Older cubers discussions

[Selkie]

Nice solve Marcel. Pretty busy weekend with not much cubing time with a Volkswagen festival yesterday and shopping today but did find time for some 5x5 and this was the best of the short session this morning:-

 

[Logiqx]

How about a full step 10 again? I was on fire

Blimey. You are on fire... another 10!

Nice solve Marcel. Pretty busy weekend with not much cubing time with a Volkswagen festival yesterday and shopping today but did find time for some 5x5 and this was the best of the short session this morning

Nice time. Nearly sub-2.

 

[MarcelP]

Nice solve Marcel. Pretty busy weekend with not much cubing time with a Volkswagen festival yesterday and shopping today but did find time for some 5x5 and this was the best of the short session this morning:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmZRrMRoHsw

Awesome! I dare not to turn that fast on my 5X5 (AoChuang). It would explode in 10 seconds LOL... I think you are fine in making it full 5 solves in competition without worrying exeeding the cutoff.

 

[MarcelP]

Over the last two weeks I did about 20 untimed solves on my Megaminx and timed myself today. It was 8.54.. LOL sub 9.. It was pretty good solve but I am very disappointed with the time.. Maybe it will pick up since I enjoy solving it quite a bit.

And I learned keyhole method on the Pyraminx. It is so much better than my LBL method. First Ao12 was 22 secs. That's allready faster than when I ever got with LBL.. I imagion reaching sub 15 will be no problem once recogition of the last 3 egdes will kick in. Pyra is fun!

 

[Logiqx]

Over the last two weeks I did about 20 untimed solves on my Megaminx and timed myself today. It was 8.54.. LOL sub 9.. It was pretty good solve but I am very disappointed with the time.. Maybe it will pick up since I enjoy solving it quite a bit.

And I learned keyhole method on the Pyraminx. It is so much better than my LBL method. First Ao12 was 22 secs. That's allready faster than when I ever got with LBL.. I imagion reaching sub 15 will be no problem once recogition of the last 3 egdes will kick in. Pyra is fun!

Nice. I've never timed myself on mega but then again I've only done half a dozen solves.

Good to hear you are enjoying Pyra now... race you to sub-10.

 

[Selkie]

Mega and Pyra are two puzzles I have never really concentrated on. Think I might give them more attention after ABHC. I do like mega but with a comp pb of 4:40+ and an overall pb of 3:40+ I have not really done much to improve that.

Have to say I had an SS 5x5 which over the course of a few years with tight gripping and inaccurate turning was broken beautifully. It was even borrowed by some very fast UK cubers for later round of 5x5 at comp. Unfortunately that was lost and I have another SS5x5 that I was intending to do the Florian mod to. However I ordered a Moyu Huangshuang but ordered white by mistake, I have reordered a black one but this solve was on white (on which I have very bad recognition). Looking forward to the black one arriving as the cube feels lovely.

 

[Logiqx]

I've had a few days away from 4x4 but I did about a dozen solves last night and got a 1:08.75 single.

The rest of the session wasn't so great as I wasn't at all focused but the single was a big PB; exactly 8 seconds.

The funny thing is that I was not really focused during that PB single. I was thinking about something work related which had put me in a pretty bad mood!

I seem to remember L4C being easy and so were the cross edges but other than that it was just a slick 3x3 stage with easy OLL and PLL but no parity fixes.

Edit: New Ao50 - 1:32.03. Is it just me or is Ao50 really tiring?

 

[mark49152]

I've had a few days away from 4x4 but I did about a dozen solves last night and got a 1:08.75 single.

Nice one! Funny, but I also got a 4x4 PB single yesterday - 1:08.87. You just beat me . And yes I find 4x4 ao50 tiring too, mainly because of my mini AoSu - it's slow and no matter what I do to it I cannot seem to speed it up without making it pop or catch more. The extra friction tires my hands way more than 5x5.

Speaking of 5x5, I have been playing with L2E again. Your guide (http://mikeg.me.uk/cubing/Big/L2E.pdf) is awesome, by far the best I've found. Do you use all these? Because I use Hoya I have to restore the cross after edges, and I have been trying to figure out a systematic way to do that before L2E such that I can reduce to a smaller, simpler set of cases.

This week I got a Stackmat and have been practising with that and an inspection timer. It's harder than I expected. I keep forgetting to start the timer, or trying to stop it with one hand phone-style . The worst thing though is my times. I thought they would suffer by <1 second for pick up and drop, but my 3x3 is a whole 3 seconds slower and I have no idea why. I don't feel slower and there's no way I'm picking up or stopping that slowly, but after 150 solves I'm still averaging ~20.7. I can't figure it out. I even ran my timers side by side to see if my phone timer had been lying to me and exaggerating my times for the last 18 months Anyone had a similar experience?

 

[MarcelP]

I was thinking about something work related which had put me in a pretty bad mood!

