base for an hour or so of debriefing and sharing, during which the instructors provided more valuable feedback based on their observations of us in the field.

The second day followed a similar format, but concentrated on all those things you do after your opening routine that build attraction. Topics included basics of attraction, kino (playful touching), banter, and storytelling. Then we put all these elements together into a "routine stack" , which is basically a set of prepared behaviors or a script that includes opening lines, stories, touches and moves, and cocky/funny remarks. Again, each participant developed their own "stack" with lots of input from the instructors.

The idea behind the "routine stack" concept is not to always perform a pre-scripted conversation, but rather to have all the elements of one available at your command in case you find yourself at a loss for what to say or do. It's really a confidence builder. The irony is that the better your command of your routine stack, the less you may end up actually sticking to it, because you'll have developed enough confidence that you'll probably naturally think of good things to say and do in each situation. For example, it would be ideal if we all had great cocky/funny responses we could come up with in every situation, but in case we don't, each of us had several prepared lines we could use. One guy used the line "You must be a Republican" whenever he couldn't think of a witty response. I saw him use it in many different situations and it always got a laugh. My personal favorite prepared response whenever a woman said something less than flattering: "I don't know who your boyfriend is, but he is definitely not spanking you enough!"

Memorizing this stuff seemed cheesy and inauthentic, but I have to say, the approach works. On the second night's field trips, I found myself engaging in extended banter with multiple groups of women, and coming from the confidence of knowing that I always had something clever to say next.

The third day covered the next logical steps: taking the attraction you've developed in the women you've been talking to, isolating one that you're interested in, getting her to qualify herself to you (show you why you should be interested in her), build rapport, trust and comfort and make plans for a next meeting. I learned many practical and valuable tips that will make all the difference in whether a woman considers me as friendship material or a potential lover.

For the final exercise on Sunday evening, they bring in an attractive female volunteer and videotape you as you run your routine on her. Then as you watch the tape, there's plenty of feedback from the instructors and the woman. This can be a humbling experience. I was glad it was left until the end, because unlike the other exercises in the workshop which are designed to build your confidence, this one can weaken your confidence. I wonder whether it would not be better to make it optional, or leave it for a more advanced workshop. On the other hand, there is no more powerful learning tool than observing and studying yourself in action. I know I got a lot out of it.

During the third day, there were several depressing moments for me when it became clear how many wrong things I've been doing over the years. For example, my typical behavior of trying to impress a woman by buying her dinner at an expensive restaurant, bringing her flowers, listening to all her problems, etc. never got me anywhere. And now I understand why: High value women have no shortage of guys trying to impress them. But these women are looking for someone who is truly worthy of them. Paradoxically, the more you try to impress a woman, the less worthy she will consider you. But if you act with confidence and do things that show you are NOT interested in impressing her--like not paying for dinner, not bragging about what you do for a living, etc.-- she will likely be intrigued, and if you've built attraction, she'll consider you a potential lover. It all seemed counterintuitive, but results don't lie.

The workshop leaders walk their talk. And they are great examples of the fact that what they teach works. Watching them in action in the field was truly inspirational. Whatever doubts I may have had about the stuff they were teaching were removed after seeing these guys use their own techniques, and noticing the results they got.

But the Pick Up 101 Instructors are not just good guys to model, they're also great teachers. Some people are naturally talented at a particular skill, but not good at teaching it, because it comes so easily to them, they've never put much thought into what they do. But it's clear that both Sensei and Wilder enjoy studying the fine points of the game. Their success with women is not random or accidental; it's predictable, understandable, and therefore very teachable. And they clearly take great pleasure in teaching it, I suppose partly because it validates their understanding and knowledge. After all, if they can take a shy, quiet guy with no social life and teach him how to meet and attract hot women, it proves the value of their theory and techniques. Whatever the reason, the impression they give throughout the workshop is that they genuinely care about your success. And that kind of support is very helpful.

By the end of the workshop, I was impressed by all of the Pick Up 101 instructors. They all had radically different styles and appearances, but each was successful in his own way. To me, this was living proof there is no one "type" that is successful with women, but rather it is a matter of acting confident about who you are and effectively conveying what makes you special.

The location and style of presentation is informal --a bunch of guys sitting around a living room-- but the workshop is organized and presented in a professional manner, and it's clear that a lot of thought and care went into its organization and delivery. There's a well-organized schedule where each topic or exercise carefully builds on the one before it, and everything starts and ends on time or close to it.

