What environment do you practice in?

[josh42732]

I was sitting here practicing and got a Pb Ao5, and Mo3 (18.20 Ao5 and 16.64 Mo3!!!! ) and started to wonder, what I did differently this practice session than I normally do? I normally practice at night, usually on the weekends, but occasionally I'll do a quick Ao12 during the week or something like that, listen to music, and don't warm up. I did everything that I normally do, except I'm listening to the Blue Devils 2014 (if you don't know what that is, Google it! Marching band on steroids!!), and I was wondering what other people's practice environments are. What kind of music they listen to, if they do, do they warm up, if they do what kind of warm up, do they do it at night or in the morning, do they do it in their room, on a family computer, at school, etc. I'm curious as to see how other people practice while they get faster, and see if I can pick up a few tips too.

 

[PenguinsDontFly]

I was sitting here practicing and got a Pb Ao5, and Mo3 (18.20 Ao5 and 16.64 Mo3!!!! ) and started to wonder, what I did differently this practice session than I normally do? I normally practice at night, usually on the weekends, but occasionally I'll do a quick Ao12 during the week or something like that, listen to music, and don't warm up. I did everything that I normally do, except I'm listening to the Blue Devils 2014 (if you don't know what that is, Google it! Marching band on steroids!!), and I was wondering what other people's practice environments are. What kind of music they listen to, if they do, do they warm up, if they do what kind of warm up, do they do it at night or in the morning, do they do it in their room, on a family computer, at school, etc. I'm curious as to see how other people practice while they get faster, and see if I can pick up a few tips too.

In my room listening to music at about 6 pm.

 

[cashis]

Same^

 

[CubeCow]

On a cluttered desk in a quite room from about 8pm till whenever someone gets annoyed or 10 pm

 

[cmhardw]

I'm very interested in this topic as well. I consistently learn the most when I practice in a situation where I am very uncomfortable. The best example is practicing in public, and especially outside in sight of lots of people during the day in good sunlight. Back when I was considered fast at BLD I used to do alarm clock solves with some regularity when doing a big cube BLD. Basically, set an alarm for 2-3 minutes in the future then begin your solve. I found that I learned a lot about how to focus in spite of distractions when I did this.

All of my pb times, with a few exceptions, have been set in a private room where I was comfortable with low or quiet music or no music at all.

When I was at or near my peak skill level, I remember having "on" and "off" days. On "on" days I was on fire and got amazing times almost effortlessly. On "off" days I had to struggle to get times that on an "on" day I would consider only "meh". In my personal opinion, a "great" cuber is someone who can get really great solves compared to the population of cubers even on an "off" day and in a non-optimal environment.

I find that different environments are better for different things, and practicing in a variety of environments is the best way to try to become "great". To win in a world championship, or really in any level competition, you have to have a high enough level of skill compared to the other competitors, and you have to be able to perform at almost peak levels, even if the competition environment is not optimal conditions AND you're having an "off" day.

Congrats on setting your new pb! Practice often in the environment you were in when you set the pb. However, don't forget to also sometimes practice very, very far outside your comfort zone.

 

[tseitsei]

When I was at or near my peak skill level, I remember having "on" and "off" days. On "on" days I was on fire and got amazing times almost effortlessly. On "off" days I had to struggle to get times that on an "on" day I would consider only "meh". In my personal opinion, a "great" cuber is someone who can get really great solves compared to the population of cubers even on an "off" day and in a non-optimal environment.

This is very much the case for me currently. Some days I get 3:3x 4blds and sub40 3blds often and effortlessly and other days even low-4 4bld seems amazingly hard... And I have no idea why.

As for how I practise:
I almost exclusively practise only bld events these days. So I always practise with double hearing protection on (earplugs+earmuffs). So it really doesn't matter what is happening around me because I can hardly hear anything. I have often practised like that when my gf even plays cello right next to me and it doesn't affect my times really...

 

[newtonbase]

I don't really get dedicated practice time. The best I manage is on the sofa after 9pm with the TV on. If my son wakes up, which happens often, then I have to jump up and go to him immediately. Not a good environment for learning 3BLD.

 

[Oatch]

I don't usually assign a dedicated time period to practice, so usually I just chuck a few solves in whenever I have the time, usually at night whilst working on and off with assignments. In terms of music, it's really depends on whether I'm already listening to music beforehand, prior to starting my solves. But I find that I can still perfectly concentrate even with loud rock music blasting in my ear, though to be fair I've gotten most of my best times with no music on at all.

 

[jamessorsona]

I practice always with a timer, video my solves, then with a lot of pressure I get good times. I practice a bit odd unlike others. but still works for me

 

[pdilla]

At my desk, lights on at different angles, listening to podcasts.

 

[Phinagin]

Well since I do not drive anywhere, whenever I am in the car I typically like to do some solves on the way to school, I do not time myself or try very hard on speed(practicing look ahead more than anything else) so I cannot say anything in relation to PB but I do not think my times here are fast for me. When I am at home I usually practice with a computer timer and with no music. My sessions do often get interrupted by other more important things. And the last way I typically practice is usually in the couch or in bed just practicing my look ahead, not timed.

 

[josh42732]

Well since I do not drive anywhere, whenever I am in the car I typically like to do some solves on the way to school, I do not time myself or try very hard on speed(practicing look ahead more than anything else) so I cannot say anything in relation to PB but I do not think my times here are fast for me. When I am at home I usually practice with a computer timer and with no music. My sessions do often get interrupted by other more important things. And the last way I typically practice is usually in the couch or in bed just practicing my look ahead, not timed.

Yea, at school during my homework period, I would sometimes do slow solves, getting scrambles on my TI-84 calculator and practice slow solves. I was actually on a road trip all day yesterday, and timed myself on my calculator after doing a bunch of slow solves, and I got 14 sec! It didn't show the milliseconds, so I couldn't figure out what my exact PB was. But, that is when I get to do slow, untimed solves.

 

[Phinagin]

Yea, at school during my homework period, I would sometimes do slow solves, getting scrambles on my TI-84 calculator and practice slow solves. I was actually on a road trip all day yesterday, and timed myself on my calculator after doing a bunch of slow solves, and I got 14 sec! It didn't show the milliseconds, so I couldn't figure out what my exact PB was. But, that is when I get to do slow, untimed solves.

What kind of calculator times things and also gives cube scrambles? lol

 

[PenguinsDontFly]

What kind of calculator times things and also gives cube scrambles? lol

TI84 graphing calculator apparently....

 

[josh42732]

TI84 graphing calculator apparently....

Yea it's a program that was written to give a scramb'e, then show a timer, and it has a bunch of cool features. Just look up ti 84 programming or something like that and a very old thread will show up with the program on it. It's actually really cool.

 

[Ordway Persyn]

I'm on my bed with my laptop and usually listen to music while solving, some outside lighting during sunny days.