Older cubers discussions

[muchacho]

29.501 OH Mo100 PB (from 29.974), I'm still improving just by practicing more... so I'll practice more

 

[NewbieCuber]

Impressive new PB single today : 16.41 s, down from last week's 17.57 s (which was barely down from my mid-April 17.69s). That's for the good news.

Bad news : I went to my second comp 2-3 weeks ago and again performed like s**t : 31s Ao5 with a PB of 26s. On my 5th solve, I managed to execute a wrong PLL 3 times in a row !

I really get too nervous on a stage with hundreds of people watching. At least I got my official Ao5 down by 6 sec or so compared to Febuary's comp. Considering my unofficial PBs went down by only half that during the same delay, I'd say it's a nice improvement.

I've been a musician all my life and I've taught guitar, mandolin, and banjo for the past 12 years. I find that the same thing happens when musicians perform live. The stuff that was easy in rehearsal falls apart in front of people.

My advice is to remember that going to comps is also practice. You're practicing how to perform in front of people. In music, I always suggest that people go find open mic nights to perform their music just to build up that experience of performing in front of a group of people. For cubers I might suggest setting up a mock competition with a couple friends. Have them scramble the cubes and do the 15 second review timing and so on. The more experience you have in an environment similar to a competition environment the more comfortable you'll be.

 

[NewbieCuber]

I'm getting better! 2 weeks in and my averages on a 3x3 are:

Ao 50 : 2:19.27
Ao 12 : 1:54.03
Ao 5 : 1.47.30

It's moving in the right direction.

 

[mark49152]

My advice is to remember that going to comps is also practice. You're practicing how to perform in front of people.

Yeah that's true. Also, in my experience, the more you care the worse you'll do. It's only a hobby so try to relax and focus on having fun.

 

[pglewis]

I've been a musician all my life and I've taught guitar, mandolin, and banjo for the past 12 years. I find that the same thing happens when musicians perform live. The stuff that was easy in rehearsal falls apart in front of people.

My advice is to remember that going to comps is also practice. You're practicing how to perform in front of people. In music, I always suggest that people go find open mic nights to perform their music just to build up that experience of performing in front of a group of people. For cubers I might suggest setting up a mock competition with a couple friends. Have them scramble the cubes and do the 15 second review timing and so on. The more experience you have in an environment similar to a competition environment the more comfortable you'll be.

Similar background and I agree. It comes down to my confidence, if I'm well rehearsed on the material and used to playing live then the nerves don't get me much, at least, nothing a pint or two can't fix. At my last comp I still felt that wave of brain-attacking adrenaline the moment they called my heat. But until I'm more confident I simply set conservative goals for myself: what I expect at home and what I expect from comp are two different things until it all becomes old hat. Those two worlds are getting a little closer together after each one I attend.

 

[pipkiksass]

Crazy lack of cubing time these days, very sad! When I cube late at night I'm significantly slower, and my only other opportunities are the odd lunch break.

Mentioned on here last week that I'd bought a GTS2 M from The Cubicle, along with both Cubicle Labs lubes. 3x3 is going so-so, although the GTS has replaced my DIY Valk M as my main.

My main improvement has been 4x4, which I haven't practiced in months. Dropped some DNM 37 on my WuQue, and did about 6 solves... lowered my single pb from 1:08.xx to 1:00.xx! In half a dozen solves! Having not solved a 4x4 in AGES! Honestly, the stuff must be magic juice or something.

Did my first 4x4 "session" in a long time today, probably upwards of 2 months, when I was averaging 1:30ish. Did 14 solves today and hit 1:10.52 Ao12 (old PB was 1:18.80) and 1:08.08 Ao5 (old PB was 1:15.48)!

When I get the chance to do another 30 solves and roll the average to 50 I'm sure that'll go too.

Just goes to show, often a change is as good as a rest - too much practice maybe isn't that good for you? When I was TRYING to improve at 4x4 I failed, now I suddenly seem to have lost 10 seconds off my times without even doing 4x4!?

So yeah, maybe try DNM37, it's just possibly magic juice?

 

[h2f]

@pipkiksass Maybe it's a matter of a break, not lube... Or both.

 

[pipkiksass]

Lol, just noticed my Ao5 pb is lower than my single PB was 2 days ago!!!

