Thread: Sheriff & Mr M Bootcamp - NYC, Nov 2007 (With Braddock, Big Business, & Kisser)

What an amazing weekend...my head is still spinning. I have a lot to say and I wanted to get it all off my chest before I forget.

Going In
If you decide to take a bootcamp , I HIGHLY recommend studying Magic Bullets first. Since these workshops are pretty expensive and fly by quickly, you owe it to yourself to prepare as much as possible ahead of time. Prior to the bootcamp go out and open at least 10 sets, and expect to get completely blown out. It happened to me. It was horrible and intimidating at first, but I got completely over my approach anxiety . You need to get it IMPRINTED in your brain that rejection is NOT the end of the world...and the only way to do that is to have it happen enough times that you become desensitized (rationalizing doesn't help much). TRUST ME, you will make much more progress during the bootcamp if you do this. If you're a newbie and want some basic advice on what I recommend for preparation feel free to PM me.

Classroom
During the daytime sessions I took notes like crazy. I'd read Magic Bullets ahead of time so most of the emotional progression model stuff wasn't new, but talking through specific types of interactions was invaluable. Braddock (who is an absolute GENIUS when it comes to routines) unleashed his ADD-fueled brain on us, and I found myself again and again absolutely amazed at the dozens of sample routines he threw at us. All of these guys were extremely generous with material, and I can guarantee you it is not stuff you'll find online (don't ask me for it either).

My main suggestion for TMM is to provide a free copy of Magic Bullets to students prior to the bootcamp , and expect them to at least read through it once. It costs nothing to throw the ebook in for free, and it really helps jumpstart things. I would've liked to spend at least an hour practicing openers and transitions, but because of all the other things we had to cover 20 minutes was all we were able to allocate. IMO the basics of TMM and the emotional progression model , although critical, can be learned from the ebook. But maybe I'm being a little harsh here...after all, I'm the type of person who enjoys self study.

Night Life
Mr and and Sheriff (the main instructors) brought along a whole crew of junior instructors and former students, and at no point did I ever feel like I wasn't getting enough personalized coaching. If I got blown out of a set, I'd walk right up to one of them and get the full rundown of what I did wrong (or they'd whisper it to me in-set, which didn't upset the girls at all). I have to admit that I was anxious about walking into a club with 16 other PUAs (most bars don't even have that many girls in them), but the venue selection was good. The bars were sufficiently big, and although Friday night was a bit slow, Saturday night there was no shortage of attractive women to approach. If you're concerned about using the same material as other guys in the bar or being called out on being a pickup artist, don't be...you'll receive enough material that it generally isn't a problem, and if it does happen there are ways to reframe it in your favor (it's only awkward if you make it). At one point I decided to try a new opener, got blown out, and a friend successfully opened the same set with the same opener 10 minutes later!

The Instructors

Each instructor has his own style (as should you), but they are all experts in the art of PU and you will learn something valuable from each of them. I've seen all of them in set and can attest to their abilities as PUAs. They walk the walk.

Although they demoed enough to prove it, they usually saved their sarging for after the official in-field time was over. This allowed them to give us their full attention when we needed it, but by sticking around later on I got to see the masters at work.

Sheriff - This guy is a great teacher. He will make you think by guiding your thoughs in the form of a question, like "In that situation, what would make you lose value to her?". Using this approach, he forces you to discover things by connecting the dots yourself...and it's effective. As Friday night started he grabbed me and said "We're gonna get you opening sets", and that's exactly what he did. He forced me in and told me not to leave until I reached certain milestones. It was brutal at first, but I progressed rapidly and I was glad he did it. (Sheriff , don't worry...I didn't point to you when I ran that particularly shocking opener)

Mr M - I was really able to identify with Mr M . He has this way of making you feel good about yourself, and it is extremely motivating. Mr M , above all, gives you hope that you can do this. I can't explain how powerful this is. Aside from that, he's also a great classroom teacher.

Braddock - Like I said before, Braddock is a routine NINJA. He might not be quite as far along as Mr M or Sheriff , but he's extremely creative and impossibly charismatic. Although he has a little too much trouble channeling his energy to be a classroom instructor, he was invaluable in the field, both as a wing and as a coach giving me advice on how to calibrate.

