Older cubers discussions

I eventually gave up on trying to reconstruct. Very frustrating as reconstructing is a very useful skill to have. Still searching for the elusive first sub 10 on camera though but not going to get hung up on like I did with sub 15 ao12 and sub 14 ao5 on film :)

I often have this same trouble and I think it is to do with solving the cube more slowly than the original solve, seeing more options and/or thinking too much during the reconstruction.

I think the best approach may be to re-solve the cube at full speed (reducing the chances of spotting alternative pairs / solutions) and after nailing it a second / third time, re-constructing at a slower speed.

Catching PBs on film is the other option but even more difficult to achieve. :)
 
I got pb in 3x3: 12.18 with PLL skip.

L R2 F2 L2 U2 B U2 F' D2 L2 B U' B D' U2 B' F2 R2 B'
z2 // preinspection
F' D' F' R' F' // cross
R U' R' U' L' U' L // first pair
R U R' U' R U R' U' U2 L U L' //second pair
U' R U' R' y R U R' //3rd
y2 R' U2 R U2 R' U R //4th
U' R U R' U' M' U R U' r' //OLL
U//PLL
alg.cubing.net

TPS 4.10
 
I got pb in 3x3: 12.18 with PLL skip.

L R2 F2 L2 U2 B U2 F' D2 L2 B U' B D' U2 B' F2 R2 B'
z2 // preinspection
F' D' F' R' F' // cross
R U' R' U' L' U' L // first pair
R U R' U' R U R' U' U2 L U L' //second pair
U' R U' R' y R U R' //3rd
y2 R' U2 R U2 R' U R //4th
U' R U R' U' M' U R U' r' //OLL
U//PLL
alg.cubing.net

TPS 4.10

Nice!!! And good TPS. What was your previous one?
 
PBs in the Megaminx race to sub-5 ao12 [...] I think I can (maybe) get it within 7 days, what worry me most is that you have a chance of ending this tomorrow at the WC... no pressure btw :p

I did another Mega solve (so that I do 6 a week with the 5 scrambles from WC that will be published tomorrow) and got another sub-5 but far from the needed 4:40 or lower. It was just a 4:57.48. Not gonna make it this week I'm afraid :( I just checked the timer after finishing S2L and it was 3:53. That means my LL takes more than 1 minute :mad:
 
I'm hoping to get some advice from from experience blind solvers here. I'm taking my first serious stab at blind solving today. The Pochmann method is easy for me to understand. Basically just a setup move then Y-Perm for corners and T-Perm for edges, and an R-Perm for parity. All algorithms I'm already very comfortable with. I looked at M2 method for edges and, admittedly, it did not click right away.

My question is; Should I use the Pochmann method now (because it's easy to understand) while I work on my memory technique? Or should I just learn M2 now?
 
A good time, there, h2f, especially considering the number of turns, and that y2...
A few ideas worth considering:

L R2 F2 L2 U2 B U2 F' D2 L2 B U' B D' U2 B' F2 R2 B'
z2 // preinspection
F' D' F' R' F' // cross
R U' R' U' L' U' L // first pair
R U R' U' R U R' U' U2 L U L' //second pair
U' R U' R' y R U R' //3rd
y2 R' U2 R U2 R' U R //4th
U' R U R' U' M' U R U' r' //OLL
U//PLL

The 4th pair would be better without the half-turn before it, inserting to the front left corner slot, like
L' U2 L U2 L' U L or maybe z U' R2 U R2 U' R U z'
For the 2nd pair, the sledgehammer is one 'intuitive' answer
either U R' F R F' y U' R' U' R or U' F R' F' R U L U L' or U' F R' F' R z R U R U' z'
or if you spotted it, the back right slot had a couple of setup options:
L U' L' y U2 R U R' (using the empty slot) or U2 R U' R y R U R'
 
I'm hoping to get some advice from from experience blind solvers here. I'm taking my first serious stab at blind solving today. The Pochmann method is easy for me to understand. Basically just a setup move then Y-Perm for corners and T-Perm for edges, and an R-Perm for parity. All algorithms I'm already very comfortable with. I looked at M2 method for edges and, admittedly, it did not click right away.

