Older cubers discussions

[mark49152]

Some nice results there in Wales. Congrats guys!

 

[pglewis]

I get to where I’m tracing my memo 3-4 times to make sure I have it. I still get tangled up tracing the pieces to be sure I got them all...

Same issues here, we're being very careful almost as if we're doing mbld. The top guys memo under 10 seconds and though that may be nuts I figure if they can do that then I can do it in two and a half minutes. My execution splits were usually under 2 mins when I was practicing, even as green as I am, so memo under 3 and I'm in.

 

[Mike Hughey]

Oh wow - a regional championship so close to home! (Great Lakes in Fort Wayne) I will be there if I possibly can.

 

[mark49152]

Same issues here, we're being very careful almost as if we're doing mbld.

At 5+ mins I would say it's just a case of doing a bunch of solves. Your times will plummet as you get more adept and confident at tracing, memo and execution. Don't worry about accuracy, DNFs are a good sign that you're not taking it too cautiously . It's kinda like being 2+ mins at 3x3. There's little to be gained from analysing solves until you're comfortable and competent with the solving process.

If you want to break it down, I recommend practising tracing alone. It's an essential and fundamental skill to read the sequence off the cube quickly and accurately, and easy to practise intensively without stressing the memory.

 

[SpartanSailor]

Same issues here, we're being very careful almost as if we're doing mbld. The top guys memo under 10 seconds and though that may be nuts I figure if they can do that then I can do it in two and a half minutes. My execution splits were usually under 2 mins when I was practicing, even as green as I am, so memo under 3 and I'm in.

I am around 2 minutes for execution as well. I'm still using OP/OP. It's not efficient, but when I have my memo down, I can make pretty good times with T-perms and the slightly modified y-perms. I'm pretty confident with my set ups too... there are still a couple corners that I slow down to think about, but on the whole I'd say I'm about 6 mins to memo and 2 to execute.

And I'm not stranger to DNFs when it comes to BLD! In fact, I'm surprised when I open my eyes and it's correctly solved!

 

[SpartanSailor]

I tried to do 2 cubes for the weekly competition Multi-BLD... that was essentially pointless! I spent all my self-imposed time (20 min) trying to get my memo down. thinking I would "commit" the first to memory, I spent over 13 minutes just trying to get the 1st cube memo! LOL... it was fun, but I don't think I'll be making another attempt at more than 1 cube for quite some time.

 

[pglewis]

There's little to be gained from analysing solves until you're comfortable and competent with the solving process.

I don't save many sessions but this one was typical right before I switched the focus back to 3x3. Execution wasn't very fast but was reasonably consistent thanks to a lot of sighted execution practice. When I left off I was working on the tracing and pushing memo harder (thus all the DNFs). Solve 6 was a 4:50 and the notes say "off by 2 corners". So I think your suggestion of focused tracing practice is right on the money, getting the memo under 3 is job 1. Finding out how far I can get it under 3 for some cushion is job 2.

 

[pglewis]

I tried to do 2 cubes for the weekly competition Multi-BLD... that was essentially pointless! I spent all my self-imposed time (20 min) trying to get my memo down. thinking I would "commit" the first to memory, I spent over 13 minutes just trying to get the 1st cube memo! LOL... it was fun, but I don't think I'll be making another attempt at more than 1 cube for quite some time.

Yeah I haven't made many multi attempts yet but I have managed untimed 2/2 and 2/3. A few more weeks of practice and things might be solidifying enough for you to try 'er again, you're very close to where I am on the learning scale.

The journey method or "roman rooms" is a common method for multi blind. The way I'm using it is I have a series of real locations I know well that I can mentally visit in order. I have two key spots in each location, one for my corner memo and one for my edge memo (some people use more "spots" to track twisted/flipped pieces). In my living room, the corner memo goes on the couch and I visualize my first letter-pair image on the couch. Edge letter pair images are on the coffee table. When I'm done in my living room I move to my office where I'll have my corner memo on my desk. I have 10 rooms setup so I'm good for a while.

 

[SpartanSailor]

Yeah I haven't made many multi attempts yet but I have managed untimed 2/2 and 2/3. A few more weeks of practice and things might be solidifying enough for you to try 'er again, you're very close to where I am on the learning scale.

The journey method or "roman rooms" is a common method for multi blind. The way I'm using it is I have a series of real locations I know well that I can mentally visit in order. I have two key spots in each location, one for my corner memo and one for my edge memo (some people use more "spots" to track twisted/flipped pieces). In my living room, the corner memo goes on the couch and I visualize my first letter-pair image on the couch. Edge letter pair images are on the coffee table. When I'm done in my living room I move to my office where I'll have my corner memo on my desk. I have 10 rooms setup so I'm good for a while.

I probably need to spend sometime figuring out how to make my memos efficiently or effectively. I tend to just trace the pieces and create some crazy sentence from the letters. I begin to loose track if I end up hitting my buffer more than once... then I struggle to remember which pieces I've already done and I begin loosing count of the number of targets (odd/even).

I know people use images and other memory aids, but I find that I spend more time thinking of an appropriate image than if I just commit the silly sentence to mind. I do memo corners first (fewer) to be sure I have even/odd targets. Then memo edges. For now, I do another full trace through to be sure I remember my corner memo.... Like I have said before, I'm NOT fast or efficient. Although, it's fun and that is why I do it.

