Summary: More action is the number one advice when it comes to not getting enough lays, dates, numbers or really anything. So let's consider that in a wider meaning.

 

When you starting to do anything in your life (pickup, daygame, nightgame, writing books, learning to play an instrument, running, whatever) the single best advice is: do more. It frees the beginner from overthinking. First weeks/months are spent on internalizing the new skill set and mistakes are inevitable. You should learn from them but don't care about failures. You will get where you want and you simply cannot learn much without doing the wrong thing. No failures means you are not trying hard enough to actually learn.

Now as you start to know what you're doing you will have a basic set of skills and a better set of exercises. What can you do to advance further? That's right: do more. In the context of daygame I get questions from guys that get 1 number out of 10 approaches per week: "how can I get more dates?". Well obviously they need to look back at their interactions for reasons of low success ratio (record and review, ask a coach for help) but at the same time if they just did twice as many approaches in a single week I'm more than sure they'd get more than 2 numbers.

Why? Because when you do something more you hit your zone more often. And when you're in the zone all the magic happens. I don't know if it's the way the brain is more effective with tasks you're repeating on a regular basis but it's the way it works for me and many others. When you spend twice the time on something you usually get results more than doubled. Long breaks from practice feel like going backwards. On the opposite end of the spectrum - once you get used to doing the thing you're doing you cannot skip a session without a sense of loss. And like a self sustaining machine - the more you do, the better you're at, the more you want to do.

Now that's not to say that proper guidance and theory isn't important. But the old London Daygame mantra is "80% action, 20% theory". The most visible progress comes from applying your skillset infield (or in the gym, or behind the drumset, or wherever - whatever the skill) and analyzing the results. That's also the big part. We all know what is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". Adapt, learn, become better.

So the next time anyone asks you "I'm doing X. How can I be better at X?" the answer is pretty simple - "do more X". But do it intelligently, learn as you go - from your mistakes, from mistakes and successes of others. There is no progress without action. Reading every single book on a planet about tennis won't make you even a shitty tennis player.

Only when you're beyond intermediate the theory, details, professional tips and trick are starting to be a noticeable factor. Don't bother with them when you start. You need solid foundations to be able to successfully tweak tiny things.

 

Lessons learned:

  • When you start learning a new skill the amount of work is more important than the perfecting the theory.
  • When you start using your skill - the lessons from your own mistakes are still more important than learning advanced tricks.
  • Doubling amount of work put into something usually yields much greater change in results.
  • Whatever you do, especially in the beginning, mistakes will happen. This is your learning unit, you cannot get better without doing something wrong in the first place.
  • It's really hard to overdo anything. Most people don't have the determination and obsession to overtrain.

 

Ps. This is spun off my post about daygame and my own struggles there. If you want to read about more action in daygame context it's available here.