I'm not sure what sparked me to add this this post but you and I seem to be at the same point of the journey Relentless.

As with you, all I care about is approach. I suffer from a high amount of AA at the start of the night and this is something I'm really working on.

From my point of view, approaching is a little journey. Within those 30 seconds you have to with a massive amount of emotions and anxiety. Also, your brain is in overdrive! The 'Thoughts-per-minute' gauge goes through the roof! i.e. '"Right I'm going to approach", "God! what's stopping me from approaching", "okay! okay! think 3-second rule ... Go!", "Man I hope I don't funk this up", "Which one should I speak to first!", "What am I going to say?", "God! I bet they can sense me walking up to them", "SHIT, they've noticed me... Quick! say something... argh!"

Me: "Hello!..."

All that to say funking HELLO!

But I'm slowly working up a plan to help me build up my confidence and increase my social value (talking to loads of people).

So from what I've worked out, there are 3 kinds of opening. Each with a different difficulty level!

1. The obvious 'see a set, then move to them' - I find this one the hardest at the moment. I get increasingly subconscious as I stroll up to the group and go 'Hey.. blah yak blah'. Rejection usually means you have to move on off... which is highly visible - you can usually spot a guy getting blow out from a 100 meters away! That little 'journey' makes these approaches hard for someone with AA.

2. The situational (usually none moving) - at the bar, girl spills content of her bag, girl waiting outside of the toilet; Easier than approaching. Your both are in each others proximity for a short period of time. You usually don't have to move and usually just have to get her attention to open. But this type of open requires you to think on your feet (usually against a time limit) and to say something half decent to get her attention.

3. The walk-by's - This technique I used when I was feeling a load of AA or the feel like the club is too busy to move. I have girls approach me! I stand in a position where people are walking by. I just stand there and for every girl that walks past I say "Hello, how do doing?" (not in a Joey fashion!) - I don't have to think... I just speak! AA doesn't come into play cos all I'm doing is saying hi! And taking advantage of any interest I get to open up more. Right, so, uuuuussuualllly you're not going to pick up hot girls like this but you're most likely pick up the friendly ones! Also rejections are relatively undetectable. There's a BIG rejection difference from walking up to a 3 set, getting blown out and having to walk way than just saying hello to someone and getting at the very least a pleasant smile back. This is the way I opened up the 2 set that helped CO (or is it OO now?) a k-close on Sat.

So thats what I do to build myself up.

I can't remember who said it to me on Saturday night in Manchester but they mentioned Social Momentum; I'm starting off small... then work my way up to the harder approaches.