Sometimes when I am pissed off at something from work my times are great Dunno why.

This week I got a Stackmat and have been practising with that and an inspection timer. It's harder than I expected. I keep forgetting to start the timer, or trying to stop it with one hand phone-style . The worst thing though is my times. I thought they would suffer by <1 second for pick up and drop, but my 3x3 is a whole 3 seconds slower and I have no idea why. I don't feel slower and there's no way I'm picking up or stopping that slowly, but after 150 solves I'm still averaging ~20.7. I can't figure it out. I even ran my timers side by side to see if my phone timer had been lying to me and exaggerating my times for the last 18 months Anyone had a similar experience?

Yeah, I know exactly why. I have had same experience.. I have told you more than a year ago that I had same problem. When you hold a cube in your hand and start the timer it is easier for your brain to plan the cross. You grip the cube the way that is easy for the solution. When you put the cube down and have to wait a few secs (for the light to turn green) you might have forgotten the solution allready. Also stopping the timer with two hands is slower than with just one hand. Because you can finish the last move with one hand and use the other to go to the timer. When I had this problem I started to put down the cube in every solve. Even without a stackmat timer. Most fast cuber (like Feliks) do this. It will train you to become used to stackmat timing. My times got back to normal in less than a few weeks. So no worries for you, just continue this.

EDIT: Oh guys, congrats on the 4X4 PB's! I heard the Cyclone Boys G4 4X4 is also pretty good. And some take it as their main over AoSu.

 

[Logiqx]

Nice one! Funny, but I also got a 4x4 PB single yesterday - 1:08.87. You just beat me .

Funny how we got such close times recently... mine was pure luck. You're well ahead of me on averages.

Speaking of 5x5, I have been playing with L2E again. Your guide (http://mikeg.me.uk/cubing/Big/L2E.pdf) is awesome, by far the best I've found. Do you use all these?

I haven't done 5x5 in a looong time but I knew all of the non-parity algs and used them regularly. I think I only used the OLL parity and double parity algs from the second page. I may learn them all eventually but identifying the cases and finding nice algs was just for a bit of fun at the time. No other guides include all of the cases and I had to figure out the probabilities as you will recall.

This week I got a Stackmat and have been practising with that and an inspection timer. It's harder than I expected. I keep forgetting to start the timer, or trying to stop it with one hand phone-style . The worst thing though is my times. I thought they would suffer by <1 second for pick up and drop, but my 3x3 is a whole 3 seconds slower and I have no idea why. I don't feel slower and there's no way I'm picking up or stopping that slowly, but after 150 solves I'm still averaging ~20.7. I can't figure it out. I even ran my timers side by side to see if my phone timer had been lying to me and exaggerating my times for the last 18 months Anyone had a similar experience?

Have you tried starting a session with your normal timer and once performing normally, trying the Stackmat?

 

[mark49152]

Have you tried starting a session with your normal timer and once performing normally, trying the Stackmat?

No I should try that. It could just be that I'm having a crap spell.

Following what Marcel said, I tried an experiment. I did an ao12 of just sledgehammer, with and without stackmat. I chose sledgehammer because I do F' with left hand so need to get both hands in the correct position and make turns with both hands. With stackmat I did normal pick up and put down. Without stackmat I started the timer with both hands already on the cube in correct position, and I stopped with right hand only, allowing it to come off the cube before the left hand had finished the F'.

Ao12 with stackmat was 1.14, without stackmat was 0.50. So I remain convinced that pick up and put down should not be costing me 3 seconds on full solves. Also I haven't noticed that my crosses are unusually slow. There must be something else going on - or maybe I'm just off form.

 

[MarcelP]

or maybe I'm just off form.

Yeah, that could be the case too. I have regular bad sessions which are 2 seconds slower than normal. Better experiment would have been normal solve Ao12 with phone and normal solve Ao12 with stackmat.

 

[mark49152]

Better experiment would have been normal solve Ao12 with phone and normal solve Ao12 with stackmat.

I tried that of course. The experiment was to estimate how much time a stackmat pick up and put down should theoretically cost me.

On phone/sofa I'm about 19 which is a bit off but not unusual. On stackmat today I'm about 20.3 so not such a huge gap.

Thoughts on what could be disrupting my flow on the mat: lighting at the desk, posture in a different chair, or just general lack of composure as I'm new to solving that way...

 

[MarcelP]

I tried that of course. The experiment was to estimate how much time a stackmat pick up and put down should theoretically cost me.

On phone/sofa I'm about 19 which is a bit off but not unusual. On stackmat today I'm about 20.3 so not such a huge gap.

Thoughts on what could be disrupting my flow on the mat: lighting at the desk, posture in a different chair, or just general lack of composure as I'm new to solving that way...

