I've got to the stage now where I seem to be able to open OK. My later stage game is also not bad. It's just the bit in between that sucks. I really struggle to go from opening to a full conversation with a set. This leads me to prematurely eject from the set, even if it opens quite well.

This is the main thing which I think is holding me back. If I can get into a full blown, multi threaded conversation with a girl, I think I'll be able to get a reasonably solid number close out of it fairly regularly.

I've always been on the quiet side, but I don't seem to have a problem starting a conversation with girls I get introduced to in bars or with girls I meet at parties, it's just when I meet a girl via a cold approach I've done.

I think there are two main problems here: inner game / confidence issues and conversational skill issues.

Inner game / confidence:

Since this mainly only happens when I cold approach, I think my AA bleeds through into the set, and this makes me clam up after the opener / want to eject. Also, I often find myself thinking that the set doesn't want me there, no matter how well it opens. This smells like an inner game issue.

Conversational skills:

Like I said I've always been quite quiet. Even around people I know really well, I often don't say much. I really need to be able to start a conversation out of nothing with a girl and keep it going in order to get good at game. I find it really hard to go from talking about the topic of the opener to a full conversation (transitioning as Love Systems calls it). I need to be able to plough sets sometimes, but this requires me to be able to talk talk talk.

I think many people get stuck at this stage of the game, as I've heard others say they just can't transition that well / prematurely eject from sets. If any of you had this problem and overcame it, how did you do it?