My no-nonsense review of drills 2.0 (NYC – Jan 2008) - PART 1

[yeayea]

Very long but hope this covers your questions...

I took about three weeks to write this because I wanted to let the effects of the bootcamp settle in before so and wanted to let any post-bootcamp excitement wear off (well post bootcamp calmness would be more like it).

I tried to organize my rambling thoughts as best I can, here goes:

*Why did I choose Drills?
Im a big fan of Vin D and natural game. I have been reading his stuff for a while - started with Woodhaven posts about a year ago and have been wanting to take a bootcamp since The Approach. I love the concept of drills because (a) its natural (ie no routines) and (b) it is designed to reprogram your responses

*What does it do?
Drills changed my paradigm on the game. It taught me that I have all the tools I need to achieve my goals with women. In my opinion, this is true natural game, ie this is probably the way actual naturals go about seducing women.

* How far ahead did Drills push my game?
Its hard to say how far ahead in terms of time Drills put me, because I have no idea if I would EVER have the same perception I do about game if I did not take the bootcamp.

*How does it do this?
Focus, State, Expression (FSE) – Techniques and routines give me an internal focus (“what do I say” “what do I do next”). By changing my focus to her and then relaxing I can get into the state of a natural seducer. State should be happy, calm and dominant. Expression is simply being able to convey your emotions & communications. Simple, huh? Thats what the drills are for, to retrain your mind to think this automatically and build automated responses. I am not suddenly a great natural seducer. By I am confident that I am on my way and that with time and practice, I can achieve my goals.

*So what REALLY changed?
The immediate change after the workshop was in my presence. It became calm, warm and dominant. Since it has been a few weeks, I can feel the presence start to fade here and there, but I understand what it should be (Brian's presence is a great example) so I can continue to build on the start that I made during Drills.

Also, my eye contact is very powerful now. It gets me into sets based on that alone. Its part of non-verbal communication that women understand well. I can express that I am a dominant man through my eye contact. And a dominant man that is all women really want anyway.

*Who is this for? What skill level?
Ive been in the community for almost 2 years. I have taken 2 (small name) workshops, improv classes, improved my voice, my look, my physicque and learned to express my naturally open and fun vibe, learned good inner game and read just about everything the community has to offer. All this and yet I wasnt having the success with women that I thought I would have.

Having all this experience helped a lot, but it also hurt. I learned so much theory that everything seemed to contradict itself. I knew every reason why something wouldnt work so it stalled my game. On the other hand, I got past AA (or at least caring about AA) and have cultivated a fun vibe (but not sexy) so I was coming in with some of the fundamentals.

I can say that coming to Drill with experience is very helpful because you wont have to deal with AA when you are in the field and can just get into set and have the instructors coach you.
However, I think that if you are a newbie, you should take this bootcamp because it will get you off on the right foot. There is so much crap out there that it is so difficult to make sense of it. This will give you simply what you need to know and not much else.

Note on AA: There were quite a few guys who had AA as a SP in my bootcamp. One in particular (Pickup Professor) has been able to move past this significantly as we have been getting together weekly to sarge. He has developed balls in the field while keeping a sincere and real personality. I cant speak for the others. Basically there is no magic bullet for AA in my opinion. I think it is a natural part of being human and it will always be there to some degree. The trick is not to make it go away but to be able to act despite it. That take practice and just doing it. There is no secret to make it go away. Just have balls.

Brian and Vin are trying to make this as simple as possible. “Its about taking away, not adding on” is what Brian taught us. Its a powerful concept: can you be the REAL you in front of a woman?

If you are intermediate (like me), I can highly recommend it and say it will bump your game up significantly. It weird, but its hard to compare to my game before because I look at things in a new way – the old paradigm was that I had to put work/effort into a pu. Now the paradigm says that it is easy and natural. Even if it is a challenge, the frame is that it is easy. The second you stop believing it is easy is the moment you lose it – so the real challenge is inside – can I remain calm? So long as you keep your Focus external, everything feels easy and natural.

If you are advanced, I think this will also help because you are probably relying too much on technique. Drills should make things a lot easier and much less work. However, keep in mind that this is a new paradigm for game, so you will have to let go of many of the ideas you currently have on the game.

*Drills 1.0 vs Drills 2.0
I have a friend who took Drills 1.0 and we have been able to compare our experiences. It may sound weird, but Drills 2.0 actually teaches much less technique. I think the idea is that technique is basically a distraction from the present mind state that is required for pickup. Strip away things not add. This is the latest thinking on natural game. In place of technique, I think the instructors are being more in tuned to your authenticity during the drills. How is your focus, state and expression? Having that be clean and true is more central to your core as a person, a man and a pua and thus more powerful than learning technique. Drills 2.0 is more focused on building this core presence I think. Techniques are reserved for the key transition moments (closing, changing venue, etc.)

This is one of the most impressive things about the DiCarlo team. I know that they know just about all the theory out there yet the weekend is noticeably lacking in the community jargon. Not that they make a point to be anti-community or anything, its just that they are working on your core, and many of the standard theories simply dont apply. Yet they were able to address all my questions relating to my understanding of the game (“what about SOI-ing?” “What about AMOGS, LMR..”) They understand all of this but are able to explain it in a very natural and non jargon-y way.

[yeayea]

its in japanese i cant read your reply