• Welcome to the Speedsolving.com, home of the web's largest puzzle community!
    You are currently viewing our forum as a guest which gives you limited access to join discussions and access our other features.

    Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community of 40,000+ people from around the world today!

    If you are already a member, simply login to hide this message and begin participating in the community!

BLD troubles on competitions

marco.garsed

Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2010
Messages
59
WCA
2010MAZZ02
Hi guys,

I avg about 1:00 - 1:08 with 3bld during the last 3 weeks...

My success rate is about 66-68% (I think it's quite good for my times...)

with about 26 memo and 40 solve... (it depends by scrambles too...)

I went to a competition last Sunday and I've done just 1 solve on 6 (the safe one with 52 memo and 36 solve :\)

I get really upset during BLD competitions (3bld in particulary) and I forget everything... do you have any suggest about it? I just want to get closer to my home times...
 

Jakube

Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2011
Messages
790
Location
Austria
WCA
2011KOGL01
YouTube
Visit Channel
I also get very nervous before an official 3BLD attempt, my heart races, ...

The following things helps me a lot.

*Just for the BLD event I go outside and do some deep breathing, walk a bit, jump, ... In most of the competitions the location has a bad air in it. Especially when BLD is after midday.

*When the judge brings the cube, he put it in front of me. Then I check thinks around me (blindfolded, timer, ...) and then I close my eyes and imagine a quiet song, I like (it normally a quiet piece of pirates of the carribean or a song of NIN (f.i. Hurts). I keep in that position until my heart stops racing (~20 - 40 seconds) and than I open my eyes and start.

*Maybe it helps using Letter Pairs. I don´t know what memo method you are using, but I now swiched from visual to LetterPairs. A visual memo you will forget quickly when your nervous, a word based memo not so fast.

*Oh, I just remembered one thing one of my teacher said about concentration exercises. She said that we should connect our two parts (left and right) of the brain. This can be done by crossing the arms or feet to get an X position, follow your eyes to an invisible lying 8 and massaging your ears. Try it, it may help.
 

marco.garsed

Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2010
Messages
59
WCA
2010MAZZ02
thank you very much! I use letter pairs for edges and just letters for corners (asdtuq for example)... I'll try your methods next competition...
 

Zane_C

Premium Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2009
Messages
2,757
Location
~100km W of Melbourne, Australia
WCA
2010CARN01
YouTube
Visit Channel
This can potentially be an interesting discussion.

It's one thing to be able to solve/memorise.
It's another thing to be able to calm your nerves and relax, that is skill on its own.

There are some people that might perform better when nervous, but for most of us this is not the case.
I think the ability to concentrate and relax is essential for performing your best in competition AND at home.

-------------------------

This will be somewhat difficult, but I'll try my best to explain what I do prior to a BLD attempt:
-I get in a comfortable seated position.
-I close my eyes and concentrate on shutting 'everything out'. I reassure myself that absolutely nothing matters except the solve.
As I sit there, everything around me has no significance. If there are any troubles on my mind, I just simply don't care.
So, for me it helps to have an arrogant attitude towards my surroundings and thoughts.
Eg. "Why should I care about what's happening over there?"
Eg. "Who gives a sh** about that? It's not my problem."

This is why I don't wear earmuffs/plugs during any BLD event. If you're focused you shouldn't be taking any notice of noises around you.
I use this same technique for any situation where I might feel a bit nervous.

If you don't already, I recommend that you start doing some BLD practice with people around. Public places are the best.

I'm sure Chris will have something to contribute to this.
 
Last edited:

marco.garsed

Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2010
Messages
59
WCA
2010MAZZ02
Thank you Zane,
last time I tried to think "ok, now I'm at home practicing some BLD..." but it didn't work... I memorised edges with more reviews than usual I thought I had them in my mind very well... then I memorised corners and after solving them... I couldn't remember anything... it was so frustrating... it's not the first time it happens...

If you don't already, I recommend that you start doing some BLD practice with people around. Public places are the best.

I'll try this tecnique... I get nervous also if I try to do some video...

