Bottom line up front, if anyone is considering taking a bootcamp, do it now. Drop the money and change your life. Allow yourself to be a man. I had an AWESOME time at the Chicago bootcamp, and here are some of things I learned:

1) Kill your inner “nice guy” and take your balls back. I watched an instructor effectively deal with an attractive, but difficult girl by simply saying “you’re high-maintenance”. He wasn’t being mean, he stated it more as a matter of fact. Watching the girl change from empowered fema-nazi to visibly showing an expression of something like “I hate this guy, but I’m strangely attracted to him” was priceless. You can’t learn that in a book. Powerful emotions and attraction are the stuff rockstar sex is made of.

2) The only way to get chicks is to get chicks. This may sound like a statement of the obvious, but no amount of listening to CDs, watching videos or reading books is going to bring any women into your life. I graduated from the Army’s parachuting school and rock climb for fun, but the first night in the bar I was literally frozen with fear. It took the instructors literally throwing me into sets until my approach anxiety wore off. Think about it, if you didn’t know how to ski, you wouldn’t read a book and then throw yourself down a mountain. No, you’d hire and instructor for the weekend to teach you enough to get you up and running. The next weekend you’re out having fun doing it on your own with your friends. Same principle here.

3) While I was standing in line at Subway on Sunday getting some breakfast, I had the realization that I could talk to the hot chick standing next to me. No more looking at girls from afar wondering how I was going to get one. I am now equipped to talk to girls wherever I find myself.

I was really impressed with all of the instructors: Future, Starlight, Squire and Helicase. Future is an amazing lead instructor. Juggernaut, the approach coach, really went the extra mile with a few of us in an after hours bar both nights. Outside of being cool guys, hilarious and good at their jobs, they’re all fairly intelligent too. I’d like to tell them all thanks. With their help, by Saturday night I was in the bar not as a spectator, but as a participant. I came off the bench and am now in the game.

(Some not-too-important background info)

I listed my 2010 goals way back in mid-November, 2009. One of my main goals is "get better with women." To start myself on that path, I registered for the Chicago bootcamp back in December. (One of my other goals is to spend less money...but I had figured this would be worth the value.)

I'd read through Magic Bullets, the Routines manuals, read & watched a number of pick-up related material over the past year or so, but I never did the most important thing---going out.

I don't drink (alcohol just tastes bad, no "moral opposition" or anything like that). I also don't feel very comfortable in bars or clubs. Like, at all. Like, I'd rather be...pretty much anywhere else. Funerals are like Disneyland to me compared to nightclubs.

Anyway, I reviewed a little bit before the bootcamp & did as much homework as I could once I found out the details. I researched Future (caveat emptor) quite a bit & honestly, once I found out his real name and did some snooping, I watched some stuff and thought "Man, I really, REALLY hope he's better at teaching pick-up than he is at ____."

(Actual review)

He is. Holy shit he is.

One point that he made completely clear at the beginning was "This shit works. If not, it's you." I cannot. CANNOT. CANNOT!!! Emphasize the truth of this enough. "THIS SHIT DOES FUCKING WORK!"

Legitimacy test #1: Can the instructors do it? Yes they can. Future has game. Starlight has game. Helicase has game. The approach coaches (Squire, Juggernaut, & ____) have game.

Legitimacy test #2: If I do what the instructors say, does it work? Yes it does. When I opened at the right energy level, locked in, touched, transitioned, and teased, my interactions went really well. Really well.

Seminar day 1 was good. Future went through the basics of the Triad model. What it is, why it works, etc. We did some in-class exercises which were cool.

In-Field day 1 was incredible. I opened a fuckton of sets. Holy shit. I'm pretty sure I opened more sets that night than I had in like, the rest of my life up until then. I got blown out a LOT. I felt extremely uncomfortable, but I kept trying to have a positive attitude. And that worked. The first venue was loud. The second venue was loud. The third venue was loud. I didn't like any of them. They're not "my type of place." And that's why I'm so glad we practiced there. If our in-field had been "Go open sets while playing Ultimate frisbee," I would have been like "Oh, of course this works, Ultimate is badass and I'm comfortable here." But no, I opened like 50 sets in one night in the most stressful, uptight situation I could be in. My upper back was literally tightening and knotting up at the seminar & at the in-field venues. I was that uncomfortable (my masseuse is going to have a lot of work to do tomorrow).

I got home at 4 AM (in-field went until 2, but then approach couch Juggernaut took a few of us out to an after-hours venue. "Mad props" to Juggernaut for going above-and-beyond and really helping me out a TON all weekend). As suggested, I wrote down everything I could remember about the night. My night looked SO, SO much better in retrospect. It was like, "Oh wow, that actually went really well, I probably could have gotten numbers from her, her, her...Oh wow, this is where I fucked up, I should have ____. Oh, yeah, in this case, I should have ____. Oh wow..." I wrote out seven fucking pages of notes from interactions that night. And then I went over them again the next morning and added in even more insight.

24 hours before I wouldn't have been able to do that. Just walking into any of the venues would have been an immense challenge.

