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No hitch with dating now
 The
Hitch Academy is a new dating school that gives people more options to
find love and happiness. With weekend courses focusing on romance and
relationships the aim is to teach Britain’s singletons how to meet their
dream date. The philosophy is simple: Attraction is not about looks and
money or cheesy chat-up lines it’s about confidence. The Irish Post’s
GERARD DONAGHY took up the challenge and went back to school in the search
for true love.
I’m not one to blow my own trumpet but I’ve never had much
problem with the fairer sex OK, I’m no stud marking another
notch on my bedpost every weekend but I’ve had a fair few relationships.
But reminiscing about my love life I realised my relationships had one
thing in common they were virtually all with woman who were friends
before they were girlfriends: University friends, work friends, friends
of friends.
Yes, I had always lacked the legendary Irish ‘gift of the gab’
and the confidence to approach women under the premise of ‘chatting
them up’.
Of the few occasions I had ventured down this route, most had ended with
me crashing and burning in spectacular fashion.
So having recently separated from my wife and once again young, free and
single, I thought enrolling in The Hitch Academy for a weekend was the
perfect opportunity to develop my dating skills.
Third-generation Irishman Adam Lyons was the academy’s tutor
and the scholastic terminology is entirely appropriate as he maintains
that attraction isn’t innate, it is a skill that can be taught to
anyone.
But if you are anything like me you are probably dubiously thinking that
it surely couldn’t be as easy as that and you’d be
right!
“There is no magic pill,” warns Adam. “You’re
being taught a skill and like any skill not everyone is going to be good
at it straightaway, it takes practice.”
Our intensive three-day training began on Friday night.
We strolled past the queue of people waiting in the rain straight into
top London club and celebrity hangout Paper.
On this observational night the only task set by Adam was to speak to
two girls in the club and find out their names and occupations.
Adam brimming with his inherent Irish charm while being the first
to admit he is no Colin Farrell himself shows us how easy it is
done.
Dubious, considering his wide social circle, I pick random girls for him
to approach and he gratefully obliges and repeatedly succeeds.
So undertaking his challenge I return five minutes later, having successfully
chatted to two girls and discovered their names and occupations
and ages, interests and hometowns.
It’s that easy.
And contrary to popular belief women will not bite your head off if you
talk to them.
But doubts still remain as the people I speak to are part of Adam’s
entourage would it work elsewhere?
I raise my doubts on Saturday during an intensive all-day class. How do
I approach complete strangers in clubs? What do I say to them? What if
they tell me in no uncertain terms to vacate their immediate area? What
if I run out of things to say when chatting to them?
Without revealing the secrets of his class which at almost £500
doesn’t come cheap Adam answers all of these questions and
teaches me how to overcome any obstacle when chatting to women.
His intensive training even covers how to become the most popular person
in a venue and how to get women to approach you.
So armed with his knowledge, my newfound confidence from the previous
night and a new shirt, we head to another exclusive venue, the 24 club
in London.
But the challenge this night isn’t to speak to two women in his
entourage it is to speak to every girl in the club.
I was thrown in at the proverbial deep end.
So did it work?
Well, I didn’t manage to speak to every girl there but I did manage
to speak to around 30 or so something I wouldn’t have envisaged
just hours before and bagged some phone numbers into the bargain.
Even after leaving the club I put Adam’s teachings to use, approaching
a group of eight girls on the way home and chatting away to them
again, something I wouldn’t have dreamt of doing just 24 hours earlier.
On a high on the Sunday I chat and laugh with girls on the Tube as I head
for my final rendezvous with Adam.
Unfortunately after the highs of the previous two days I fail miserably
at my final task chatting to random women at Speakers’ Corner
in Hyde Park.
I just wasn’t comfortable stopping random people and chatting to
them, especially after being greeted with a bewildered ‘why are
you talking to me?’ look on the faces of the people I spoke to.
But where I failed on that occasion other students who were attending
The Hitch Academy flourished.
And while people may have been perplexed as to why a random Irish man
was stopping them to converse with them, every one still stopped and spoke,
again proving Adam’s point that women won’t bite your head
off or tell you to get lost.
Revealing my discomfort at the final task Adam returns to the opening
line of his class.
“I said there was no magic pill,” he says. “I suppose
a better way of putting it is that there is a magic pill but you
have to take it twice a day.”
The ‘coursework’ set by The Hitch Academy is to speak to two
women every day that we find attractive.
Attraction really is a skill that has to be practiced before you get good
at it.
And hopefully if I keep up with my coursework, practice will make perfect! |
