"initial setback" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to refer to an initial problem, challenge, or hindrance that someone must overcome in achieving a goal or objective. For example: "Despite his initial setback, the athlete was determined to win the race."
An initial setback came on September 10 , 1984 in a lab at the University of Leicester, when the geneticist Alec Jeffreys developed the first DNA profile.
More-skilled graduates suffer an initial setback in earning power, but they are able to make up ground later by jumping from job to job.
He wrote Stryker in search of a job, and despite an initial setback – no openings were available – was hired in 1940.
Nonetheless, Sherman pushed on into North Carolina, capturing Fayetteville on March 11 and, after an initial setback, repulsing the counterattacking Johnston at Bentonville on March 19 20.
And although much of those astronomic gains were negated earlier this year as technology stocks went out of fashion and Qualcomm suffered its initial setback in China, the company's shares have resumed their climb in the last three months.
Simon's son, John Hyrcanus I (134 104 bce), suffered an initial setback at the hands of the last great Seleucid king, Antiochus VII (Sidetes), who set out to reconquer Palestine, but at the latter's death John renewed his father's expansionist program, in which Samaria was conquered and destroyed.
Those initial setbacks may seem minor, but they indicate the challenges Mr. Koizumi will face.
New narratives that drive the remainder of the book spring from these initial setbacks.
At Donelson and Shiloh his confidence turned the tide after initial setbacks.
Initial setbacks – and here's the really yucky part – have occurred because the pump struggles to break up large foods.
He followed this up by missing a penalty in his next competitive game, and never truly recovered from these initial setbacks to impose himself in a leading role.