Ben M, Scott R, & Big Business - All former students who attended the bootcamp to help out (if one of you is an official instructor my bad). These guys didn't lead the bootcamp , but they were always around to give excellent advice when the main instructors weren't available, and the weekend wouldn't have been the same without them. Thanks guys, you never steered me wrong.

I also want to thank Jeremy at the TMM office for taking the time to explain a little bit more about the bootcamp and get past my anxiety about what to expect.

Where I'm at today
I began the workshop unafraid of approaching , but unable to open sets successfully. By the end of the first night I was opening set after set, although I had trouble isolating. After being at the club for less than an hour on Saturday night, I had already isolated three times and number closed twice. The rest of the night I spent experimenting, to mixed success, but I learned by leaps and bounds. My confidence is through the roof, and I'm now trying to figure out what it will take to make this a permanent lifestyle change. My new friends, the other bootcamp attendees, will hopefully play a big part in keeping me motivated to improve my game.

Most of the things I learned this weekend cannot be learned from a book. If you really want to step up your game, shell out the money and MAKE A COMMITMENT to yourself that you're going to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to become successful with women. If you are prepared to do this, I guarantee you the bootcamp will make a MAJOR impact on your game.

~TheLion (because I'm a Leo and kinda look like one)

This is the definitive work on pickup and dating theory, written by an acknowledged master of the game - a guy who’s TRAINED many of the new “gurus” on the scene!

Who wants to change their abilities with women and dating FOREVER?

Thanks for such an in-depth review, TheLion. I've been thinking about doing a workshop for awhile now, and almost registered for this one. I agree, it costs nothing to give a free copy of the Venusian Arts Handbook or Magic Bullets , and considering the price of a workshop I'm a little offended that it isn't included. They should have a whole kit prepared for you. At any rate, since the instructors have very little time to impart a lot of knowledge, and (again) considering how much one comes out-of-pocket for one of these workshops , it's only stupid not to prepare as much as possible to insure that you get the most out of it.

Personally, I've been sarging for a total of about 6 months (over the course of the past year and a half), and only now do I feel that I'd really get the most out of a workshop . I'd say do more than just read MB and open some sets. Get out there sarging. Make mistakes. Learn what it's like to fail. Learn what it's like to succeed. Get intimately acquainted with the process. Get practice using material. Etc.

This is the definitive work on pickup and dating theory, written by an acknowledged master of the game - a guy who’s TRAINED many of the new “gurus” on the scene!

I strongly suggest that anyone thinking about taking a Boot Camp read Magic Bulllets thru and study it thoroughly beforehand. If you don't, it will be tough to get your moneys worth. There is too much to go over and you want it to be a refresher, not something new (and taking notes).

The sarging idea is also a very wise idea. OPEN SETS The Boot should be to help your game if money is a consideration. Get a more experienced PUA to help you and then go to Boot to polish your Game. IMHO

Including Magic Bullets with the Boot Camp is a good idea. I personally feel that there should have been printed material covering the Syllabus for the BC. I was disappointed that there was no printed material...

The BC was good otherwise.

SwingDude

This is the definitive work on pickup and dating theory, written by an acknowledged master of the game - a guy who’s TRAINED many of the new “gurus” on the scene!

Who wants to change their abilities with women and dating FOREVER?

FYI: Sheriff includes a vast amount of printed materials at all of his bootcamps . Plus, he continuously refines the material that he hands out to students at each new bootcamp . Truly wonderful stuff in his printed materials.

Who wants to change their abilities with women and dating FOREVER?

"I can guarantee you it is not stuff you'll find online (don't ask me for it either)." LOL I love this quote.

You guys did great. This is one of the best bootcamps I've been apart of. All the students were cool guys and it seemed liked the meshed with each other extremely quickly. I've never been to a bootcamp where this many of the students made such noticable changes from Friday to Sunday. The guys I saw walking in on Sunday with their head up high, beaming wich confidence were not the same guys I met on Friday. That is my favorite part of this job. But the truth is that while the instructors do help the students make deep changes it all comes back to the students. You can walk a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You guys grabbed the bull by the horns and kicked some ass. I've seen some great stuff happen on bootcamps , but I can honestly say I've never seen that many of the guys change so much in 3 days. Props fellas!!!

