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Older cubers discussions

@Selkie, Chris - congratulations of becoming WCA Financial Committee member.

Thanks Grzegorz @h2f . Its an honor. Looking forward to working with the treasurer, Chris Hardwick and fellow committee member James Molloy. Great to be given the opportunity of giving something back to cubing and the WCA in particular, especially with the WCA's current evolution :)
 
Me and my son during last comp. Guess whos faster? :)

I look forward to that someday, hope my boys get into it!

4x4 ao100 1:00.11. So close. Couldn't recommend the WuQue M more. Not sure on the standard version but the Cubicle Labs one is awesome
I just ordered mine it was on sale. Hopefully will be here in time for Nats!

Some Pre-Nats practice with the kids around. :)
 
I was doing factory solves with one of my team. He averages around 45 seconds using F2L + 4LLL so we were aiming for sub-30.

We were getting around 30-40 seconds for most of our solves until we had this blinder of a solve! His contributions were quite fortunate and shown in blue.

Scramble = F2 D2 L’ F B’ L D B F2 D2 B’ D2 F’ D L2 U2 B’ R2 L U B’ D R2 D2 B’
Time = 19.874

y’ // Inspection
u’ F’ R’ F2 u’ L2 // Yellow cross (6/42)
U’ L’ U L // F2L-1 (10/42)
y’ U L’ U L y’ R U2 R’ // F2L-2 (17/42)
y’ L’ U L // F2L-3 (20/42)
U2 R U’ R’ U R U R’ // F2L-4 (28/42)
F U R U’ R’ F’ // OLL (34/42)
U’ M2' U' M U2' M' U' M2' // PLL (42/42)
 
Progress report:

After almost 4 weeks of cubing I'm consistently solving around 1:30 with the beginner method. I'm now learning 2 look OLL and 2 look PLL. Good news: When I remember my algs correctly my times are dropping down to the 1:10 range. When I don't remember my algs correctly I get a complete train wreck :( I practice and practice the algs, but when the timer starts I'm somehow missing a move and end up with a white face on the top. Oh well, that's nothing that more practice can't fix.

My goal a week ago was to have a sub 1:30 Ao5 and I've hit that several times. A 1 minute average seems far away, but then again, a sub 2 minute average seemed impossible 4 weeks ago. :D

Even though I'm focusing on learning my OLL and PLL algs I'm finding that just by solving a couple hundred times I'm getting faster and faster with the white cross. I'm rarely solving the cross in place but I'm now solving the cross in the proper color relationship to each other and then rotating into place. It's interesting to see the change in my perception of the cube. This thing was a total mystery a month ago and each day it's making more and more sense. I'm really enjoying that part of the process.
 
I'm now learning 2 look OLL and 2 look PLL. Good news: When I remember my algs correctly my times are dropping down to the 1:10 range. When I don't remember my algs correctly I get a complete train wreck :( I practice and practice the algs, but when the timer starts I'm somehow missing a move and end up with a white face on the top. Oh well, that's nothing that more practice can't fix.
Keep it up and you'll get there! The first algs are the hardest to learn. With time you will also get much better at learning algs. It's a bit like learning the piano. The beginner will learn and memorize a new piece one note at a time, while the more experienced player thinks in chords, chord progressions or harmonic relationships, which means much less to memorize. Similarly, when learning your first cubing algs, it's pretty much learning them one move at a time. When you learn more algs, you start seeing patterns and triggers to group moves together. Then that 15 move alg might be memorized as 2 or 3 items, instead of 15.

If you are still thinking about algs as a series of separate moves, I would recommend you also look at how certain pieces move. For example, for many of the corner orienting algs, look at the front right F2L pair and how they move while you execute the alg. Then you can memorize the alg by remembering that movement, instead of thinking of every single move.
 
Progress report:

After almost 4 weeks of cubing I'm consistently solving around 1:30 with the beginner method. I'm now learning 2 look OLL and 2 look PLL. Good news: When I remember my algs correctly my times are dropping down to the 1:10 range. When I don't remember my algs correctly I get a complete train wreck :( I practice and practice the algs, but when the timer starts I'm somehow missing a move and end up with a white face on the top. Oh well, that's nothing that more practice can't fix.

My goal a week ago was to have a sub 1:30 Ao5 and I've hit that several times. A 1 minute average seems far away, but then again, a sub 2 minute average seemed impossible 4 weeks ago. :D

Even though I'm focusing on learning my OLL and PLL algs I'm finding that just by solving a couple hundred times I'm getting faster and faster with the white cross. I'm rarely solving the cross in place but I'm now solving the cross in the proper color relationship to each other and then rotating into place. It's interesting to see the change in my perception of the cube. This thing was a total mystery a month ago and each day it's making more and more sense. I'm really enjoying that part of the process.

