Brothers, I just wrapped up three days and three nights of intense bootcamp with JT and Mike Smooth. What I learned during the lectures was strong and powerful but pales in comparison to what I experienced in the field. To have knowledge is one thing, to know they work through demonstrations is another, to experience their effectiveness myself... well that is a completely different realm of reality.
Be warned that this post is long as it is my intent to make it both a review of the bootcamp and a journal of my personal experience.
My background and why I decided to take a bootcampI am currently in my early thirties, but to give you a better idea of where I truly started from, I need to briefly touch back in time.
In my earlier days I was your stereotypical Asian arch type – got good grades in high school, got into a good university, studied computers and business, dedicated my free time to online games, was out of shape and wore cloth that was way too big for me. Or, in the words of The Asian Playboy himself, shouting out to the world that “I don't like sex!”
In my mid-twenties I had an epiphany and realized that there is so much more to life than books, work, and leveling up a virtual character that has absolutely zero impact in the real world. So I started working out, developed interesting hobbies and started to focus on “leveling” myself up as a unique individual. The change paid off and over the next couple of years I was in several relationships with quality women who were well educated and highly attractive. Times were good and eventually I thought I was falling in love... until she broke my heart. I totaled my brand new sports car and turned completely inward. The world didn't matter. I developed new interests that would push me physically and mentally over my edge and beyond. My focus was on me, myself, and I. The only thing I wanted to feel was the pulse of life rushing through my body, drowning out everything else.
Last year I nearly lost my life while mountaineering in the Cascades. I was one mistake away from courting lady death, but I guess it simply wasn't my time. The incident took a few months to fully sink in, but after recognition finally set-in, I realized that my life has become tilted. My vision had become so narrowed and my focus so tight it was like I had banished myself mentally from society. I have been slowly pulling myself out of my self-imposed exile and was shocked by the extend of my paralysis – she's standing so close to me touching me on the chest, I can feel the warm of her breath on my face... holy crap, I don't know what to do, freeze out... wow that girl just called me a trouble maker and giving me those mischievous eyes... mind blank.... ahhh she just hip-checked me and is now running a finger down my spine, I know what to do, I'll bump her back.... shit.. too much force.
My inner game is solid, but by all that is holy, wet and warm, I now have zero outer game and even less idea on how to link the two.... I need help! Somebody please help me! … Heh look, I've been on this mailing list for years but never read any of it and was too lazy to unsubscribe. Let’s see... who the hell would call himself The Asian Playboy?
I devoured the blogs and the materials on the forums and everything made perfect sense to me. I was a believer, but more so, I wanted to make myself better, to become embodiment of my beliefs. The rest.. well read on!
Night 1As expected, my fellow bootcampers were all crème de la crème in terms of educational and professional pedigree, and given the location of San Francisco, it was not surprising that most also have silicon for blood. Everyone arrived before the lecture started and we had the opportunity to chat up and get to know each other, so by the time Mike came to bring us to the lecture, everyone was already acquainted and a sense of camaraderie had begun to form.
I had passed on a few earlier bootcamps in the year because I specifically wanted to take one lead by JT; upon entering the room and meeting JT for the first time, the thought that flashed in my mind was “this is the grandmaster himself.” The lecture for the first day focused on Phase A and B of the system and as I listened to JT, I also made it a strong point to observe his body language and how he carried himself. An empowering stance that carries the aura of authority, an inviting attitude that shows genuine care, and an energizing presence that seem to say “heh, look no further, fun is right here.”
The venue for the field on this night was a lounge called Brunos. My biggest concern on the first night was my Approach Anxiety, I didn't think I would have much, but without field testing it, it was an unknown. I went in with another student and we were the first ones to arrive. The crowd was a bit light since it was only around 10pm. We scouted out the layout and this place has a small dance floor with a relatively large lounge area that contains a long center table that divides the room like a race track. My partner said to me, “heh look, we are going to walk down the side of the table and before we get to the end, we are going to each open up a set.” Game on!
He opened up a two-set with the Kick Start and I kept walking… damn… nothing available… except for this massive group of what looked like a ten-set.
The thing about fear is that it explodes as soon as you have time to think, leaving you shaking in despair and bleeding regret.
So, don’t give it time. 3-Second Rule.
Target locked. Walk of Khan on! “Cheers! You guys look fun! …”
Turned out that the group was a birthday party and I was introduced to the birthday girl. I did some bantering but discovered that my B-game is lacking and needs work so after running to some bouts of awkward silence I ejected to rejoin my partner.