 

[JanW]

I've been working a bit on BLD recently as well. Accuracy is quite bad at the moment, about 20-30%, but most of the DNFs are off by one or two cycles, so it should hopefully improve quite quickly. Complete failures due to messed up setup moves are very rare. Memo usually takes 1-2 minutes, same for execution. Fastest solve today 2:33.

I don't know why, but I've always had problems during memo with blue corners. For some reason I often look at a blue sticker and trace it to the wrong place. Then I usually end up with impossible situations, like odd corner targets and even edge targets and have to search for my mistake. And for some even more weird reason, I have problems spotting the mistake if it's involving a blue corner. One memo took me over 5 minutes as I reviewed it again and again and again and again, until I finally noticed I had shot the blue/white/red corner piece to the blue/white/orange corner...

 

[SpartanSailor]

Interesting... I sometimes shoot the red/white/blue corner to the red/white/GREEN location. But more frequently, I use the TOP sticker inadvertently during my corner memo (I use the URL corner for my buffer and the L sticker face). When I do that, I usually fail to notice until it's too late.

 

[pglewis]

I probably need to spend sometime figuring out how to make my memos efficiently or effectively. I tend to just trace the pieces and create some crazy sentence from the letters. I begin to loose track if I end up hitting my buffer more than once... then I struggle to remember which pieces I've already done and I begin loosing count of the number of targets (odd/even).

I know people use images and other memory aids, but I find that I spend more time thinking of an appropriate image than if I just commit the silly sentence to mind. I do memo corners first (fewer) to be sure I have even/odd targets. Then memo edges. For now, I do another full trace through to be sure I remember my corner memo.... Like I have said before, I'm NOT fast or efficient. Although, it's fun and that is why I do it.

The fastest people use "audio" memo for at least part of their 3bld memo because, despite what I do, 3bld is a speed event and they only have to keep the memo alive for a short time.

I personally use an image per letter pair. No need to explicitly track odd or even because I'll have a dangling single letter to signal. That just shifts the effort to collecting good images though, and that's a long patient game. But it doesn't take a lot of calories to remember Albert Einstein on Roller Skates and two images is basically half the length of a corner memo.

Tracing cycle breaks is a common difficulty at our stage. I suffer from it too, especially when I start to run out of fingers and I'm playing Twister during edge memo. It's the primary thing I need to work on to hit my May target. I've learned to free up some fingers when I've finished tracing a particular face and just remember that face is done. My approach right now is memo corners first and execute them last since it's shorter to retain. Memo corners, memo edges, execute edges, execute corners. Edge memo is longer but I only have to retain it through the first half of execution. For pure trace spamming I plan to just repeatedly trace without even memo-ing. I can squeeze a lot of tracing practice into a session that way and if tracing is smoother it'll all come down to assigning images quickly enough.

 

[SpartanSailor]

@pglewis for example... what would "Albert Einstein on Roller Skates" represent? For me, that would be edges AE and RS... If that's the same for you, then perhaps it's just practice and hardwiring. I could use that memo, but I don't actually see anything... just the words, in my head.

I have had a few memo's that worked out with my wife and/or kids in the "story" and that made it super easy for me.

 

[pglewis]

@pglewis for example... what would "Albert Einstein on Roller Skates" represent? For me, that would be edges AE and RS... If that's the same for you, then perhaps it's just practice and hardwiring. I could use that memo, but I don't actually see anything... just the words, in my head.

I have had a few memo's that worked out with my wife and/or kids in the "story" and that made it super easy for me.

Exactly, it would represent "AE RS" for me and thus might represent solving 4 edges with just two images (or arguably one image really, once combined). I personally try to concoct two short, ad-hoc "stories" involving the images: one for corners and one for edges. We're wired-up reasonably well for image memory but not so much for arbitrary symbols so the idea is to leverage that image memory.

 

[newtonbase]

I'm finding that with more MBLD and 4BLD practice that I can fit a lot more into rooms than before. I'm not sure if this is because I'm getting better at strong, distinct images or that I know my rooms in more detail.
I got a 4BLD into the first third of my old kitchen today.

 

[Selkie]

Enough procrastination, 6 years since I had my last of very few successes at home, time to get to work!

 

[SpartanSailor]

I have the same lettering scheme (I believe it is quite common), however, I use white on top and green facing front. BUT... I have a cube that is all lettered from when I first decided to beginning learning blind solving.

 

[mark49152]

I'm finding that with more MBLD and 4BLD practice that I can fit a lot more into rooms than before. I'm not sure if this is because I'm getting better at strong, distinct images or that I know my rooms in more detail.
I got a 4BLD into the first third of my old kitchen today.

Yeah I have found the same. It's quite surprising how strongly memo skills develop. Do you use rooms for 3BLD too?

 

[newtonbase]

Yeah I have found the same. It's quite surprising how strongly memo skills develop. Do you use rooms for 3BLD too?

No. My corner image doesn't need a location and edges are audio. I would quite like to go full audio but it's a bit of a stretch. I can do 4x4 centres with audio but I have to build it up which is too slow for 3x3.

 

[mark49152]

No. My corner image doesn't need a location and edges are audio. I would quite like to go full audio but it's a bit of a stretch. I can do 4x4 centres with audio but I have to build it up which is too slow for 3x3.

I find I can recall corners more reliably if I put them in a room. If I'm doing a session of 20 I'll use my first 20 MBLD rooms, etc.

I'm not sure I could go full audio without changing my execution order, which I'm not keen to do, plus I think it would be a bit too much info. 4x4 centres is not that much more than 3x3 edges - maybe 16 on average so only marginally worse than a tough 3BLD.