I must also say that I witnessed some of the best game I've ever seen in my life. I live with like 3 naturals who have pretty sick game, but I personally witnessed Mr. M paint a pickup masterpiece. He day gamed a fucking 10 and then after bootcamp on saturday he and I went on a day 2 with her and her friend. He ran perfect game on her. I roomed with Mr. M and we talked about how running game on 10's is an art form. Well if it's an art then he is Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. Accept he is Asian instead of Italian.

This was my first time to see Sheriff in seminar and it was really good. He is really professional, entertaining, and skillful. I really enjoyed his teaching style. Not only does he give them tons of useful information, he teaches the material in a way that forces them to understand why each step of the model works, which I think is extremely important. This game is not static and you must be able to adapt on the fly. If you just memorize a shtload of lines but don't know how or why they work then you are at an extreme disadvantage. Nobody who takes one of Sheriff 's seminars will walk away confused about how each step of the model works.

Had a blast! Keep in touch fellas. That is one of the most fun bootcamps I've ever been apart of.

Stay in touch.

Holla

Braddock

Who wants to change their abilities with women and dating FOREVER?

This can't be normal. Or is it?

For the past 4 nights I've been literally dreaming about pickup all night. I approach sets, run openers, transition, etc. Most of the time I get blown out, but each time I figure out what I did wrong. I am scared to mention this here because I don't want it to stop, but I'm also curious if it has ever happened to anyone else.

Did I mention that my dream-training is all subconscious and the scenarios are realistic but completely random? I have no idea how it happened, but it's maddening...practice without practice. Each morning I wake up impossibly tired, but I feel like I accomplished something. It's becoming more and more like a video game for me, which is both really cool (video games are beatable) and scary (will i lose some of my appreciation for the game after a while? nah, probably not...as long as there are HB10s around..)

Thanks again for helping to kick start this process. This is the true power of the bootcamp : motivation and drive...another thing you can't get from a book. I'm going sarging tonight with some of the other students and can't wait to see if my dream-practice helps at all.

Kisser is right; Sheriff does provide about 50 pages of supplemental material that is beyond the scope of Magic Bullets (like the rules of winging and DaHunter 's text/sms strategy). It's unique and well put together and great for review, but it's more of a cheat sheet for the weekend than a "foundations of pickup" guide (and you don't get it until the weekend starts). Regardless, thanks for putting this together Sheriff . I used much of it over the weekend.

~TheLion

This is the definitive work on pickup and dating theory, written by an acknowledged master of the game - a guy who’s TRAINED many of the new “gurus” on the scene!

Who wants to change their abilities with women and dating FOREVER?

Originally Posted by TheLion

For the past 4 nights I've been literally dreaming about pickup all night. I approach sets, run openers, transition, etc. Most of the time I get blown out, but each time I figure out what I did wrong. I am scared to mention this here because I don't want it to stop, but I'm also curious if it has ever happened to anyone else.

Normal? I dunno. But it happens to me too, when I'm making some kind of progress in my game, or getting over a sticking point. I used to get this when I did martial arts too.

Make sure you're backing up all this awesome learning with Actually Talking To Real Girls ;-)

Glad you guys had a blast!

-P

This was a great bootcamp .
Something that isn't really pushed in the marketing material, and really stood out for me, is how ridiculously FUN it is. TMM is (from my point of view) not just about picking up women. It's about HAVING FUN picking up women.

Other insights:

-Sheriff indirectly revealed to me an important secret. It doesn't really matter what you say in your opener. As TheLion mentioned, I opened a 3-set with the exact same opener he used, a few minutes after he was blown out with it. And it was a RETARDED opener (thanks again, Sheriff , for that retarded opener).

-Mr M has mind-opening ideas about social proof.

-Braddock has some hysterically brilliant winging powers and also knows how to bring the party.

