Older cubers discussions

[openseas]

I guess there are 3 groups of people on the list:
In answer to your question. I'm happy to add them if you are confident they qualify for over 40's and you don't think they'd mind.

Haha, folks. Sounds like rule of thumb is new oldies have to be slow to be listed and not to disrupt the current rankings

With that spirit in mind, you can add 2017GRAD03 Patrick Grady, he is well over 40s. He started competing from last year. (@Jason Green & @newtonbase : your rankings are safe )

You can add me.... my first comp was a month following my 40th birthday. I’m not sure my age is relflected on my WCA profile, I know it’s not here.

WCA dB does have your birthday information but they don't make it public. (changed the policy a while ago to protect the personal information). So, if you compete, your organizer knows your age but that's it.

 

[SpartanSailor]

Oh.... they know me. AND they know I’m old! Lol... they used to get confused when my son got his check in stuff complete and I was standing there trying to check in as well. “Oh, you compete too?” Yes. Yes I do.

 

[openseas]

Oh.... they know me. AND they know I’m old! Lol... they used to get confused when my son got his check in stuff complete and I was standing there trying to check in as well. “Oh, you compete too?” Yes. Yes I do.

Been there. Now I competed quite a lot / most of Texas & Korean cubers know me (also facebook friends
I also gave seminars couple of time showing them how to magnetize cubes & statistic related tips.

 

[newtonbase]

Haha, folks. Sounds like rule of thumb is new oldies have to be slow to be listed and not to disrupt the current rankings

It's certainly preferred.

 

[SpartanSailor]

I tried practising blind today and it’s fun, but exhausting. I can’t just do it like normal solves (one right after the other...). After a few in a row I need to clear my head a little before I continue.

But I did get 7:45.221 for one practise run today—that is a good one for me. I think I spend almost 6 minutes to memo. Still using OP/OP and not very efficient, but it’s effective.

 

[Mike Hughey]

I tried practising blind today and it’s fun, but exhausting. I can’t just do it like normal solves (one right after the other...). After a few in a row I need to clear my head a little before I continue.

But I did get 7:45.221 for one practise run today—that is a good one for me. I think I spend almost 6 minutes to memo. Still using OP/OP and not very efficient, but it’s effective.

In my experience, getting to where you can do BLD like normal solves is just practice. A LOT of practice (at least in my case). Do as many as you can in a row each day, and slowly you'll increase the number you can handle, until you eventually get where you can keep going all day. At one point when I was really in practice I was sometimes doing 150 to 200 solves in a single day.

Obviously you'll need to speed up to get there, but that also happens the more you practice, especially if you try to push your memo speed - you'll get faster quickly.

 

[openseas]

I tried practising blind today and it’s fun, but exhausting. I can’t just do it like normal solves (one right after the other...). After a few in a row I need to clear my head a little before I continue.

One method I used earlier was practicing just memo. I made a script which generated thousands of edge & corner targets based on my letter scheme. Just read those targets and try to come up with images: I was able to trim down my memo time from 3.5 min (memo only in the beginning) to 1.5 ~ 2min. I believe this practice allowed me to create bunch of letter pair images. Or you can create your own PAO list (People Action Object) list - that way, you can spend less trying to make up images.

In my experience, getting to where you can do BLD like normal solves is just practice. A LOT of practice (at least in my case). Do as many as you can in a row each day, and slowly you'll increase the number you can handle, until you eventually get where you can keep going all day. At one point when I was really in practice I was sometimes doing 150 to 200 solves in a single day.

Wow, 150~200, even with averaging 2min, that's a good 6 hours!

 

[h2f]

At one point when I was really in practice I was sometimes doing 150 to 200 solves in a single day.

Impressive. My record is 80 solves.

 

[Mike Hughey]

Wow, 150~200, even with averaging 2min, that's a good 6 hours!

Yes, I would do about 50 at a sitting, then take a 15 minute break, then do 50 more. That was right before US Nationals 2011, which went really well for me.