Congrats on the progress! You're moving much faster than I did, but most people do :D. I discovered I don't have a very good innate spatial sense for the cube but this journey has improved that drastically.

The algs definitely become more automatic with practice. I can drill a new one over and over on its own and then have immediate amnesia when it turns up in a real solve. I find that making the recognition connection takes more work for me than learning algs, themselves. The 7 OCLL algs-- the ones for when all edges are already oriented, eg top cross solved-- are probably the most vital initially. Fixing edge orientation for 2-look OLL is only three cases (plus solved) and they're short, fast, and have such a high frequency that you'll get a lot of practice with them. Recognition develops quickly for it, I can still two look OLL nearly as fast as I one look it at my stage because my recognition for 2 look is so fast and well developed, relatively speaking.

If you're going with CFOP I'd still put most of my eggs into the F2L basket. Once you get 4-look LL you're not going to have 50 seconds to shave from cross and last layer combined. My cross, last layer, finger tricks, and dexterity continue to improve just as a by-product of practice with a primary focus on F2L and lookahead. The algs I'm currently learning are an investment in the future and not immediate time-savers. My F2L lookahead develops a lot more slowly than my alg learning so whenever I'm comfortable with the algs I know I just add a couple more. Improved F2L is still where I have the most low hanging fruit.
 
If you are still thinking about algs as a series of separate moves, I would recommend you also look at how certain pieces move. For example, for many of the corner orienting algs, look at the front right F2L pair and how they move while you execute the alg. Then you can memorize the alg by remembering that movement, instead of thinking of every single move.


I like that idea a lot! That really does make sense. Thank you.
 
Introduction of an older OH (future?) speed cuber. I'm 42 and grayer than what I should be.

I am part of a speed cube group on FB and a gentleman on there invited me here. I apologize in advance to him, as I was supposed to do this a month or more so ago.

Any ways, I'm a beginner one-arm solver. I do only have one-arm and started learning to solve to teach my two boys how to do it. Well, that's a completely different story now as I'm leering the way I have to.

Still helping my boys with the normal algorithms. My oldest beats me to the yellow cross by a good minute or so. Long are the days I beat him.

My youngest is catching up really fast as well. It's crazy how slow I picked it up and how fast they are. Loving every minute of it.

I learn(ed/ing) CFOP and I was trying to do everything left handed. Gah! Found Peter Hung's site and had to relearn what little I had already learned.

I am pretty good at getting the C, the F2L is getting there and I'm trying to learn to do pairs. I can do it. But it takes me a while to get them together. I know I've become faster, but still over 3 minutes.

I'm still not able to solve without looking at the algorithms for OLL and PLL. Slowly learning them and hoping to get the OLL learned in the next few months.

So, it's not much of an intro, but it's a start

Any suggestions or comments or anything would be appreciated.

One question I do have if any of you OH with the right hand, what's a good B/B' finger trick?
 
I am part of a speed cube group on FB and a gentleman on there invited me here. I apologize in advance to him, as I was supposed to do this a month or more so ago.

I remember your post on that group, welcome.

I am afraid I am not the best on this thread to advise on OH, its a discipline I gave up a few years ago. I have lost some dexterity in my left hand with age which I can hide in 2 handed solving but it is obvious when you see me solve a megaminx as all my U and U' are with my right hand on that puzzle.

I solve(ed) OH with the left hand though I am right handed for the same reason as most. Right handed 2 handed algorithms suit left handed one handed. The reason being is a lot of 2H algs are R and U heavy and in the left hand R and U are easy, U with index and R with pinky.

I would concentrate on finding sites that specialise in OH algs now rather than learn 2H awkward algs and then have to relearn later.

Here is Antoine Cantin's site, he is one of the best OH in the world:-

https://sites.google.com/site/antoineccantin/oh

You may ask why I have linked a LH OH site but these are very optimised algs and if you pick a mirror case and L/R mirror the alg it may prove useful. e.g. Ja for LH is Jb for RH with teh alg mirrored R to L, so R U R' U' becomes L' U' L U.

Hope that is of some use and again, welcome to the old mans mad house :D
 
That's a smile I won't wipe off for a while :) Yeah I'm doing alright cheers, yourself? Studying again and doing my best to stay on-topic, never an easy task :p You'll definitely see me later this year, I just need some system that notifies me of local competition reg opening as I don't much browse here any more...

Yeah I am all good thanks buddy. Getting older but luckily still just getting faster. Been though redundancy and re-employment in the last 6 months but absolutely love the new job so all for the best. Glad to hear life is treating you well. The UK comps are announced on FB by UKCA but I note you aren't on FB anymore. Wonder if UKCA or even WCA would consider comp announcement email notifications moving forward. Now that would be a nice idea...
 
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