JT and Mike had arrived some time while I was in-set and so did the other students. The crowd was starting to pick-up and the energy of the place was starting to shift higher. I opened up sets on my own and whenever one of the coaches pointed one out to me. It also appeared that none of the other students had any trouble with AA and a few was quite good with their B-game as well, though Mike kept shouting at us to lower our drinks and stop holding it out in front like a riot shield.
Throughout the night the coaches would give us feedback and pull us into sets they had opened whenever they saw one of us walking around looking lost. One of the alumni of the program, Tommy, joined us later in the night to help out with the bootcamp and to provide feedback to individual students.
For me, the most memorable moment of the night came when I was feeling bombed-out since in my normal schedule I would have been asleep for three hours by then. I was standing at the edge of the dance floor and JT was next to me, he noticed that my energy level was really low, so he just turned around, put his hand out in the stop gesture to a blonde walking into the room, shook her hand and then handed her over to me. I watched his body language and his energy projection, and the vibe was one that demanded attention while mitigating anything that resembles hostility. I’m still pondering on how he does that, but back at the moment, my only thought was “holy cow, just like that, it’s that easy.”
At the end of the night we all gathered at a diner for de-briefing. JT, Mike and Tommy all gave each of the students individual feedback. I knew that my B-game was weak but was a little surprised to hear that my energy projection was also way too low. Something to work on for Night 2 I thought. All in all, Night 1 was an excellent start, we were all warmed-up and I couldn’t wait for Night 2… after I pass out for a number of hours of course.
Night 2First of all, on behalf of me and my classmates, I'd like to thank Mike for the super motivational presentation after dinner on the importance of proper attire, iron supplementation and the heroic mentality of The Eye of the Tiger. Thanks Mike! You are the Man!
Second, at a personal level, I'd like to thank Tommy for the words that have completely shifted my reality and to thank the APB himself for the brutally honest feedback that slammed my weakest link like a thunder bolt.
Now on with the show!
The lecture covered Phase C and D of the system. We went over Direct, BT Spike, CT, and BLP. I was somewhat familiar with each of the areas individually from the forums, but to have them linked together and demonstrated was a huge help in my understanding of their application.
For this night we had table service at a club called The Cellar, and as soon as we entered, it was very noticeable that the quality of the girls there was much higher than what we had the night before. JT had us wait for a bit for the waitress to bring us our bottles and then told us to scatter, go Direct and bring back girls.
I opened up a few sets Direct, and was shocked on how well it worked. The face of every single girl I opened just lit up after they heard my opener, it was simply amazing! Unfortunately my C-game afterward wasn’t on par, and I wasn’t able to bring any sets back to the table. No big deal, I just kept moving and pushed on, rejection seriously didn’t hurt as much I expected as all the girls declined in a soft-landing kind of way, just like what was said by JT during the lecture.
After moving about for a while, I wandered back to the table and saw that one of my classmates had done much better than I did, as he was in the booth with two girls. I started to feel just a bit sorry for myself, but there was no time for that! JT saw me and promptly directed me over to wing for the guy, so in I went and sat down next to one of the girls and engaged her in conversation to split the set. I ran my DHVs, she hated everything I enjoy doing, I asked her about herself, she refuse to give me any details. I attempted some general CTs, she failed every single one. At this point the set was going nowhere and it looked like my classmate was also at a gap with the girl he was talking with. Awkward silence followed and the girls realize they weren’t getting any drinks out of us, so they made the usual finding their friend excuse and left. No big deal, the night was still young and the club was just starting to heat up!
I charged myself up and went over to the dance floor for a bit, but the ultra-loud music and high-energy made it hard to open sets for me, so I turned around to see if I can find any sets near the bar, and that’s when I noticed that Tommy from the night before had joined us again to help out with the bootcamp. This is what I truly love about the program – alumni returning voluntarily to help out, to give their time freely so that we students can have that much more support and feedback, simply because they believe in the program and want us to succeed as they have. There is no higher endorsement.
JT spotted me again and promptly dropped me into a standing three-set to wing. My bantering skill was definitely improving! The key thing I finally came to appreciate was, as it was pointed out during lecture, that logical questions and answers mean nothing during bantering, it all comes down to delivery! We were unable to hook the set, but our brothers were running some tight games and girls kept showing up at our table. As soon as I turned around from the three-set I was tagged by Tommy, who almost threw me at this cute blonde who came with her friend. Good lord! It’s raining girls!
I learned her name, bantered and spiked her BT a bit, she seemed receptive. Then my world changed in a flash. I heard Tommy whisper in my ear the words I shall remember in eternity.