 

[newtonbase]

One method I used earlier was practicing just memo. I made a script which generated thousands of edge & corner targets based on my letter scheme.

This site is nice for practicing memo
http://tobip.ch/letter_pair_generator/

 

[JohnnyReggae]

The Wuchuang M is a great cube. Mine has been main for about 6 months I think though I am getting a Moyu Bochuang magnetised as I have always loved the turning style of it.

I decided to magnetise my Moyu BoChuang after selling my black WuShuang M to someone that really wanted a magnetic 5x5. The WuShuang was my best 5x5 at the time. But I must say that the magnetic BoChuang is a great 5x5 and I do like the turning on it. I have since gotten a stickerless WuShuang which I magnetised and I prefer it over the BoChuang because of it's smaller size. The BoChuang also has some spring noise which can get a little irritating, but then again some lube on the springs and core internals would probably sort that out.

 

[mitja]

Yes, I would do about 50 at a sitting, then take a 15 minute break, then do 50 more. That was right before US Nationals 2011, which went really well for me.

This site is nice for practicing memo
http://tobip.ch/letter_pair_generator/

I wish i could insert my lettering scheme. Do you have any advice about 4BLD method of preparing the memo, for wings? How do you know which stickers haven't been used yet? Do you still use fingers or Is it just by memory? I can count them and know how many are left, but after that is some guessing. I am not shure about all of them. I must admit, I don't find enough time to rehearse like you guys. Probably when you do that many solves, you always know which stickers are already in memo and which are not. I am not there yet

 

[SpartanSailor]

I know I’ll improve with time and practice.... There aren’t many comps with BLD I’m my area. In fact, none of the N. American comps listed on WCA site have blind in my area between now and as far out as the project comps. New ones pop up all the time. I just want to be confident enough to give a legit attempt at a BLD solve in comp without running out of time because my memo phase is too long.

 

[SpartanSailor]

This site is nice for practicing memo
http://tobip.ch/letter_pair_generator/

That’s a cool generator. I’ll have to figure out how to improve my memo method.

 

[mark49152]

Do you have any advice about 4BLD method of preparing the memo, for wings? How do you know which stickers haven't been used yet? Do you still use fingers or Is it just by memory?

I have 5 wing stickers I like to start a new cycle on, and I kind of keep a mental note which of those I have not yet seen. Then when I hit a break I can usually pick one of them quickly to restart on.

 

[muchacho]

Ao12 OH PB: 24.276 (was 24.896 from 2 weeks ago)

I'm gonna take OH seriously, because I like it... and it seems to be one of the easiest events to get relatively fast at. The goal this year is being sub-24, a few days ago it looked highly improbable, but today I'm not scared. I've decided to first learn CMLL and see where that gets me.

Spoiler

10105 15-ene-2018 14:22:41 00:23.918 D' B2 D F2 U F2 D L2 U2 F2 U2 F U2 R2 D' B2 L F2 R' D'
10104 15-ene-2018 14:21:52 00:26.831 L2 B2 R2 D L2 D' L2 U R2 L2 D B R2 B2 U' R' D' F U R' F'
10103 15-ene-2018 14:21:03 00:25.856 L2 U B2 U R2 U' R2 U' B2 F2 U' R D R2 L2 F' L' D' R' F' R2 U'
10102 15-ene-2018 14:20:09 00:20.021 R2 F2 R2 L2 F2 D2 U' L2 B2 D U L B' F U' B' L U2 B D2 B
10101 15-ene-2018 14:19:22 00:24.815 F2 D F2 R2 D2 R2 D2 U L2 F2 U' L D B' F R B2 U' L F U
10100 15-ene-2018 14:18:33 00:26.383 F2 U2 B2 L2 D2 F2 L2 F2 U' L2 U' L B U2 R2 B' D2 L2 B' D F2 U2
10099 15-ene-2018 14:17:44 00:26.246 R2 U2 L2 D L2 D L2 D B2 D R2 B R2 F D L' D' F U' R L2 U'
10098 15-ene-2018 14:17:01 00:20.559 B2 L2 U' F2 D B2 R2 D' B2 R2 U L' F' U L D2 U B' D R' D U
10097 15-ene-2018 14:16:20 00:22.262 D' B2 F2 L2 D B2 U R2 D R2 U' B D2 R L' F R' F U R2 F' U'
10096 15-ene-2018 14:15:35 00:25.806 L2 U2 B2 U' L2 B2 L2 F2 D' R2 U L U2 F' L' B F2 R F' U' B'
10095 15-ene-2018 14:14:52 00:24.030 L2 B2 F2 U' B2 U L2 F2 U L2 U' R L' B D' R B2 R' B' F' L
10094 15-ene-2018 14:14:09 00:22.888 D B2 U' R2 F2 D L2 U2 F2 R2 U2 B' L2 F D B' R' U' R D2 L D'