(sorry for bad english :S)
 
Last edited:

Mike Hughey

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 7, 2007
Messages
11,303
Location
Indianapolis
WCA
2007HUGH01
SS Competition Results
YouTube
Visit Channel
How much do you practice? I found that after I did the several blindfold race thread competitions with hundreds of scrambles in a single week, I seemed to be very consistent in competition. It seems like if you do 50 or 100 solves at a sitting with the same kind of accuracy and speed, it becomes that much more possible in competition to just imagine you're in the middle of one of those and do well.

However, that being said, I really do need to warm up before I solve in competition - if I have to go in cold and do my first BLD solve of the day in a competition, I'm much slower. I need at least 4 or 5 solves just to get going.

I think it's also helpful that I have three daughters in the house providing distractions often when I solve. :)

Of course, I'm not quite as fast as you. Maybe it would be different if I were a little faster.
 

Cubepark

Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2010
Messages
56
WCA
2008CIRN01
You could find the answers here
Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
Joshua Foer
 

cmhardw

Premium Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2006
Messages
4,115
Location
Orlando, Florida
WCA
2003HARD01
YouTube
Visit Channel
There is already a lot of good advice in this thread, but I have some things I'd like to mention as well.

I really, really agree with Mike about doing warm up solves. If at all possible your first competition solve should not be your actual first solve of the day. This is completely disastrous for your accuracy and times, it is for me at least.

The things I recommend most (and that have worked best for me):

- Never sit during an official blindfolded attempt (multiBLD might be an exception, I have never tried it in competition, so I have no idea if this would still work for multi)
- Wear earplugs
- Wear earmuffs
- Wear blinders (These really work, and far better than I would have expected)
- practice BLD in public places often before the tournament you're going to

If you listen to certain songs or types of music when you practice, then bring a music player and listen to them right before your attempt. Right before all of my BLD attempts at worlds I listened to the same music I do at home before attempting to break my pb, or whenever I am having a particularly good practice session.

You must feel confident before a BLD solve, even to the point of arrogance. You don't have to voice these thoughts, but you must think them and feel them. If you allow any doubt to enter your mind, it will catch hold and fester in your brain throughout the whole solve, which can lead to DNFs or slower successes.

As a final side note, and I know this was already mentioned, but I too am reading "Moonwalking with Einstein". I am finding that it is full of lots of good advice that applies very well to blindfolded solving. So I recommend to get that book as well.
 
Last edited:

Hippolyte!!!

Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2010
Messages
116
WCA
2008MORE02
Thanks for this thread, I'm in the same case....
I'm always stressing when I'm doing en official solve, and not especially for the blind events, even when the competition global environment is casual, and I often do higher than my home avg.
But my official blind PB was also my PB ever when I did it, and at that time I wasn't often practising, and I didn't warm up with blind before the event (or maybe just one solve). This makes me less stressed (and also because I thought I had no chance to win), and I do three of my 6 attempts sub my PB. So I think warm up isn't a good thing for everyone, and it could depend from your current mind. I know that I'm always training for 333 before my average, and last comp I did 2 seconds higher that I was hoping.
For the people, I'm not sure too that it's the problem (even it could). I've no problem with cubing in public and I can do real good times when there are no important noises. I've never wearing earmuffs, even for multi. But I will even try to be sure, I'll see that next comp.
And I'll try some of your others advices, thanks to you for your posts.
(and I'm sorry too for the English, I rarely try to make relatively long posts with explanations^^)
 
Last edited:

marco.garsed

Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2010
Messages
59
WCA
2010MAZZ02
How much do you practice?

from 20 to 50 solves per day before that competition :S

However, that being said, I really do need to warm up before I solve in competition - if I have to go in cold and do my first BLD solve of the day in a competition, I'm much slower. I need at least 4 or 5 solves just to get going.

You could find the answers here
Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
Joshua Foer

The things I recommend most (and that have worked best for me):

- Never sit during an official blindfolded attempt (multiBLD might be an exception, I have never tried it in competition, so I have no idea if this would still work for multi)
- Wear earplugs
- Wear earmuffs
- Wear blinders (These really work, and far better than I would have expected)
- practice BLD in public places often before the tournament you're going to

If you listen to certain songs or types of music when you practice, then bring a music player and listen to them right before your attempt. Right before all of my BLD attempts at worlds I listened to the same music I do at home before attempting to break my pb, or whenever I am having a particularly good practice session.

