Do you do better in competitions or at home?

[WayneMigraine]

I'm surprised to see how many people have faster averages in competition than they do at home. I'm not sure personally whether I do better in competitions or at home since I've only been to one competition but I think my times at home are about the same or maybe a small bit slower than my current competition best. I have definitely noticed though that my solving times improve throughout the day. If I do some solves in the morning and my hands are cold, it seems like I can barely get sub 16, but once I've done about 60 or 70 solves and my hands are warm getting sub 15 or even sub 14.5 seems a lot easier.

 

[mDiPalma]

http://i.stack.imgur.com/RdTEU.png

Here are two histograms of cubing times, ignore the x-axis labels. You have the choice to be the red cuber or the blue cuber. Which do you choose, and why?

assuming the stat of interest is avg500, the blue one. it's further to the left.

which would you rather be, the red cuber or the black cuber, and why?

http://s23.postimg.org/txiwhdesb/histo.png

 

[DeeDubb]

Honestly, I will say this.

Taking out nerves, "rising to the occassion", or any other intangible, and just assuming everything is identical, it makes sense for your PB ao5 at competition to be better than your global average, if you are competing enough to keep up with your progression. It's your BEST ao5 at comp, so it should be at least a little better. If you compare the average of ALL of your comp solves at a given competition to your global average at the time, it should be similar, but the best Ao5 should be a little better.

The only reasons it could be worse are random bad luck, nerves, or if you don't compete enough to keep up with your progression.

 

[JustinTimeCuber]

assuming the stat of interest is avg500, the blue one. it's further to the left.

which would you rather be, the red cuber or the black cuber, and why?

http://s23.postimg.org/txiwhdesb/histo.png

I would rather be the black cuber, because the solves are centered farther left of the red cuber's average. The black cuber represents how I am in competition and the red one represents my times overall. I used your own argument against you. QED.

 

[mDiPalma]

I would rather be the black cuber, because the solves are centered farther left of the red cuber's average. The black cuber represents how I am in competition and the red one represents my times overall. I used your own argument against you. QED.

http://s30.postimg.org/txop6mqhd/histo2.png

I added the rest of the black histogram.

Those 5 solves were near the tip. Whoops!

 

[SpiderFingers]

I would rather be the black cuber, because the solves are centered farther left of the red cuber's average. The black cuber represents how I am in competition and the red one represents my times overall. I used your own argument against you. QED.

Reading this comment gives me a strange sense of deja vu.

 

[Kit Clement]

assuming the stat of interest is avg500, the blue one. it's further to the left.

which would you rather be, the red cuber or the black cuber, and why?

http://s23.postimg.org/txiwhdesb/histo.png

I see the point you're trying to get at -- the question you're asking is kind of weird given the picture since the density curve indicates a model for the distribution of solving times while a histogram is just a sample of times. A more sensible question is "Would you be happy with the times represented by the histogram if the red density curve represents your population distribution of solves?" If so, then I would feel happy about those times -- they're better than what I would expect at home, especially considering the pressure of a competition.

 

[Aussie]

I do better in competitions rather than at home. I think the competition pressure helps me a lot. At Lawrence Spring 2015, I was expecting a best of 3:45 and a mean of 4:00 for 6x6, just because of nerves, but I did a LOT better. Also, at the 2014 Nationals, I was expecting a 6:00 - 7:50 6x6 single, but I got a 5:53 which was awesome. The only times I do bad are when I am not nervous. ( All 3x3 solves and last Lawrence Spring 6x6 solve. )

 

[JustinTimeCuber]

http://s30.postimg.org/txop6mqhd/histo2.png

I added the rest of the black histogram.

Those 5 solves were near the tip. Whoops!

Then I would rather be the red cuber, except that argument isn't valid to begin with because that DOES NOT accurately show my preformance at competitions. I have never gotten a really bad time at a competition. My worst time has been just a couple seconds above my average. So, I would rather be the red cuber, but that is because it doesn't represent me accurately, assuming the black cuber is at competition.