One of my fears before taking the workshop was that the atmosphere might be competitive and judgmental. After all, we're competing for the same hot women, and pick-up artists are egomaniacs, right? But it wasn't that way at all. The tone throughout the workshop is informal, friendly and low-key. The instructors are really good at giving feedback in a positive, supportive way. This is especially important in building a skill that relies so heavily on self-confidence, and the instructors seem to understand this. And the other participants were all decent guys. A supportive camaraderie quickly developed among everyone, instructors and participants, to the point where I soon felt I was with a group of buddies. The energy from everyone was consistently positive, supportive and helpful, and that added a lot to the experience.

Since taking this workshop, as I now see it, there are two types of guys in the world: The first type tries hard to be a nice guy because he thinks this is the path to getting love and acceptance from women. He is thoughtful, kind and generous to women and always trying to please them so they will like him. Yet he rarely has enough sex, and usually finds himself going out with less attractive women, or women that treat him poorly. Women see this type of man as a friend or a provider. They are not sexually attracted to him, but will use sex as a tool to control him so they can keep getting his attention, time and money.

The other type of guy is confident in himself and his masculinity. He knows who he is and what his life is about, and doesn't need the approval of women to feel good about himself. He is courageous and bold and purposeful, and understands women and what attracts them. He knows at a deep level that his masculinity is the gift that women seek. Women are irresistibly attracted to a man like this, like moths to a light, and they will give of themselves in every way including sexually in order to get and keep his masculine energy.

If you want to be this type of guy, the AoA Workshop is a great place to start.

- Gene, Oakland CA

We had 3 days of instruction and exercises at the house, and 2 nights of in-field work. The daytime part was a combination of theory, practical exercises, and personalized feedback. The in-field work involved watching the instructors in set, then running our own sets with them and on our own using what we'd learned.

I got a lot out of the workshop. Probably the most important thing is that each of us has areas of our personality that would be really attractive to women if we would recognize them and then choose to feature them. The workshop was all about taking our strengths and plugging them into the linear progression of a sarge. Or looking at it another way, it's about building an identity around your strengths.

Second is that logical conversation is no fun. I found that I was using too much logic too early - so we cut some of the boring details out of my stories. Funny thing is, you can cut out details that are important for the story to make sense, and still have it work as an attraction routine. Making sense is overrated. Banana.

What else? Everything a girl says and does is cute. No matter what. There's tons more. I'm not going to post it all.

In summary, the workshop was excellent! There are a few things that set this workshop apart:

This is a fundamentals workshop, so there weren't a lot of new concepts (although there were some, and they were killer). I'd been reading and learning so much, it was getting overwhelming. This workshop helped reign it all in.

Cheers,
Jason, Palo Alto CA

It's been a week now. last weekend was amazing. I went to the workshop and it was just soooo worth it. I wasnt really enthused at spending money for an event so soon after just having taken a workshop. I really have'nt given it a chance to work. OMG. Was I ever so wrong. It was so much more than I was truly expecting!

Maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit. I was expecting a lot, a whole lot. but, I've been disappointed before. So, in that sense... I let my guard down. I wanted it to do a lot, but I realize that most of that stuff has to come from within... from me.

That weekend, tho, something changed. I know I've wanted this for a while. I've wanted to work on this forever. I moved to the bay area so I could work on pickup. even after a year of "deciding" this is gonna happen.. I am only a little better off than I was a year ago. I'm still soo much a rAFC.

Maybe I'm just on a high from the weekend. I gave it a week to wear off, so I could post objectively. honestly, I do feel different, tho. I truly wanna work on my homework assignment. they assigned a century set and I wanna get that outta the way. I do think that that will change the way I act.

Okay. so, now about the workshop. there were six of us, of the six, I think I had the most trouble with gaming. I had broken a lot of initial fears when I attended the workshop in late May, but I'm still just a watcher when it comes down to it. I'm working on it, but being an engineer who shys away from the limelight really is embedded in me. I had a problem trying to peacock.

The few things I do wanna mention about this weekend is that I learned some very valuable tactics. openers have a specific structure. I can use that to my advantage. I was able to open sets and I learned that small fluff talk is fine. I had a huge problem with that before.

I love the fact that this was a small group. There was a lot of individual feedback. the openers were customized to the person. I'm not really sure how much of the basics were covered, because.. I've been reading up. although I dont regularly visit asf or any of the other sites.. I've attended an rsd event, a dyd event (hehe.. his very first one), and I've listened to a lot of rj's material.

I totally recommend this workshop for anyone. it will tighten up an intermediate level's game and it will teach a beginner what needs to be done. before this workshop, (even with numerous material) I was literally scared to approach. I still get that feeling, but I push through it.

I tend to ramble. thats another issue that will get addressed... a lil later. I wanted to get this out there. so, yeah.. I'm just glad to finally be starting down the path I have been looking at my entire life.

-Nick, San Francisco CA