One of my friends who's been doing pick up for a while (1-2 years) has been bugging me to go cold approach with him. I told him I don't really need to do that since I meet enough girls in the socials activities I do, using salsa as an example. I told him that since you're expected to touch the girl, it makes interactions a lot easier, since all you need to do to break the ice is present both hands to the girl for an invitation to dance.

After that, he asked me a few times to take him to salsa socials, so I eventually did. However, he misread a lot of signals (girls dancing with you doesn't mean they're attracted at all, strong eye contact is normal, etc). He was also very overly confident for a beginner (I taught him the basic step and 2 cross body leads + the right turn). This makes me very hesitant to take him dancing, or introduce him to any other hobbies that have a high female ratio that I do.

This got me wondering, do many pick up artists do fairly badly at social circle game, since their experience is mostly nightclubs and day game? Or do more advanced people translate well into social game? I feel in those situations the most important factor is to ask lots of girls out and be confident, but these are negatives in longer interactions, where things like status in the group and knowing it's subculture are more important.