What use is my skill to you if I can't teach it?

You can watch an infield and find it entertaining. You can enjoy the story. But if you're reading the books because you want to improve your own game, the important question is whether you can learn something you can actually apply.

That was the question behind the Hustler Elite and the original SDL Challenge. In this 2019 episode, I looked back at the first months of teaching the group. The experience gave me plenty to think about, including things that didn't go smoothly.

Change what the student is actually doing

A familiar pattern kept showing up. Long conversations, number farming, and very little movement towards an instant date. The guy felt he had done something because he had another contact in his phone.

The first change was in the direction of the interaction. We worked on attraction-escalation, shorter sets and clear invitations. I wanted the men to practise the Straight Line Seduction System instead of returning to the long-winded approach they already knew.

The date structure mattered too. If the interaction lost its momentum, adding another venue wasn't automatically going to solve it. We worked with the structure I explain in SDL King.

That gave us something specific to review. Where did the interaction slow down? What had the student done? Was he following the structure or drifting back into his old habits?

Early progress doesn't keep itself alive

One of my biggest questions was whether the group could sustain the work. Seeing a man get a result once was different from seeing him maintain his practice over several months.

In the episode, I describe a student who had strong early experiences and then lost momentum. He missed meetings and stopped putting in the same work. Whatever his reasons, the change in his participation mattered.

This is an uncomfortable lesson because early success can make you feel as though you are finished. You have the story now. You have proved something to yourself.

Good. What are you doing this week?

The practice that helped you improve still needs a place in your life. Your best evening cannot turn up for the next session on your behalf.

A structure can become mechanical

Another student followed the process closely but struggled with the feel of the interaction. He had learned the sequence, yet the execution could become mechanical.

He also became comfortable with a different set of results from the ones the SDL Challenge was intended to examine. That was his choice. It also explained why progress towards the challenge's specific goal slowed down.

You need to separate those two questions. Are you satisfied with what you are doing? And are you still working towards the goal you originally set?

There is no useful answer if you keep changing the goal silently and then pretending you are measuring the same thing.

Bring last week's lesson into this week

A third student struggled to retain the changes between sessions. We could work on something, see progress, then return the following week and find the old habits back in charge.

That was frustrating for both of us. It also showed why explaining something once is not enough. The student has to practise it until it survives without the teacher standing beside him.

Keep a record of the sticking point you are working on. Read it before going out. When you return, examine whether you did anything differently. Otherwise, a review can become a weekly conversation you enjoy and immediately forget.

The original group had different experiences, and one member did not achieve an SDL during the period I discuss. Those differences belong in the story. I wasn't looking for a tidy account in which every student developed in exactly the same way.

The public episode shows these patterns; its additional concluding lessons were reserved for the longer member recording. The useful work here is already clear. Keep practising, preserve what you learn between sessions, and distinguish understanding the structure from being able to apply it.

You can read the wider history in the Anthony Hustle Story, or enquire about Hustler Elite if you want your own infield reviewed.