My question is; Should I use the Pochmann method now (because it's easy to understand) while I work on my memory technique? Or should I just learn M2 now?

They are going to tell you to learn M2 now. They told me the same some days ago :) But, of course, as I cannot unlearn OP I just tried some solves with that this week, to just get some wonderful DNFs :( Anyway, I'll let them tell you themselves.
 
It's not much of an accomplishment compared to what others here have been doing lately, but after about a week of frustration and a couple of near misses today, I finally got a sub-2:00 3BLD.

1:53.53 U' B R' U' R D B' U D2 L' B2 U' R2 D' L2 U D' R2 U' L2 B2 Easyish scramble, but that's usually what it takes to get a PB.

I think I may have hurt my back a little bit celebrating. The problems us older cubers have to deal with.
 
The 4th pair would be better without the half-turn before it, inserting to the front left corner slot, like
L' U2 L U2 L' U L or maybe z U' R2 U R2 U' R U z'
For the 2nd pair, the sledgehammer is one 'intuitive' answer
either U R' F R F' y U' R' U' R or U' F R' F' R U L U L' or U' F R' F' R z R U R U' z'
or if you spotted it, the back right slot had a couple of setup options:
L U' L' y U2 R U R' (using the empty slot) or U2 R U' R y R U R'

Thanks for a feedback. Yeah, 4th pair could be done better without y2 but I didnt notice. This is the f2l I have a problem with. In slow turning I can do it in few ways including wide moves but in speedsolves - I fail. I could do that without y2 and with U setup for H OLL it gives PLL skip too. Thanks for advice for 2nd pair - looks nice.

@chtiger - congrats. Feels great? ;)
 
It's not much of an accomplishment compared to what others here have been doing lately, but after about a week of frustration and a couple of near misses today, I finally got a sub-2:00 3BLD.

1:53.53 U' B R' U' R D B' U D2 L' B2 U' R2 D' L2 U D' R2 U' L2 B2 Easyish scramble, but that's usually what it takes to get a PB.

I think I may have hurt my back a little bit celebrating. The problems us older cubers have to deal with.

Sub 2 is excellent. I've been avoiding timing solves as I've been working on better memo but that might have to be my next target.

Edit: Quick attempt. Rescrambled cube in about 3:30. Work to do.
 
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I got pb in 3x3: 12.18 with PLL skip.

L R2 F2 L2 U2 B U2 F' D2 L2 B U' B D' U2 B' F2 R2 B'
z2 // preinspection
F' D' F' R' F' // cross
R U' R' U' L' U' L // first pair
R U R' U' R U R' U' U2 L U L' //second pair
U' R U' R' y R U R' //3rd
y2 R' U2 R U2 R' U R //4th
U' R U R' U' M' U R U' r' //OLL
U//PLL
alg.cubing.net

TPS 4.10

Nice.. I think your should forget about BLD for a while and focus on what is really important. :) (LOL only kidding...)
 
3x3 ao12 PB: 22.70 (previous one was 23.12 from 9 days ago). Just after setting that PB I tried the scrambles of the race to sub-25 and I did 23.17, first time I get a sub-25 average there... I'm still usually averaging like 26, but I'll take it, nice session :D

Megaminx:
5:07 single
5:29 ao5
5:58 ao12
 
Quick update. I have been doing mostly 4x4 and 4BLD but not had much time to practise recently. I've come to the conclusion that BLD and BigBLD in particular is harder to recover after a longish break. Most other events take 2-3 averages to get back, but BLD gets stuck in a frustrating rut of DNFs and struggle memos. My 4BLD is back up to 12-14 minutes with about a 20% success rate. Got a long way to go before Exeter!
 
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