Monday, March 2, 2015

Guest Post: An Honest Beckster PUA Bootcamp Review

I was recently contacted by J. who asked me to publish the review below, in order to spread awareness of the conduct of a professional PUA coach named Beckster. I vaguely remember that he's active in the London scene, probably a mid-tier guy. Since there aren't many authentic PUA bootcamp reviews available online, I agreed to do my share to rectify this situation.

This is going to be an honest review of the Beckster PUA bootcamp that I attended a few months ago in London.  Just a bit about my current position and experience. I've been doing a lot of reading for a few months now. Only very recently have I gone out in the field. I've done only a few approaches in the daytime and nighttime. What I wanted to get out of the bootcamp was how to get rid of approach anxiety (too often I've seen women at the tube station and in supermarkets and I wished that I had the ability to strike up a conversation with them), how to make my conversation more interesting (I used to be painfully shy - I'm much better now but still shy and my conversations tend to be very straight to the point) and how to sexually escalate (I do not know how to do this especially how I've been fed the crap throughout my life about not viewing women as sex objects). It cost £790 for 2 days.


So we met up for the start of the bootcamp where I was introduced to Beckster and head trainers Tom Harkin, and Bullboy.  They gave us a structure and routines. It actually made me much more nervous because they didn’t give us nothing except some well known routines. Bullboy’s also talks on, escalation and day 2’s. After this we met Mark who is an actor who was there to teach us about speech, body posture and vocal tonality.  He was just making us shout like idiots outside while everyone was watching us. It was embarrassing.

We then had night game! Anyway, the group headed off to our night game venue (it seemed to be populated by wannabee puas) [Note: Do they still take guys out to Tiger Tiger? -- A.S.]. We had split into twos and threes and went around the club with our coaches. Tom gave me and my wing an (somewhat humorous) opening line/routine to use. I was not confident of using this because I didn't think it was that funny or appropriate. I saw Tom open twice and get rejected.

He then showed me some sets and told me approach (although my wingman went into the set with me, he seemed to act independently from me). I tried using Becksters routines but I didn't get very far. I had a word with Tom about what to do in which he replied to remember what we have been taught. I then asked him if he could show me again how to approach and engage a set and this time do better. He replied by saying he couldn't because he had already approached hundreds of sets the day before. I didn't like his attitude. I don't think he could help me, as for one, his personality is totally different to my personality and I was glad when I moved on to the next coach.

We moved onto Beckster who told us to warm up by opening sets with indirect openers. I had quite a lot of success with this method which increased my confidence a bit. I found the girls very friendly and pleasant - I wasn't expecting this. But honestly, it was no different to the way I open at the social event I usually go to and the interactions are similar as well. He then asked us to go in using his routines. I just got blown away every time I communicated interest.

I then proceeded to asked Bullboy if this was purely a numbers game. His response was duh! Of course this is a numbers game. We asked Bullboy to show us how it is done. He then proceed to grab a girl, spin her around into his arms without saying anything. He got a number but who knows if it would have gone anywhere because I know a number doesn’t mean shit. A guy named Riswan showed to coach us. I told him what happened about approaching with routines. He told us to approach semi direct (saying something like "you are fun and friendly and I had to come and say hello". I would agree that it's better to open something like this then stupid routines asking womens' opinions on a friend who's about to get married with a girl you have known for a month.

With the first girl he approached, he kinoed very quickly and playfully trying to kiss her although he didn't get very far after this because she gave him the backturn. He was also shut down by a few other women. I don’t need  clowns like Rizwan giving me the same type of advise and lines that a friend would give me, I could have just gone to a bar with my friend. After a while we moved onto our next venue which was a strip club. I tried to use Beckster routines on them but they weren’t receptive at all [How did the myth that you could pick up strippers with 'game' get started in the first place? They are there to earn money. -- A.S.].  They kept trying to get me and the other student to get a dance with them. I didn’t see any of the instructors doing any better either cause girls would ask them for a dance too. Becksters qualification routines didn’t work either. At the end of the night I could tell becksters stuff doesn’t work.

On day 2 we met up again to discuss the previous night on what we did right and wrong. After our reflection, Candice discussed our own individual style. She also had us practising dancefloor game (this would have come in handy the day before as we only had daygame today. Really dumb of Beckster to schedule this and not give us the opportunity to practice it). Then we had our day game session. Tom and Bullboy took us out to practice stopping each other in the street, we paired up and practiced on each other. They discussed with us the different types of openers such as direct, indirect, and situational. Tom gave us two methods of stopping a woman (The second method was bizarre).

Now, I stop women a lot to ask for directions in London (I can even get a woman to take out her earphones to give me directions). Tom did provide a structure but his was spiced up with a few cocky lines and tips. First we started with a few warm ups (i.e. asking for directions and then progressing). But after I asked for directions I could not progress the conversation. Then our coach told us to approach direct. He just pointed out women and told us to approach. But whenever I approached directly, I was blown out every time (every time I communicated interest). I got a few "thank you"s and then the women just walked off. Others just walked off (at the very point I said that they were beautiful).