 

[newtonbase]

I have 5 wing stickers I like to start a new cycle on, and I kind of keep a mental note which of those I have not yet seen. Then when I hit a break I can usually pick one of them quickly to restart on.

Which 5?

0/4 MBLD just now. Recall let me down especially on flips and concentration was appalling plus I completely forgot a corner memo. Chatty women at the next table didn't help.

 

[Shaky Hands]

I thought I'd update on my own recent BLD exploits as that's pretty much all I've been practicing for the past 7-10 days since learning M2 to replace OP Edges.

I now have all of the M-slice algorithms and parity (edge-first) in muscle memory and can finger-trick most of them too. Most of my practice has been just doing the M2 portion of a BLD-solve as I know how to solve OP corners already and I want to focus what I'm practicing on. I haven't tracked my success rate but I reckon it's around 40% at the moment, with most mistakes coming from execution.

I don't time them all, but it looks like my PB for M2 edge-only memo and execution is 1:06.49 with R' D2 B2 U2 F2 R' U2 L2 R' U2 L B F2 L D' U' F' L B D' R2 Rw' Uw' (10 targets.) Again, this is just for edges before anyone thinks I'm doing insanely well!

Overall, I think it's going well. I know my memo speed is improving too. Other than the occasional MBLD, this is probably the first concentrated BLD practice I've done since April 2017 when I was working towards my first official 3BLD success for that month's comp.

I also watched a 4BLD tutorial and whilst I'm not planning on going down that route yet, at least I understood it.

 

[mitja]

I have 5 wing stickers I like to start a new cycle on, and I kind of keep a mental note which of those I have not yet seen. Then when I hit a break I can usually pick one of them quickly to restart on.

Ok, so yes a was trying to think the same. My No1. is always Target UB, then UL, UR, UF as I can move them to target and make 3-cycle, Then LB, RB which I can also move quickly to target, Then FU or. BD for that neat trick of yours from advanced M2. So I have to keep track on these, thanks. Another question, do you have any faster solution for U layer centres? I do all the letter pairs for centres in simple 3-cycle, but not those on U. With wings it is almost 90% of them, but the three U layer stickers for centres takes long Alg approach for me.

 

[Jason Green]

It's certainly preferred.

In all seriousness I'd rather have everyone on there so I know where I really stack up against everyone.

I tried practising blind today and it’s fun, but exhausting. I can’t just do it like normal solves (one right after the other...). After a few in a row I need to clear my head a little before I continue.

But I did get 7:45.221 for one practise run today—that is a good one for me. I think I spend almost 6 minutes to memo. Still using OP/OP and not very efficient, but it’s effective.

Yeah that's my problem, in addition for me I feel like I have to be "ready" to even start. Long day and I'm tired I can just sit down and do some normal practice to relax, but not so much with blind yet.

This site is nice for practicing memo
http://tobip.ch/letter_pair_generator/

That's pretty cool thanks!