I found out about The Art of First Dates course from the YouTube channel of the same name, which Alex Forrest operates, having read his books, ‘Too Late Mate’ and ’52 First Dates’. I had also watched a lot of videos by Tim Powers (who is one of the coaches) on his channel, ‘Divorce to Dates’.
Before attending, I had done some self-directed day game myself, but my progress was slow. Achieving quite basic milestones like going up to women and making simple direct compliments (without even trying to start a conversation) was anxiety-inducing. I had been trying to learn all this on my own without expert guidance. It was a bit like reading a book about learning to swim or play golf etc. The theory all makes perfect sense, but actually doing it for real, on your own is a very different experience.
I wondered if I was being delusional, entertaining ideas of dating women by approaching in the daytime. Achieving mastery seemed like an impossible fantasy and I speculated that these aspirations were perhaps just symptoms of some kind of mid-life crisis. Nonetheless, other options like online dating, social circle etc. had proven to be horrific or incredibly slow and a minefield of social faux-pas on the one hand or friendzone risks on the other.
I had the instinct that day game was the glitch in the matrix. While it was going to be tough to learn, I owed it to myself to not only persevere, but find some genuine experts who could help me optimise my game so I could start to get some credible results.
I took a leap of faith and signed up. The week before we were due to convene in Warsaw, Alex sent everyone an email with the details of the course outline. He advised us all to expect to get dates and to make plans to find good date venues. Initially, I thought this might be a bit ambitious, so I took this with a pinch of salt. If I could extend my conversations and maybe get numbers, I felt that would be a good outcome. As I will explain later, I got far more than I bargained for.
I flew over to Warsaw and upon arrival, I noticed that the volume of attractive women was far higher than the city I was living in; they were everywhere. We met up for an initial introductory chat. The coaches: Alex, Tim and Jon Matrix seemed like decent guys, as did the other students on the course. There were no big egos, everyone was straightforward, friendly and easy-going.
On the first day, we did a short theory session on the day game model in a café. I had read about the model and seen it mentioned on YouTube videos, books etc. The coaches explained that the model was a simple structure which you could use as training wheels to get through the main stages of an interaction. With that covered, we got straight out onto the streets of Warsaw to approach girls. We went out with two students per coach. We were given a discrete wireless microphone, the coach and the other student were both able to listen to our interactions.
I was with Jon on the first day. He was very calm, cool and extremely efficient. When I made mistakes (and I made many) he succinctly pointed out what I had done right and wrong, then gave me some guidance about how to improve. Lots of things dropped into place in just the first few hours. The theory now made sense. A sticking point for me previously was not being challenging and teasing. I realised that in the past I had been trying to perfect this aspect and worrying about thinking up something clever or witty. That was less important, what was more critical was that I simply did it.
Although most women in Warsaw speak some English, I realised a lot of the time, they didn’t understand the finer details of what I was talking about, it was the vibe, smiling and energy which they picked up on. Your vibe transcends language and women universally feel it, irrespective of where they are from. Although obvious in retrospect, this was quite a revelation to me.
In the evening of the first day, we got some guidance from the style expert, Anna. The point was made that style could level you up and increase your attractiveness. Given that this was a relatively easy factor to address, I could see that this was something I should investigate and I signed up for Anna’s services.
The following day, Tim was assigned as my coach. His energy and style was different to Jon. He was more free-flowing and light-hearted. Although his style was not the same, he also had a very in-depth and comprehensive understanding of the approach model. Like Jon, Tim also picked up many different areas where I could improve and gave me clear guidance on exactly how to do it. I listened to his advice and got better when I did what he said.
As well as the approach model, we were also taught about texting and given a framework with some examples that we could use. As the course progressed, this proved to be useful as I had started to accumulate a small collection of numbers – and they were replying to my initial texts (which hadn’t happened to me before the course). Tim adeptly guided me through the process of leading the text interactions and ensured I avoided the traps which beginners can get into when it comes to texting women to set up dates.
On the final day of coaching, Alex, Tim and Jon gave us a short overview of how to run dates together with a list of practical tips and advice. As with the texting advice, this proved to be prescient, because one of my leads had come through and I had a date lined up!
After the formal course ended, I got some introductions to past students and was also able to go out with them and other attendees on my course also. This further cemented my knowledge and I garnered more numbers and a further date. I hadn’t expected to get this far, now I had numbers, extended text conversations and dates. All of them with very attractive and interesting women.
Everything the Art of First Dates course was advertised to be is accurate. There is no spin or flannel. Not only has it delivered in every way I had hoped it would, it has surpassed my original expectations. There is some essential theory taught on the course, but it comprises about 10%. Most of the time students are out doing actual approaches on the streets or in shopping malls.
The contrast between the two coaches was a unique feature of the course. Both had complimentary but unique styles and clearly possessed a huge amount of experience. Underpinning it all is the model, which I have a far more complete understanding of than I did when I tried to learn this by myself.
Alex skilfully managed the overall delivery of the coaching. It was well-organised – but not over-bearing. He treats everyone like an adult and the emphasis is on supporting each student’s relative strengths. You get out of this course what you put in; if you are committed and follow the clear guidance offered, you will get results.
If your dating life isn’t delivering for you right now and you think day game could offer a potentially unexplored opportunity to improve it, you owe it to yourself to sign up for The Art of First Dates course. My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner.
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