 

[pglewis]

The planets are aligning just as I'd hoped: there's now a comp in Nashville in Sept. that will be holding 3-bld, which is the perfect time-frame I was looking for. 10 min cumulative limit with no soft cut so I expect to attempt one careful solve to get a success; I don't expect to be under 5 mins by then to get a second shot at it in my first go.

I've been making 3 or 4 attempts a day (still a lot of time spent finding and filling-in images in the spreadsheet) with 1 or 2 successes per day since I've started making full attempts again. I've been attempting one a day at the coffee shop without the aid of my spreadsheet for a better reality test and got a success there today. I even mis-memoed a B corner as a C but immediately realized it was wrong during execution. I'm still so slow and deliberate that I can practically remember the corner cycles spatially. No timer involved so far and I probably won't bother for a few weeks. I've had at least one unaided success while "pushing" that was almost certainly under 10 mins, so now I build as much of a safety cushion as I can to land 1/1 under comp conditions in a few months.

The single most important thing for me right now is collecting images. That's where I spend the most time and it's especially apparent when I'm unaided by my spreadsheet. Second biggest time-eater would be tracking edge cycles when they get more complex.

 

[pglewis]

And on the subject of images, I find myself leaning strongly towards using two words for letter pairs rather than the traditional wisdom of one short word. I find that the memory cost for me is for the image itself and not the length of the word or words. "Rocket Launcher" is a very clear, vivid image that I can easily drop into an ad-hoc story and it doesn't have the ambiguity of "rail" (is that "RA" or "RL"?) at a time where I haven't even fully built, much less memorized, the matrix from hell. Also far less likely to inadvertently duplicate images (the public spreadsheet that was in a recent thread includes "moon" for both MO and MN). "The Declaration of Independence" is a mouthful but it has worked very quickly and reliably as DI for me, it's a very clear image.

 

[newtonbase]

The planets are aligning just as I'd hoped: there's now a comp in Nashville in Sept. that will be holding 3-bld, which is the perfect time-frame I was looking for. 10 min cumulative limit with no soft cut so I expect to attempt one careful solve to get a success; I don't expect to be under 5 mins by then to get a second shot at it in my first go.

I've been making 3 or 4 attempts a day (still a lot of time spent finding and filling-in images in the spreadsheet) with 1 or 2 successes per day since I've started making full attempts again. I've been attempting one a day at the coffee shop without the aid of my spreadsheet for a better reality test and got a success there today. I even mis-memoed a B corner as a C but immediately realized it was wrong during execution. I'm still so slow and deliberate that I can practically remember the corner cycles spatially. No timer involved so far and I probably won't bother for a few weeks. I've had at least one unaided success while "pushing" that was almost certainly under 10 mins, so now I build as much of a safety cushion as I can to land 1/1 under comp conditions in a few months.

The single most important thing for me right now is collecting images. That's where I spend the most time and it's especially apparent when I'm unaided by my spreadsheet. Second biggest time-eater would be tracking edge cycles when they get more complex.

And on the subject of images, I find myself leaning strongly towards using two words for letter pairs rather than the traditional wisdom of one short word. I find that the memory cost for me is for the image itself and not the length of the word or words. "Rocket Launcher" is a very clear, vivid image that I can easily drop into an ad-hoc story and it doesn't have the ambiguity of "rail" (is that "RA" or "RL"?) at a time where I haven't even fully built, much less memorized, the matrix from hell. Also far less likely to inadvertently duplicate images (the public spreadsheet that was in a recent thread includes "moon" for both MO and MN). "The Declaration of Independence" is a mouthful but it has worked very quickly and reliably as DI for me, it's a very clear image.

You are doing the right thing compiling a proper list. It'll serve you well.
I also agree with taking your time in competition. You might still DNF but you're giving yourself the best chance. Pushing memo is the thing that has given me the best results improvement time wise but that should be saved for practice once you are confident with the process.

 

[mark49152]

And on the subject of images, I find myself leaning strongly towards using two words for letter pairs rather than the traditional wisdom of one short word. I find that the memory cost for me is for the image itself and not the length of the word or words. "Rocket Launcher" is a very clear, vivid image that I can easily drop into an ad-hoc story and it doesn't have the ambiguity of "rail" (is that "RA" or "RL"?)

That is fine. It's one pair = one image. IMHO it doesn't matter that the image has a two-word name. The info you memorize is just as efficient.

