What's Happening to Your Times at Competitions?

[Justin Choi]

I'm sure that we've all experienced our times rise during competition. Some people deal with pressure in competitions very well, while others fail to maintain their home solve times at competition. My average at home is low 10s, while in competition, my best average is 11.42 seconds. I also tend to get worse as the rounds progress. One major problem with people getting times that are unsatisfactory is due to the fact that we lube our cubes before the competition. Lubing our cubes does make it faster, but it also makes it unstable and very uncontrollable. In competitions, you're generally nervous, and that tends to make your cube lock up and overshoot. This is another good reason why magnetic cubes are becoming so popular these days. What do you think about magnetic cubes, and how do your times do in competitions? If you do well, do you have any words of advice?

 

[JustinTimeCuber]

I do better.

 

[Malkom]

At events I don't really practice I tend to to better (broke my 4x4 with 3 seconds at a comp) but at the ones I want to do good in I usually do a little worse (hard to tell since I for some reason don't practice my main event the week before the comp).

 

[Hazel]

Generally, I do very well in comps, maybe even better then at home.

 

[DGCubes]

I do better.

Same. The pressure and nerves help me in general, except sometimes in short events like Pyraminx where a single mistake can ruin the whole solve.

 

[JustinTimeCuber]

Same. The pressure and nerves help me in general, except sometimes in short events like Pyraminx where a single mistake can ruin the whole solve.

Or you can do a good event like 2x2 where that isn't a problem at all

 

[Ordway Persyn]

In shorter events, I usually do a little worse, though on bigger puzzles, I usually do pretty well. at my comp last weekend I got my overall PB mo3 on 6x6. On bigger puzzles I concentrate much more on official attempts than at home attempts.
I also believe that people should lube their puzzles at least a week in advance, that way you can get used to the puzzle for the competition. Relubing a puzzle makes it turn differently and you need to adjust for that.

 

[FastCubeMaster]

At my first comp, I got a 19 3x3 average, at my second comp, I got a 15 average and at my third I got an 11 average
19
15
11
Therefore at my next competition I will get a 7 second average. I generally do about the same as my home average, maybe a little bit worse

 

[Draranor]

I'm not really sure why, but it seems like only my 3x3 times are worse in comp than they are at home. All the other events I've competed in are on par with my usual times

 

[newtonbase]

I tend to do better in competition. It's probably because it's the only time I ever get to focus on cubing. The exception is 3BLD where I've never come close to what I can do at home.

 

[T1_M0]

4x4 is always better than home, I haven't yet done bigger cubes. Pyraminx hasn't really suffered, other events have. And first round is always the best, in finals I get terrible times.

 

[mark49152]

I've noticed two phenomena.

Firstly, I do better at longer events and worse at shorter events. For shorter events, including 3x3, there's no time to recover from nerves. For longer events there's time to calm down and the comp pressure translates to better concentration.

Secondly, the more I care, the worse I do. I like to have focus events for each comp since I have limited practice time, but I do then tend to put myself under more pressure in that event.

 

[tx789]

Short Events I fail, events I care too much about fail. Long do fine. I tend to do well in most events. It also depends when in the day. I felt awful for the finals of many events at my last comp. I was fine by 3x3.

 

[AlphaSheep]

Same as many above, I do better than at home in longer events. Shorter events I tend to do what feels worse, but if I go back and actually look at my times, it's usually on a par with my larger averages at home.

I've beaten my at home PB single in competitions a total of 10 times - in 4x4, 5x5, mega, pyra and feet.

 

[CJK]

I do better at almost every event, even 3x3.
I don't know why, but somehow I get a lot of official licky singles and even lucky Averages (e.g.: I got a 10.45 official 3x3 Ao5 at the time my PB Ao5 at home was at 10.36)

 

[JustinTimeCuber]

I just want to mention that at my latest comp, I got my overall PB average in skewb.

 

[xyzzy]

Not a time per se, but my official FMC attempts were significantly worse (~36) than what I get at home (~32).

As for my actual times, not much of a difference. My official 333/444/OH times are about the same as what I averaged back in February (when the comp was held).

 

[Underwatercuber]

Usually first even or two I do a little slower than normal but then I get back into the swing of things and start getting normal times after that

 

[Mastermind2368]

I do better at longer events and worse at shorter events.

Lol for me, I do worse at long events and better at shorter. I got 9 min solve on 7x7 and I avg 8 mins. I ran out of time for FMC once even.

 

[Rcuber123]

Lol for me, I do worse at long events and better at shorter. I got 9 min solve on 7x7 and I avg 8 mins. I ran out of time for FMC once even.

I do really bad at everything except Skewb. At my last I comp I did surprisingly good at skewb.