I'm not advanced necessarily, but I'm certainly not uncomfortable around a girl and I can almost always pick up on her IOIs and go from there.

Last night I went to a party with a mate of mine and a female friend, and one of the girls who knows my male mate pretty well who is recently single begins flirting with me. At the start of the night playing beer pong, I'm escalating with kino, getting really close to her, and so on. Looking good at this point, but since she's the host she heads off to do host-y things.

At this point a headache sort of sets in, my energy level crashes, and basically I begin to fall out of state. To make matters worse, my female friend starts egging me on to "go get her number". Now, its not as if the egging ruined my game, but because I was having a good time chatting with some of the guys and girls around the party, and beginning to get into my own head with this, the egging sort of pissed me off. I was enjoying myself, not particularly caring whether I got this girl or not, but my female friend just kept egging and egging for me to storm over and get the number. I tried to explain that they should just be patient and I'll get it eventually, but she kept egging - at this point im starting to get REALLY inside my own head, and reverted almost entirely to pre-2011 AFC me.

I eventually grabbed the number in the most awkward, rocky manner possible. She was definitely interested earlier in the night, but somehow I had managed to blow all momentum I had with that and became a fumbly, unsure, self-doubting version of myself. She walked by me and dragged her hand over my chest, and in trying to engage in this kino and reciprocate by touching her hand/arm, I fumbled, completely unsure of what I wanted. I eventually began to pick it back up by the end of the night, but since she was on host duty and my hadache was killing me, I tried to plant the seed of a hangout and went home from there.

Of course, I know exactly what I need to do - I need to get back on the horse and put this kind of thing behind me. This is a cautionary tale to guys like me who hav a decent grasp of this stuff, but still have to work to get into the social state: do not get inside your own head. Touching should be easy, fluid, and natural. Getting a number doesn't necessarily mean too much, but in all likelihood you're going to have to do it. Make it natural.

And don't get too discouraged if you have a bad night. It's just one night, and by powering through it you will get back to the attractive confident man you are.