-Mr M and Braddock both had really worthwhile advice about building social circles.

-All of the instructors understand the game and demonstrate how completely usable these skills are for anybody.

I also read Magic Bullets before taking the bootcamp and, from a pedagogical perspective, it would absolutely help everyone to have access to that material ahead of time. The company should definitely consider including it with the bootcamps .

A big thanks to Sheriff , Mr M , Braddock , Big Business , Magic, & Kisser.

This is the definitive work on pickup and dating theory, written by an acknowledged master of the game - a guy who’s TRAINED many of the new “gurus” on the scene!

Who wants to change their abilities with women and dating FOREVER?

I'll make one more comment about openers, from what I learned this weekend.

Using the same retarded opener, I opened a 2-set. My wing came over, helping me isolate the target (HB8). Later the wing told me that the obstacle said, "Your friend has the worst pick up line."

This was incredibly revealing to me because, in fact, it may be the worst pick-up line. And yet, I had HB8 in isolation for 20 minutes.

Fantastic bootcamp .

Who wants to change their abilities with women and dating FOREVER?

I had heard the phrase, "Practice makes permanent," and took it to heart. So instead of trying to absorb as much material as I could before the boot camp , I tried to forget as much material as I could before the boot camp . This way, I could build knowledge from a solid foundation from the masters (so the theory goes, anyway).

Whether this strategy improved my game or not, I don't know. I did, however, improve a shitload from when I first entered the room. This post is to meant to demonstrate that whether you prepare for the boot camp or not, you WILL be a changed person.

Day 1:
Sheriff asked some obvious questions with some obvious answers, or so we think. He then demonstrates and explains how some of our natural instinct is wrong when it comes to social interactions. He goes through a quick outline of the course, talks about different types of openers and when and how to use them. Several live demonstrations of body language , positioning yourself, locking into a set, and others are performed throughout, which makes what is being demonstrated extremely clear.

We separate into groups of four and practice opening each other, which was a unnerving even with just a bunch of guys. After each attempt Sheriff stops us and tells us what to improve upon. ("Speak too slow and too loud." "Okay, a little faster and that's perfect.") I was still green, but at least I was given constructive criticism by the instructor instead of just shut down by girls.

Toward the end we created a cheat sheet to help us through the night, for those of us who get further than the material that was taught today.

Night 1:
Scott sends me to a tightly knit 3-set who blows me off immediately. Surprisingly, I felt nothing. I was not relieved, I was not destroyed, I was just a bit disappointed that it was over so soon. Of course, it helped that Scott chose a group that I was uninterested in in the first place, thereby lessening the impact. Scott tries to open the group but gets shut down as well, although not as quickly as I did. We learn that the group had already been opened with the very line we used, so Scott comes up with a plan: keep using the same opener, to see what happens! He sends another student to open with that same line, he stays in there slightly longer than me. He sends a third student to open, and this time he stays quite a long time! As we watch the girls' reactions, Scott explains how this ridiculous scenario is slowly opening up the girls.

I open and wing a few sets (winging is so easy!), until I wing Scott for a 2-set and find myself isolated with this hot girl for about 45 minutes. We kept talking, the girl was clearly interested in me, but I had not memorized all the material yet (yes, maybe at this point preparing for the boot camp would have been useful) so I just kept talking and talking. Scott eventually finds me, DHVs me a bit, and leaves with, "I'm going to look for my friend Kino . I'll be back in two minutes, after I find Kino . Remember, Kino ."

At that stage I had no idea how to kino , so I fumbled a little touching of her elbow at various points, but eventually decided to stop trying to drag this conversation on and ejected, much to everyone's dismay. ("What happened? She was so into you!") Yes, I could have continued the talking for quite a while, but I was getting bored which probably meant she was as well.

I was a bit disappointed that I had spent all that time with this girl, since I really wanted to work on my opening some more. The other instructors who saw me assured me that it was a good thing that I was able to stay in set for so long, but since I wanted to improve they said they would assure that I open a ton the second night.

Unfortunately I have to sleep now, so Day 2 will have to wait.

Who wants to change their abilities with women and dating FOREVER?