“She’s your girl. Don’t let anyone talk to her. Don’t let anyone touch her.”Tommy, through the eyes of experience he must have seen something I missed. After hearing his words my immediate reaction was a booming shout-out in my head of “
Sir! Yes sir!” what I needed to do started to form like crystal clear steps, then the AMOGing begun.
Just as I was about to invite the cute blonde to sit down at our table I saw a guy approach from the corner of my eyes and my AMOG alarm went off blazing. He tapped me on the shoulder started to ask me random questions and boy was I prepared. I shook his hand, chest slapped him and launched the Endless Question defense which completely destroyed the guy, and at the height of his confusion, I pointed to an area behind him and told him his friends were looking for him, he turned around and I gave him a little push and off he went. Attack number one repelled!
I sat down first and my girl followed. Immediately I almost offered her a drink but the hair on the back of my neck stood up and I suddenly had this image of JT somehow coming through the walls behind me and glaring at me for being an AFC and not following the CT instructions he laid out during the lecture to qualify a girl before serving her a drink. I ran my C-game through a few general CTs and DHVs which linked over to her interests. I BT spiked her slightly to bring the energy back up a bit after the conversation and then initiated my sexual CTs.
“Come on, let’s dance.” I said to her and offered my hand. She took my hand and I Elephant Walked her over to the dance floor. We faced each other and she put her arms around me, I gazed into her eyes with all the intensity I could muster while maintaining a smile, she melts a little. We started slowly and the energy built. I spun her around and she started to grind into me, and I started to feel really good, then an ice bucket fell on my head. Oh wait; it was just my imagination again. I suddenly had this image of JT breathing down my neck shouting at me “If it feels good to YOU, you are doing it wrong!”
We faced each other again and she put her arms around my neck, pulling herself into me. I slowly separated myself and pretend to unbutton my shirt while moving with the music, she had a laugh. I pulled her close and ran a variation of the Arch Angel, tracing my fingers slowly across her back, arms, and hands. She slowly lowered herself to her knees while maintaining our finger-lock and I slowly pulled her back up. We moved to the music and I threw a giant grin to Mike as he walked by while she had her head buried in my chest. Then I remembered.
“Always end it first!”
“Let’s go back and get a drink” I said to her and lead her back to our table.
Vodka. Cranberry mix for the girls, orange for the men. I poured us both drinks, put one of my arms around her waist and toasted her with my other. Our faces were inches apart and we drank. I put mine down and asked her for a taste of hers and she tilted her glass. I drank and her hair was touching my face. I ran my finger along the lobe of her ear, the curve of her neck, to the bottom of her chin. I pushed up slightly and she tilted her head back and her eyes turned dreamy. I pulled her in with my other arm and her lips touched mine.
“Always end it first!”
I detached myself, brushed my hand through her hair and attempted to gaze through her skull while maintaining a smile. She attacked me.
“Always end it first!”
I slowly leaned back from her and she followed with her lips.
“Always end it first!”
I leaned back further and she climbed on top of me, grabbed my head and shoved her tongue down my throat.
I escalated and pulled her hip towards me; she responded and started to grind herself against me.
Enter AMOG.
“Heh bro, can I pour myself a drink from your table?” out of the haze of soft lips and perfume I heard a voice echo to the side. It’s the yolk white bros from next door! Fortunately JT and Mike had prepared us just for such an attack and I launched my counterstrike which immediately put the bros on defense. Attack number two repelled!
My girl was a little distracted and I ran the outside-in routine along her curves and she renewed her assault on me.
AMOG boomerang.
“Heh bro!” I looked to the side and the yolk white bro from next door had a fist held out to me in the alpha ritual of fist bump. Normally it would be right to respond in-kind, but with a girl I just meet on my lap, it might as well be the Fist of Death. I knew that as soon as I bump his fist, the girl would see herself as a trophy and eject as fast as she can walk in her high heels. I attempted to ignore the guy and tried to wave him off, but he wasn’t taking no for an answer and was getting more hostile by the second. Shit… this could turn ugly in a flash…
Then out of the darkness, He appeared.
Darting in like a flash of lightning, Tommy grabbed the AMOG’s arm with one hand, made a stop gesture with the other, and then firmly planted himself between our two groups. To be out on a Saturday night with us when he could be with his girl. To jump into a potentially hostile situation to help out a brother. There is no higher proof to the quality of the ABC alumni network.