Seminar day 2 was cool. A solid debrief from everyone (9 students). More in-class exercises (a number of which I'm going to be doing much more in-depth at home).

In-field day 2 was at the same first venue from day 1. The venue was slightly more high-energy, and I was totally in the wrong frame of mind. I didn't necessarily FEEL more uncomfortable, but my internal and external dialogues were reinforcing that negative frame (whereas day 1, I was all like "I'm doing fucking awesome!" even though I felt stressed). I got a lot more personal instruction from the three main instructors on day 2. As I said before, whenever I listened to them & followed the model, things worked. I wound up opening 25 sets ("probably more than I opened my entire three years at college"). I danced with three different girls (two at once, which, to steal an analogy from another student, was "kind of like making Thanksgiving dinner without any help").

Throughout the bootcamp, the instructors badgered us for reviews. I figured I'd throw that in. I was explicitly asked on multiple occasions to post a review. However, I will say that I was told to do an HONEST review, and post what ACTUALLY happened. Which I'm doing.

I would say that things could have been organized better. Instructors (not Future) were in/out a lot during the seminar portions. There was a last-minute venue change for the seminar (which was handled very, very well I thought, with emails and personal calls from Future). The seminar notes handed out are pretty good, but the real value is going to come from my notes. "Break your wrist taking notes" is some of the best advice given. Also, closing the door to the seminar room was often an afterthought. "WHO WANTS TO GET PREGNANT?!?!" *oh shit face* I personally found those moments hilarious, but it might not be everyone's cup of tea.

To steal / adapt another analogy, this stuff was "like cheat codes to video games" (credit: Juggernaut). I would say it's more like a walkthrough to an RPG. There's going to be some randomness. There are going to be a lot of options. You can do this, or that, or this, or go out of order a bit sometimes. But if you follow the plan, you'll get to where you want to be. And that's the most powerful thing I'm taking away from this experience:

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BECAUSE I AM GOING TO FOLLOW THE PLAN OUTLINED, FOLLOW THE TRIAD MODEL, GO OUT AND DO THE APPROACHES, USE THE TOOLS GIVEN TO ME TO ANALYZE MY GAME MYSELF (& GET ADVICE FROM OTHERS IN THE LOUNGE), I AM COMPLETELY FUCKING CONFIDENT THAT I WILL IMPROVE MY GAME ENOUGH TO ACHIEVE ALL MY GOALS WITH WOMEN (which, at the moment, are threesomes with gorgeous, intelligent, athletic blondes)
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I have a long road ahead of me. I'm not over my sense of unease at bars and nightclubs. And that's why I'm going to be practicing THERE primarily. Because once I can be comfortable & confident there, I'll be able to fucking kill it ANYWHERE I want.

Shit I have a long road ahead of me...The first 1000 sets are just practice (and that's the easy part...).

Would I recommend a bootcamp? Yes, if you're going to get something out of it. If you're open-minded and are willing to do the exercises, break out of your comfort zone, and get put on the PATH to changing your OWN life. They're not going to change your life for you. If you're not that type of guy, save your money. If you're the type of guy who can read something like Magic Bullets & then motivate yourself to go out 3 nights / week & just do sets & analyze yourself, then you probably don't NEED to spend the money on this. It will SURELY improve your game (at least, with Future instructing), but it's a big investment. For me, I'd say the bootcamp's value is much more than a big fucking TV, but I don't watch much TV.

I'll close out with some memorable quotes:
"Two 5's make a 10."
"You haven't lived until you've gone to brown town."
"You went to the bathroom without a drink. You came out with a Bud Light, saying you got it 'Off the shelf.' It was cold & full, though."

And the one I wrote on the front of my notebook (which kind of made it awkward to carry my notebook in public):
"All women want me to do well (& if not, they can cockpunch themselves and go home)."

Post-Script: There was a lot of shit we were explicitly told NOT to put in the review. I respect that. I hope everyone respects that. I'm not sure how often that kind of thing gets said & respected, but keep that in mind. Not everything you read in the reviews is everything that is taught.

I've been the stereotypical, introverted, nice guy most of my life. After many frustrated years of never being able to keep women attracted, I've finally come to the realization that they want a man, not a pussy, and I decided to do something about it. So I bit the bullet and signed up for a bootcamp.

It was definitely an incredible, eye-opening experience for me. Future's hilarious and an awesome instructor. I got the feeling that he was really there for us. Quote: "My mission is to get you laid". During the in-field portion, I was totally scared shitless at first, but mad props to Future, Starlight, Helicase, and Juggernaut for continuously pushing me to approach set after set. Especially Starlight - one of most encouraging, caring, and coolest people I've met. In the first night I'd approached more women than I've ever in my entire life. More importantly, I got them talking, laughing, and touching me, something I'd never thought possible for me in a club or bar.

Suggestions for improvement:
- More demos on transitioning and attraction routines
- Sometimes it was difficult to hear what the instructors were saying to women during the in-field demos, but I guess that's the nature of some venues

Here's my takeaway: the bootcamp taught me that I really do have the potential to attract beautiful women. I have a ways to go, but If I go out there, work hard, and continuously practice the material, I WILL get good. If you're considering doing one, I highly recommend it.