Can You Meet Women at Bryant Park?

Yes. Bryant Park is one of the four Manhattan parks a dating coach names for daytime approaches, with Washington Square, Madison Square and Union Square. It sits in Midtown, between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue, and it works because it is a pause in a very fast part of the city. Women eat lunch and read there, and a woman on a break is a far easier set than one crossing the avenue.

The trick with this park is timing. Many of the people here are on a break from work, so the conversation has a clock on it. Here is how to work with that.

Midtown is busy and quick. My warning about New York streets fits it well: many people are walking fast with headphones in, or are packed into crowds where it is hard to get close to anyone. A man who tries to start conversations on those sidewalks spends most of his afternoon watching backs.

The park reverses that. His line applies directly: "If someone's out in a park, they've come out to be among people." Having left an office to eat a sandwich in the open, a woman at Bryant Park has chosen to be near others. She is sitting, and she is looking around.

Look for the women who have settled:

• Eating lunch alone at a table or on a bench.
• Reading a book, not scrolling and rushing.
• Sitting with a coffee and watching the park.

Skip the ones walking through with a laptop bag and a phone call. coach says that a woman who wants to be left alone is not at the park, and the same goes for the one who is clearly heading back to a meeting. Let her go and find the next one.

Because many of these women have a limited break, a long opening speech is a mistake. Go direct and warm, and keep the first conversation to a few minutes. My advice for any opener is to be as direct as you think you can get away with. A good sample:

"Hi, I saw you reading over here and had to say hello. I am Sam."

If she is friendly, ask what she is reading or whether she comes here often. If her break is almost over, you will hear it in the way she checks the time. That is your cue to ask for her number or her Instagram instead of trying to keep her. A short, warm exchange with a way to continue is better than a long one that ends with her late for work.

Sometimes she is in no hurry. If the conversation is going well and she is relaxed, you can suggest a coffee. coach points out that in New York there is a coffee shop, a bar, an ice cream place and a restaurant within a couple of blocks almost anywhere, so you can move to the next place right then. It is a simple way to turn a few minutes in the park into a first date.

New York summers are hot and humid, winters are chilly and damp, and spring and autumn are usually mild. Bryant Park is strongest in the warm months, when more people eat outside. In cold weather there are fewer women sitting, so pick an indoor spot instead, such as a cafe.

coach also says which of his four parks is best changes over time. If Bryant is thin on a given day, try another.

Say "enjoy your lunch" and leave. In a city this size, you will probably never see her again, and coach notes that a bad conversation is "soon forgotten." There is always another woman at the next table, and the more of these you do, the less any single one matters.

Walking up to a woman who is on her lunch break is easier to read about than to do. On a Cold Approach Bootcamp, you do it in the field with a coach beside you and feedback after every set. Each training day has two four-hour blocks, daygame and night game mixed to suit you, with no skill floor. The Bootcamp runs in New York and Miami.