He then gave us an example of what say but it was quite lengthy and difficult to recite (and I also felt what he said would only work in a few limited situations). The blowouts and negative reactions damaged my confidence a lot. I felt that this was not going to work - women just find direct street approaches creepy. I didn’t get any feedback on what to do. I was just told to keep approaching.  At this point I was highly demoralised. I was ready to quit game altogether. Soon after the weekend was winding down. We got a breakdown of our day game session and giving a full overview of the things we had learned and done over the weekend. They pretty much said to use their routine (which didn’t work) and keep approaching. Thats it!

Overall, I was thoroughly disappointed at the bootcamp. I felt that I didn't improve on anything and, if truth be told told, I went backwards. In terms on knowledge - I got very little. Right now, I don't really know where to go from here. After this experience I doubt very much the efficacy of PUA methods so I would advise everyone to not only avoid Beckster, but avoid all other PUA companies as they will all lie to you to take your money.


What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!
(Also, if you’ve got a comment that is off-topic or only tangentially related to this article, then please post in the most recent Open Thread. Thank you.)

10 comments:

  1. A sad, but truthful review.

    I'd say, the basic problems on behalf of the "customers" with seeing PUA-stuff for what it really is, is sexual desperation (which undermines critical faculties in favour of wishful thinking), occasionally coupled with a lack of sound education in logic (what does this tell you about the focus of most education systems?)

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  2. Thinking that you can pick up strippers through "game", generally shows a complete lack of social sense. This is why I think guys who don't have basic social sense, probably shouldn't bother with even dating in the first place.

    I have "picked up" a stripper once, and here were the actual circumstances. I am willing to bet most "stripper" pick ups mirror the broad theme I outline:
    - I was in a strip club in a third world country
    - It was a slow night (weekday night). Other than me and my friend, there was literally no other guy in the strip club. There were probably like 10-12 girls.
    - It was late in the night (around 4am). Almost closing time
    - I was staying in a hotel very close to the strip club

    Due to all this, I had the stripper's undivided attention for something like 1.5 hours, and we had plenty of drinks, and enjoyed plenty of foreplay. At that stage, when the place is about to close, it's just a 5 min walk to the hotel and you guys are already ready to go. A part of her probably thought that she can spend the night in a nice hotel as well.

    A friend of mine went out with a stripper as well a few times, and his thing was that he was a well off guy, who visited this strip club somewhat frequently. He used to spend enough money at the club, and he got along very well with this one girl. They hung out later for a few times, and the expectation was clear on both sides that she hoped to do things which she couldn't because of lack of money, and she would fuck him in return.

    This is how you "pick up" a stripper. Not because of some "game".

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  3. Regarding strippers, the best way of sleeping with one, is when she is not working as a stripper. So you find out about her job after you find out she is attracted to you or selpt with you. Otherwise you need to be rich or famous or have drugs.

    Problem with bootcamps, apart from the ones covered by Aaron, They dont know how to teach or help the student learn the skills that they are teaching. I guess it is due to lack of knowledge in teaching or they do it so they come back for more and buy more products (ie same with free seminars, a taster to get your to buy products).

    But to teach any type of skill, regardless of whether it works or not (Well in this case it does not), is to practise until perfect (with lots of feedback and role playing) and then practice until fluent with out any help (and feedback on how to improve). Any sort of skills bootcamp or learning sessions is not going to optimum or worth it as you will hardly learn anything.

    Think about medical profession, do you think they teach you how to stitch a cut or bandage a wound by explaining the steps or theory behind it and let you out there and do it? No, they get you to practise it.

    Also, if they lecture you on many techniques, but practice none and expect you to perform them all, you are heading to disaster. How can your brain cope with all this new info and methods. You cant, your brain will be overloaded (called cognitive overload). This is why people act all robotic and weird when doing this at first. When methods/skills become automatic (stored in long term memory) it is easier to do, but this will take ages with the amount things to learn in PUA. Yet, the methods are flawed as anyone has used them will look socially out of tune with the environment and girls they talk to.

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  4. "if they lecture you on many techniques, but practice none and expect you to perform them all, you are heading to disaster."

    Sounds like formal education

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  5. I actually thought this was about PUA Willy Beck and that "Becskter" was just a nickname.

    How can a company really "guarantee" that you can pick up strippers? Also, what's so special about picking up a stripper any ways? Most are prostitutes as well. Strippers/prostitutes appeal to me as much as "Toothless Betty the IV drug user".

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  6. This is the worst. I'd feel like a total rube if I spent any money just to learn lines and routines, especially considering the Internet is filled to burst with routines anyway.

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  7. This is from 8 years ago ? Beckster no longer works with these people and I've just done a bootcamp with him which changed my life !

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  8. He done a bootcamp in Dublin and he carried out of Krystle nightclub by his students because he was so drunk. Him and his instructor talked about their plan to get laid yet the only thing we saw was his assistant kissing a fat chick and he told one of the other lads on the course off for talking to his set. He thought he was joking until he saw him kissing her. He told him he pulls 10's every night of the week in London and sometimes just likes a girl with a personality, eh yeeeeeeah!

    Stay a million miles away from this guy. I have heard more horror stories and they should be exposed.

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