You must feel confident before a BLD solve, even to the point of arrogance. You don't have to voice these thoughts, but you must think them and feel them. If you allow any doubt to enter your mind, it will catch hold and fester in your brain throughout the whole solve, which can lead to DNFs or slower successes.


I really, really agree with Mike about doing warm up solves. If at all possible your first competition solve should not be your actual first solve of the day. This is completely disastrous for your accuracy and times, it is for me at least.

thank you very much for your advices... I'll try some of them at my next competition ;) I usually warm up but it depends by the schedule...

most of you are "BLD heroes" so I'm feeling quite better now... :) :)
 

Weston

Premium Member
Joined
May 22, 2009
Messages
980
WCA
2008MIZU01
YouTube
Visit Channel
I am really bad at BLD during competition too.

I suggest turning on the TV or radio during practice at home. Anything with a lot of words to screw you up.
Also, go for a run before your official solves.
 

blah

brah
Joined
Dec 30, 2007
Messages
2,139
Location
.
This might sound like a huge joke, but I assure you that I'm very serious: Stop caring so much.

Ask anyone who's seen me do BLD in competition (Hug Hey, maybe?). The only time I start caring about a BLD attempt is about 20 seconds before my attempt (and even then all I really do is take a bunch of deep breaths). It just never enters my mind all day, at least not until 5 minutes before the event itself.

I've gotten my best/most consistent results after I stopped caring (about competitive cubing in general). I do have a theory that attempts to explain this but it's just a theory, so ask if you're interested.
 
Last edited:

marco.garsed

Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2010
Messages
59
WCA
2010MAZZ02
This might sound like a huge joke, but I assure you that I'm very serious: Stop caring so much.

Ask anyone who's seen me do BLD in competition (Hug Hey, maybe?). The only time I start caring about a BLD attempt is about 20 seconds before my attempt (and even then all I really do is take a bunch of deep breaths). It just never enters my mind all day, at least not until 5 minutes before the event itself.

I've gotten my best/most consistent results after I stopped caring (about competitive cubing in general). I do have a theory that attempts to explain this but it's just a theory, so ask if you're interested.

Yeah it's true and some other people gave me this suggest... for example in some (or many? XD) puzzles I'm not competitive and I don't practice them so much... like 3x3 or 4x4... because I don't like them too much... so I don't care about them... and in competitions I do the same avg that I do at home... also without practicing or warming up... my state of mind is different...

I'm curious about your theory...

Comps are hard.

Aron do you have my troubles too?
 

aronpm

Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2009
Messages
2,010
Aron do you have my troubles too?

Yep :(

Australian Nationals 2010: DNF, 1:30, DNF, DNF, DNF, DNF
Melbourne Summer 2011: 48.47, DNF, DNF, DNF, DNF, DNF
Australian Nationals 2011: 50.40, DNF, DNF, 45.81, DNF, DNF

(I averaged about 39 at Melbourne Summer 2010 and 33 at Australian Nationals 2011)

Even a week before Australian Nationals 2011, if I thought about the competition and failing, my heart rate could easily go up 15-20 bpm. That's how nervous I get.
 

marco.garsed

Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2010
Messages
59
WCA
2010MAZZ02
I knew about your results... Hayan had a lot of DNF too... I'll try all these advices next comp... I'll probably go to a comp next month... I'd want to get a sub1 official...
 

roundy

Member
Joined
Oct 10, 2009
Messages
10
WCA
2007XUYU01
nervous kill blindfold. i can't sleep well before some competions. and nervous slowdown my memo time and solving time. join more competition would be better,because when you put all your eggs in a basket ,you will be nervous then ever before.
if you try to sub 1 min in ONE competition or break the WR in ONE competition you will lost youself...you will be nervious . you should say,take it easy,sooner or later i can sub 1(or i can break the WR) maybe this time ,maybe next time. i should't fore myself to do this in ONE competion.
Haiyan and I had the same nervous question before. i say this to him,and it helps alot.
and later ,I use this help myself.
hope this can help marco.garsed and aron . and wish marco.garsed can sub1 and aron can break WR in next 1-3 competiton. :)
 
Top