So me and my brother decided to grab some drinks tonight and, since I started studying PUA I figured I would open up some sets. A couple of days ago I started using an online dating site and using PUA material, and it's been working out well and helping me learn all the routines.

Anyhow, So we get to the first bar, and it's fairly packed. There's a lot more guys than girls, and the way the bar is set up it gives the illusion that all eyes are on you at all times, so we just got a drink and chatted for twenty minutes or so and then left. I didn't chalk it up as a failure because, although the bar was hopping, there was maybe one set that wasn't with other guys or out of my age range (I'm 22, going on 23).

So the next bar is a complete different story target wise. There was a two set sitting right by the entrance, a three set on the bar counter perpendicular, and a two set on the next bar counter over. We sat down close to the two set. And then another 3 set enters the scene and sits down so that the girl furthest to the left is right next to me. It was literally the perfect SPAM, a room full of women and no men in sight. And although I knew that sitting next to me was an IOI and that the right thing to do would be to follow the 3 second rule and immediately open one of these sets, I froze.

I knew all of the openers I could use, had plenty of situational openers in store, yet I couldn't get any words out to even the girl sitting next to me. It felt really cruddy, like I was trapped in a cage or something. I always thought of myself as a fairly confident guy, at least with my friends and at party's where enough friends are present. But I couldn't muster up the courage to even utter a "Hi" to any sets. I might as well have been mute. After we finished our beers and talked for a while, me and my brother left and I was kicking myself in the face the whole ride back for not saying anything in such a target rich zone.

Does anyone have good advice for getting over approach anxiety? I feel confident that I have enough material to keep things rolling once I strike up a conversation.

Yeah, go out more. Cut that online dating shit out. Approach more people. Become socially calibrated. The only way to do it is to jump right in. Start paying attention to how you act around others. Ask yourself why you are acting in that way. Fix it.

Routines don't mean shit unless you deliver them the right way.