The phone scrambles could also be easier

 

[mark49152]

The phone scrambles could also be easier

Good thinking, but no cigar. I used the phone for stackmat scrambles, so maybe they're both easy. Actually I configured my timer app to give me a 12 second countdown timer. On the fart sound, I stop inspecting and start timing. When using phone/sofa I don't time inspection, so that could be a factor, although I rarely seem to need the whole 12 seconds so not a major factor.

 

[chtiger]

I hear this is where the old people hang out. I just did my first comp at US Nationals, and I don't think I'd call it fun, but it was an interesting experience. I felt out of place and overwhelmed by the number of people. I failed miserably at 3x3, DNF'd first solve because timer didn't start, then screwed up PLL on 2 of my 4 solves (this happens maybe 1 in 150 at home). My blind results weren't good, but I was happy just to not DNF. So how was your guys' first comp experience? (I'm not gonna read 470 pages to see if it's been discussed already).

Encouraged by the vids posted here, I should be able to get sub-20 avg. I know what I need to improve, but not sure how to improve it. Wasn't planning on doing another comp, but don't want to quit with a 45 avg (yikes). So not sure what to do now, keep practicing 3x3 and blind, practice another event, or another hobby.

 

[MarcelP]

I hear this is where the old people hang out. I just did my first comp at US Nationals, and I don't think I'd call it fun, but it was an interesting experience. I felt out of place and overwhelmed by the number of people. I failed miserably at 3x3, DNF'd first solve because timer didn't start, then screwed up PLL on 2 of my 4 solves (this happens maybe 1 in 150 at home). My blind results weren't good, but I was happy just to not DNF. So how was your guys' first comp experience? (I'm not gonna read 470 pages to see if it's been discussed already).

Encouraged by the vids posted here, I should be able to get sub-20 avg. I know what I need to improve, but not sure how to improve it. Wasn't planning on doing another comp, but don't want to quit with a 45 avg (yikes). So not sure what to do now, keep practicing 3x3 and blind, practice another event, or another hobby.

Oh man, that sucks. I bet if you would have made a nice average the whole 'experience' would have so much different. I had a crap first average on my first competition. And on my second... LOL. In fact I have never had a good avarage. I once had a 25 average when I was averaging at home. Now these days I am happy with good singles. If I break my single PB on a competition I had a great day. And competitions are more about talking to people. Not really about times. I care much more about my averages at home. Competition is too much of a short moment in which you can be better than normal or suck major .

 

[mark49152]

So how was your guys' first comp experience?

Well, funny you should ask that, because I went to my first comp this weekend (Glorious North). I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was the oldest competitor by quite a margin, and when I first arrived I thought I was going to feel out of place, but that passed after I had talked to a few people and settled in. It was great fun to meet like-minded people and talk about the hobby I enjoy so much, since I don't know anyone else who does it. Glorious North was a smaller event, ~50 competitors, and I can imagine at a larger event like US Nats it would have been a different and probably more difficult experience.

As for results, I went with no expectations or goals, and did better than I thought I might, so wasn't disappointed. Here's how it went, in chronological order.

• 4x4: For my first competitive event I decided to not even think about speed, and just try to get it solved without screwing up. My hands were still a bit shaky though. There was an average cut of 1:30 so I was delighted to get a 1:27 on the second solve, so I could continue. After that I relaxed a bit and even got a 1:14 best, which would be a good time for me even at home. Average 1:29.
• 5x5: Little hope of getting anywhere the 2:30 average cut, so I wasn't too nervous, and got a 3:03 best which would be pretty good for me even at home. Would have been sub-3 if I hadn't mangled the PLL.
• 2x2: Came off the rails early on day two. Although I got a couple of 6s, there were also a 9 and 10, and a shocker of a DNF - screwed up PBL three times over. The first two times I started solving the cube again. On the third screw-up I just hit the timer. It was already on 20-something and a DNF on the score sheet would be less embarrassing . Final average 8.95. Actually I found 2x2 the hardest event because there's just no time to regain composure.
• 3x3: Tried to stay calm for the main event and was pleased to get three sub-20s in the first 4 solves, including a 17.05. I was in with a real chance of a sub-20 average and that made me nervous for the final solve. I didn't screw it up, but got a bit shaky and came in at 24 for an average of 20.69. Was gutted to miss out on the second round by 0.02 seconds!

So all in all, a good weekend, and even if my results had sucked I think I'd still be happy and up for doing it again. Maybe you could try a smaller comp and see if that works better for you? And if comps are not for you, it doesn't matter, as long as you're still enjoying the hobby.

 

[Logiqx]

Congrats on your results Mark. Shame to miss the second round of 3x3 by such a small margin.

Did you get many parities on the 4x4?

 

[mark49152]

Congrats on your results Mark. Shame to miss the second round of 3x3 by such a small margin.

Did you get many parities on the 4x4?

Cheers Mike. Yes the first four were OLL parity. Can't remember about PLL but at least two. There was one solve where I had an adjacent PLL parity and didn't spot it until I was throwing the cube down - nearly a DNF .