Letting out an inner sigh of relief, I unleashed my full attention back upon my girl and time lost its grip on my consciousness. I escalated and she wanted more. I whispered things to her and she loved it. She started to breath faster and grinded herself into me with a vengeance. Then she stopped, looked at me in the eye and said:
“I’m not a slut you know, I’m not going to sleep with you tonight. I’m just out here to have some fun.”LMR!
Damn it! I lost it. I was feeling good and I lost myself, I forgot to stop first! I should have launched a pre-emptive counter strike earlier against LMR. I should have done it when she was completely hot and not thinking at all! What can I do? I used a direct-counter I remembered from the forums and she seemed satisfied, but I can’t help but feel that I just cut my F-close probability by a significant percent.
I attempted to regain lost ground and could feel that the emotional energy from her was responding to my efforts. She started to moan a little bit and I kissed her neck and worked my way down. She arched her back and leaned back. Time started to blur again.
Slowly I could feel her energy started to dissipate again, I was wondering why when I noticed her looking over my shoulder at her phone. I asked her if she was checking up on her massive stock portfolio and she laughed and told me her friend has been texting her wondering where she is.
SHIT! I totally forgot about her friend! I only briefly meet her friend before one of my classmates winged her away. I attempted to recover and offered to help her to find her friend. She was very receptive and I did a gentle Caveman on her before setting her down so she can put on her shoes. I offered her my hand, she took it, and we stepped out into... a well-lit room!
It was 2 am and the club was closing. Damn it again!
We found her friend two steps away, looking slightly pissed. I really screwed this one up.
My girl was clinging to me and didn’t quite want to leave, but her friend was almost glaring at us. There was but one saving grace left for me.
I took out my phone, brought up the dialpad, handed it over to my girl and said. “You know what to do.”
She dutifully entered her number and saved it with her name.
In the back of my mind, I was a bit shocked by how calmly I pulled it off “…just like that, it’s that easy…”, it felt like the most natural thing to do except that I had NEVER done it with such grace before!
She slowly pulled herself away from me, but before she can get away completely, I gave her a tiny tug. She turned around. I motioned her to come over. She french-kissed me one more time and I gave her my blessing to leave.
I joined my brothers and the coaches. We left the club. I immediately launched the first line of the Text Game to her, then closed my phone and waited for Tommy to show up so I can thank him for what he had done.
Much had happened on this night and our de-briefing was long. JT, Mike and Tommy all offered sincere feedback to each of the students. The feedback I received couldn’t be truer. JT is right, I haven’t been pushing myself. In fact he’s more right in this regard than he may expect. I have been living in my comfort zone ever since the incident a year ago, and this bootcamp was my second push at challenging myself again. My first was going back and summiting the peak that almost took me to her bosoms for an everlasting sleep.
The most memorable group moment for Night 2 was when JT, Mike and Tommy started talking about how the club staff and everyone around us were completely flabbergasted by how many girls were visiting our booth -- Here is booth full of Asian guys, bombarded by girls and making out with blondes and brunettes, “What the FUCK is going on?!!!”
Turbo Day Camp with Mike SmoothAs a bonus, the class was offered the opportunity to experience some in-field Day Game through a five-hour turbo charged workshop with Mike Smooth on the third day. Participation was completely voluntary and I almost didn’t want to go due to lack of sleep. At the last moment I developed a “fuck this shit” mentality and decided to push myself and just go all out this weekend and get the most out of my time. Considering how tired I was, a few extra hours of sleep wasn’t going to be nearly as useful as spending those hours getting some real Day Game experience and feedback.
The pack assembled in the Westfield mall in San Francisco and Mike gave us a lecture on the ABC Day Game structure while the students wolfed down food. After lunch, for demonstration purpose, Mike opened up an Asian girl outside the mall with the “I Love You” routine while the rest of us attempted to listen-in without looking like some stalking creepers. In my sleep-deprived state, Day Game didn’t strike me as particularly hard, until I tried it myself.
We moved from the mall toward Union Square and Mike pointed out a set and off I go. But wait, my set is moving faster than my regular walking pace! I sped up, but damn these people are walking fast! I finally caught up after they stopped to sit down. I don’t think they noticed me stalking them, but what the hell. I opened with the “I Love You” routine and they gave me a blank stare, then one said with a heavy accent “we do not understand.” It turned out they are from France.
One of the students opened a two-set of what turned out to be Japanese girls here studying English. He was quite successful with them and managed to complete an insta-date after another student went in to wing.
I was sent in to wing for another student in a three-set consisted of one French and two Italian girls. Again language was a barrier, but I managed to occupy two of the girls long enough for my camp brother to complete a bit of C-game and to invite the girls out to join us that night. They didn’t show up.