You're on the right track, just keep on practising and you'll easily be ready to fit two attempts into that 10 minute limit by September. You'll be surprised how fast you improve if you practise systematically. As @newtonbase said, pushing memo gives the biggest gains, but actually, pushing memo at your level is less about speed and more about being brave and trusting yourself.

Remember that repetition is the most powerful way to get memo to stick, much more so than going slowly. Try this: scan your edges or corners, whichever you do first, to the point where you have pictured an image scene, but do not dwell on it trying to "force" it into memory. Just move on, even if you know you will immediately forget it. That's OK. Now memo the other piece type the same way. Then come back to the first set. Try to remember it, but if you can't, don't waste time racking your brains, just immediately memo it again - which is helpful anyway because you can check you scanned the cube right. Then move on again. Repeat until the memo has stuck, but it's important to alternate between piece types. Usually it'll stick by the third iteration and you'll be surprised how strong it is. You'll probably still remember it the next day .

TL;DR: three quick, cursory memo iterations are more effective than one slow, careful memo.

 

[newtonbase]

IMHO it doesn't matter that the image has a two-word name.

Yes, it makes no difference how long it takes to write or say the image. I use a lot of people's initials and for N as a single letter I have Negasonic Teenage Warhead!
Yesterday I had JI as a pair. For me that's the actor John Inman. For some reason his actual name went completely out of my head but as I had those letters associated with his image it didn't matter.

 

[h2f]

I've been making 3 or 4 attempts a day (still a lot of time spent finding and filling-in images in the spreadsheet) with 1 or 2 successes per day since I've started making full attempts again.

I remeber me doing 5 solves per day. After 7 months I was succeseed at a competition with time 4:30 on the first attempt and 2:34 on the second when the stress came down. You are on the good route. Keep it up!

 

[pglewis]

Thanks for the tips and support

TL;DR: three quick, cursory memo iterations are more effective than one slow, careful memo.

This will be a hard habit for a perfectionist to break but I totally see the wisdom. I gave it a shot at my morning cafe solve and was definitely much faster. Sure, I missed an unsetup somewhere and was off by a couple pieces but I don't think memo was to blame.

 

[h2f]

This will be a hard habit for a perfectionist to break but I totally see the wisdom. I gave it a shot at my morning cafe solve and was definitely much faster. Sure, I missed an unsetup somewhere and was off by a couple pieces but I don't think memo was to blame.

Do you practcie pure algs in sight solving? The idea behind this is you could do all algorithms (setup + alg) without thinking.

 

[pglewis]

Do you practcie pure algs in sight solving? The idea behind this is you could do all algorithms (setup + alg) without thinking.

If you mean sighted OP/M2 practice, then yeah. I've only been back at it for a couple weeks but I've been doing a session of sighted execution practice every few days. It also helps my "letter assignment" which still requires more thinking than it should. I've improved a lot at seeing a piece and knowing where it goes just on spatial relationship, but it takes me a second or two longer to put a letter to it still. Just practice.

 

[mafergut]

Hi guys! Still reading you once or twice a week. Not a lot of practice, though but it doesn't seem like I'm becoming slower just yet. At least at 3x3. The other day I got an OH PB single, so close to sub-20 but nope, it was a 20.22 (PLL skip). Impressed by all your progress, in particular @muchacho is becoming very fast at OH. I just can hit sub-30 seconds like 5 to 10% of the time and you are already sub-30 globally.

Also, even though I have problems finding time to practice lately I decided that the collecting part of the hobby was also fun so I ordered the missing pieces in my ShengShou Mastermorphix series (basically everything but the 3x3, which I already had). So, yeah, I ordered the 2x2, 4x4 and the newly released 5x5. I plan on stopping there even if they release higher order ones.

I'll try to be in contact. Cheers

 

[moralsh]

After like 50 or more sub 1:05, about 15-20% of that with parity and a couple of doubles. I had 2 close sub 1 yesterday
1:00.43 missing space bar and hitting it later
1:00.58 with OLL parity

Then I had a 59.51 explosion on the last turn.

I was angry at not getting the sub 1 and then Alberto ( @APdRF ) told me that I'd already should have at least 5 sub 1 if I stopped looking at the timer.

I turned off updating on cstimer and next solve... bang 59.85. Now let's try to make that an official single

 

[h2f]

If you mean sighted OP/M2 practice, then yeah

Yes. You are going to make a nice progress very soon.