“Infield” or “no Infield” practice sounds like a standalone argument in the abstract, but it is not. Practice needs direction; otherwise, it reduces to aimlessly going through the motions. It achieves nothing.
Most coaches and Gurus will argue that there is nothing to lose by spamming sets, and action is better than inaction. But this is false. Every rejection matters. It shouldn’t matter for the long term, but hell it matters for the short term. Remember, your Self can see your life objectively, by spamming and getting rejection after rejection you are punching the deepest part of your Soul.
Every rejection has a cost, that is why Krauser called it a catabolic reaction in Mastery. In neurochemical terms, when your brain is starved of three key ones that determine happiness:
- Dopamine (expected reward)
- Oxytocin (belonging, being cared)
- Serotonin (status)
That is the chain from real world events → neurochemicals → psychology. It is both inescapable and futile to fight it. Therefore, the solution is not to try to suppress this reaction (at least past the beginner stage), the solution is to be conscious on how you engage with it.
Disclaimer: This is not an argument against approaching. It is an argument against spam approaching or pointlessly approaching without calibration.
The Daygame skillset
The Daygame skillset is comprised by five pillars:
- Volume
- Value
- Inner Game
- Logistics
- Technique
All of these are equally important and equally relevant for our success in the field. A Player needs all of them for consistent results. One won’t cut it, two won’t cut it. It is all or nothing. Seduction is “winner takes all” because of the laws of hypergamy.
How to engage infield
This is where newbies need to be especially careful. When we are talking about learning Daygame, we obviously need to practice. But we do infield work for specifically two goals that we shouldn’t confuse:
- To get results
- To learn/practice technique.
Things collapse when number 2 doesn’t directly lead to number 1. This is a big paradox, right?
To be in number 1 mode, we need mastery over all 5 pillars. However, only Technique is directly practiced infield. The other pillars take input from infield practice, but need to be addressed also outside of the field. We cannot solve Inner Game infield, we cannot solve Logistics infield. That is why the newbie needs to do enough infield work to practice Technique, but then needs to moderate it to allow work on the other pillars. Throwing yourself into set after set, after some point, won’t help you on its own.