My most successful game was with a sitting two-set. I opened with the “I Love You” routine and they went ballistic. I was having a hard time controlling both, but thankfully Mike sent in a brother to wing for me. We stayed in B-phase for a while and learned that my target was engaged. At this time I received text instruction from Mike to sit down and go to C. I ran the scoot over line my target was receptive, but she was engaged, so that’s as far as I took it. I got my wing to sit as well and then we ejected after a bit more bantering.
The difficulty with Day Game in downtown San Francisco is that you are trying to pick out a target from an ocean of people built from large demographic groups that can fluctuates wildly rather than from a pre-filtered group like a club crowd. You run into people who doesn’t speak the language, those not open to relationships, and in case of one brother, jailbaits… you go bro!
The experience I gained from running sets during the day was definitely a boon to my game. It made me realize that while the pressure to approach during the day, where everyone can see you, is much greater than at night, my Day Game AA is still well within manageable level. With the additional practice, my B-game had also drastically improved from what it was on Night 1.
We debriefed back at the mall and then returned to basecamp in preparation of Night 3.
Night 3Graduation night.
The lecture covered Phase E and F of the system. Damn, wish I had learned E-game yesterday… the “Extraction” part of the E-game didn’t even enter my mind last night… but I don’t think it would have changed the outcome, considering that I totally forgot about HER FRIEND!!
JT promised us fire and brimstone for the night and it was delivered to us beyond even his expectations along with locust and famine.
The venue for the field on this night was a lounge called The Matrix. Night 3 was dedicated to one thing – AMOG – to AMOG mixed sets and to be AMOGed by fellow students.
As soon as I entered the place I knew this was going to be a tough night. The place was almost a sausage fest with the few girls there all walled-up behind testosterones two layers thick. I got myself a drink, scouted out the layout of the place and made the determination to push through this night no matter what. The sets I approached earlier in the evening were relatively receptive but the girls all clang to their man and I was unable to isolate a single one. As the night wore on, the imbalance of gender in the crowd increased and the environment became fully saturated with testosterone and hostility increased. I began to receive flat-out rejections and even a few petty insults. I was a bit pissed off and tried to approach a few all-girl sets to calm myself down, but apparently these girls were just the ones that came out from behind their man-walls and had no interest whatsoever in anyone else.
At one point I was called-on to AMOG a brother who had actually managed to isolate a girl. I followed the rules of AMOGment set by JT and ejected after he put up sufficient defense. It was pretty amusing.
I wandered back to JT and Mike to rest a bit and they too were a bit frustrated at the level of difficulty presented by the venue. They encouraged me to push on and I did.
Mike pointed out a two-set and I approached, but was quickly rejected. However, this set turned out to be highly beneficial to me as Mike was watching me the whole time and promptly told me that my energy projection was way too low and I wasn’t touching enough. I was at a lost on what I can do to change until Mike went in to wing for a student engaging a three-set. Holy cow, what a difference in comparison to my approach! Watching the combination of his facial expression, body placement, arm movement and vocal projection was a complete eye opener. I now know what I need to work on to improve my energy projection!
Night 3 ended quietly with everyone drained from three consecutive nights of coaching, learning and fieldwork. At debriefing, JT and Mike once more pointed out to the students their individual sticking points, and a sense of loss started to form in my heart. Then I remembered that these are my brothers! I have them and the entire Bay Area ABC alumni network with me in the days ahead!
JT I can not thank you enough for your dedication to your brothers. Thank you for inviting me into your reality and letting me see the possibilities. I will now be working on shaping my own world and I hope to one day be able to give back to the Community in thanks. AftermathMomentum is life. Stillness is death.
It has been three days since bootcamp and I find myself absolutely refusing to return to who I was. The things I learned, the things I experienced during the bootcamp cannot be forgotten and I feel my reality has being fundamentally altered. The change is not significant yet, but it is enough for me to notice and to affect the way I think and the way I act.
I have setup my first sarge with a bootcamp brother for this Thursday.
My girl from Night 2 has been responding to my text messages and I plan on getting Text to Sex and devouring it. I had used one of the three Text opening lines from bootcamp and she was absolutely hooked, to say I’m amazed is an understatement!
I plan to take an improv class to improve my bantering skills.
Writing down my bootcamp experience in such great detail was my way of solidifying my learning. I hope you, as a brother, find it useful on your journey.
Momentum is life. Stillness is death. No fate but what we make!
Report LinksSF Nov 11 Bootcamp review from gsxrField Report #1