 

[JustinTimeCuber]

I do better in competitions rather than at home. I think the competition pressure helps me a lot. At Lawrence Spring 2015, I was expecting a best of 3:45 and a mean of 4:00 for 6x6, just because of nerves, but I did a LOT better. Also, at the 2014 Nationals, I was expecting a 6:00 - 7:50 6x6 single, but I got a 5:53 which was awesome. The only times I do bad are when I am not nervous. ( All 3x3 solves and last Lawrence Spring 6x6 solve. )

I average around 5 minutes on 6x6, but I don't do it all that much. I didn't compete in it at Lawrence, but I did at Indiana 2014 when I averaged ~8 and got a 7:15, and at UIUC Spring 2013 when I averaged ~9:30 and got an 8:31. I find your style of cubing interesting. It is pretty unusual for someone to only do 6x6, but you could get pretty good. I see from your signature that your 6x6 PB is almost sub-3. Mine is barely sub-5

 

[DavidCip86]

for the oklahoma open, i was practicing 7x7 (my main event) and i was doing about 10 solves every day and averaging 5:10. i got a 4:21 average at the comp, destroying my at home pb

 

[JustinTimeCuber]

for the oklahoma open, i was practicing 7x7 (my main event) and i was doing about 10 solves every day and averaging 5:10. i got a 4:21 average at the comp, destroying my at home pb

This reminded me that although for smaller cubes, such as 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, Pyra, and Skewb, I get slightly below my normal average, but for larger cubes like 5x5, 6x6, and Mega, I beat my PBs and sometimes I crush them by a lot.

 

[Jiayu]

Home

 

[Jiayu]

Home

I usually do better at home,but after I went to a lot of competitions,I actually got results that are even better than what I can do at home. It was because of easy scramble or some reasons, if you went to a lot of competitions, you will get the chance.
Like last week in one competition,I BLD an official average of 3.07 min. But at home,I can't even BLD successful always. And the three scrambles were really easy.

 

[Berkmann18]

I would say home even tho I smashed some of my home pbs (single and averages) at a comp that would have took me more time to break at home.


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[shadowslice e]

At home because I've never been to a comp... ;-P

 

[Torch]

I used to do well at comps compared to my global average. Now I average 12.5 on 3x3 and my last 3x3 averages have been 14.11, 13.64, and 15.41. Ugh.

 

[JustinTimeCuber]

3 months bump I guess that's a lot lol
I think I have a theory for what makes people at both ends of the spectrum.

For the people who do better at comps:
You get up to the solving station. You are at a comp, which you have been pretty excited about for the past week or two. You have been having fun with other cubers for a while, and because of that you haven't had much time to think about being nervous. You say you are ready and start inspection. You are very concentrated, and you find the cross (or FB, don't yell at me Roux people) pretty quickly, and get a good idea of where the next pair will be. When you start the solve, and do your planed out moves, you are completely zoned out to everything but the cube. You see the pairs more quickly than normal. Your solve is clean, or at least mostly clean with one or two minor lockups. Such a solve, for me, would normally be a low to mid 12, and my PB ao50 is 13.08, so we can say that is pretty much my global average. (Yeah, time to update my signature.)

For the people who do worse in competitions:
Before getting to the solving station, you have been thinking about your results for the round quite a bit. You are very concerned about the results from that round (like 3x3, or 2x2, or your specialty) and you are pretty nervous. During inspection, you hurriedly look for your first step solution, and when you start the solve you may rush it and lock up. You don't see the next pairs very fast. You don't do too well on OLL/PLL (or CMLL/LSE, or whatever seriously) recognition and/or execution. You may get a +2 on one or two of your solves because you rush your final moves too much and lock up. Such a result for me would probably be a 14-16 or a 16-18+.

 

[YouCubing]

Definitely better in competition. Examples:
Peach State 2015: Global Avg of 40.89, official average of 36.16
US Nats 2015: Global Avg of 34.16, official average of 31.51
Atlanta Open 2015: Global Avg of 31.44, official average of 30.13.
So yeah.

 

[NeilH]

Definitely better in competition. Examples:
Peach State 2015: Global Avg of 40.89, official average of 36.16
US Nats 2015: Global Avg of 34.16, official average of 31.51
Atlanta Open 2015: Global Avg of 31.44, official average of 30.13.
So yeah.

how do you average 31.44