Older cubers discussions

[SpartanSailor]

Well, I’ve got first 3 BLD podium even with not so admirable result (2:05), mostly thanks to huge dnf attempts from top blders

A side note, my son broke his official PB

Awesome! Congrats!

It’s nice to see Jeff get that WR. I hope you have a video we can see soon

 

[Jason Green]

Well, I’ve got first 3 BLD podium even with not so admirable result (2:05), mostly thanks to huge dnf attempts from top blders

A side note, my son broke his official PB

And congrats on your podium Jae! I totally forgot to say that sorry!!

 

[40yearstosolve]

Joining the thread thought I’d say Hi and thanks for the link to this.

Annoyingly I don’t feel old at all, at 45.

I am a new solver - never did solve it when I was 5 - but experience and wisdom have served me well (only wish I had had those attributes forty years ago ).

Anyone else not solved it until recently?

 

[40yearstosolve]

Wow this is amazing that you were ‘me’ forty years ago. What an fascinating story.

Can’t wait to become a geezer myself

Just butting into this thread, because I am indeed an Older Cuber. I will turn 80 later this month, learned to solve via LBL in 1981, when I was already 42, with help from David Singmaster's classisc booklet. Never tried to speedsolve (so don't ask me my times)! I would pick up the cube again every year or so, just to see "if I could still do it." I always could, using a slightly unothodox method of my own design for the last layer that needs ony four algs (edge O, edge P, corner P, corner O).

Just this last April stumbled on this site, and became motivated to learn F2L. Love it, now doing it completely intuitively, but have no look-ahead (yet), so just enjoying it w/o aiming for speed. Still staying with my last layer method, zero desire to learn all those algs.

I wonder how many of us "geezers" are around?

ow

 

[40yearstosolve]

So is there any hope for me? Can I ever achieve a sub 1 minute?

How I solve is (please don’t laugh)...

1. Daisy
2. 180 degrees to Cross
3. Solve white corners
4. Solve first two layers: White facing away
5. Solve yellow: Look for yellow symbols and use algorithms: right sune amongst three or so others.
6. Last later: I have two here. One to solve where no corners match. And another to solve where I just have middles to solve.

It takes me a long time. FIVE FULL MINUTES! But finally I can do it without reading my notes.

I can’t have any distractions otherwise I get it wrong.

The last two algos really hurt my head to remember, I’ve had to craft some weird techniques to remember them. As well as the yellow symbols, I have little memory joggers to remember the rule.

Is there any chance I can speed this up or does my technique confine me to a perpetual 5 minutes!!

 

[mark49152]

So is there any hope for me? Can I ever achieve a sub 1 minute?

Of course . You'll have to learn some new stuff though, but that's part of the fun.

See here for some fast oldies: https://github.com/Logiqx/wca-ipy/blob/master/README.md

@Logiqx and @Selkie are battling it out for fastest UK oldie

 

[SpartanSailor]

Joining the thread thought I’d say Hi and thanks for the link to this.

Annoyingly I don’t feel old at all, at 45.

I am a new solver - never did solve it when I was 5 - but experience and wisdom have served me well (only wish I had had those attributes forty years ago ).

Anyone else not solved it until recently?

I only started sometime around March 2016. Only a couple years, but it’s definitely enjoyable.

Edit:
Sounds like the beginner method. You can definitely get that down under a minute. A friend of mine started a couple months ago. I showed him basically the method you are using. He’s under a minute now.

The algs can be intimidating. But with the ones you have, you can keep practicing them. They will get easier and come more naturally.

Welcome to the world of Cubing and welcome to the group!

 

[openseas]

Just awesome stuff! And another awesome comp Jae! You guys run it so well, I was bragging to my parents how well you keep on schedule.

Thanks! It was fun! A small comp with all 18events for 2 days was kinda exhausting but was able to get it done one time. Just award ceremony took more than half hour - 18 events + some fun awards, too. We’ll have 3 more DFW comps this Summer, the August one will be another 2 day comp with +100 peoeple.

Awesome! Congrats!

It’s nice to see Jeff get that WR. I hope you have a video we can see soon

Thanks, Jeremy!
He uploaded the video.

Is there any chance I can speed this up or does my technique confine me to a perpetual 5 minutes!!

Welcome! I started about 45 as well. Yes, at first, sub 1 minute looked so far away & unreachable but once you break one barrier, you’ll find yourself aiming higher and higher. Folks here have good source of information, can help you a lot. Enjoy the path!

 

[40yearstosolve]

Ha great, it’s a great forum Thanks.

Fantastic, I will keep going at it and practising. Under a minute is impressive enough for me I think. 5 minutes bores whoever you are showing. But even my 7 year old will wait 1 minute.

I only started sometime around March 2016. Only a couple years, but it’s definitely enjoyable.

Edit:
Sounds like the beginner method. You can definitely get that down under a minute. A friend of mine started a couple months ago. I showed him basically the method you are using. He’s under a minute now.

The algs can be intimidating. But with the ones you have, you can keep practicing them. They will get easier and come more naturally.

Welcome to the world of Cubing and welcome to the group!

 

[40yearstosolve]

Thanks! It was fun! A small comp with all 18events for 2 days was kinda exhausting but was able to get it done one time. Just award ceremony took more than half hour - 18 events + some fun awards, too. We’ll have 3 more DFW comps this Summer, the August one will be another 2 day comp with +100 peoeple.



Thanks, Jeremy!
He uploaded the video.

Welcome! I started about 45 as well. Yes, at first, sub 1 minute looked so far away & unreachable but once you break one barrier, you’ll find yourself aiming higher and higher. Folks here have good source of information, can help you a lot. Enjoy the path!

That is encouraging to read, I will keep on plodding away at it. The difficulty is I don’t get to practise the latter stage algos as much because I have to get through the rest of the solve first! And doing the daisy takes me 1 minute in itself haha!

 

[pglewis]

A few further impressions on the Yuxin HuangLong M (stickerless) after a few days.

It's fast but I don't think as crazy fast as some of the reviews out there make it out to be. My GTS2Ms aren't much slower, if any, when maintained and setup with speed in mind. Magnets feel stronger than the factory GTS2M but I don't think it affects me much. Stickerless shades are definitely awesome, my favorite so far. I've done a handful of 3bld with it and had no issues during execution.

I'm not sure it'll usurp the GTS2M for overall "main" status in the long run, I always seem to return to them, but it's good enough to be making a case for itself.

 

[newtonbase]

Welcome @40yearstosolve
I got my first solve at 41. You'll speed up very soon and will definitely get under a minute with a bit of practice. Your method is fine to build upon.

 

[pglewis]

Welcome to @Old Tom and @40yearstosolve!

I learned to solve in the 80s but it went by the wayside after the fad crashed until a couple years ago. I'm all-in on the hobby again now, welcome to the old men's club!

 

[Jason Green]

Joining the thread thought I’d say Hi and thanks for the link to this.

Annoyingly I don’t feel old at all, at 45.

I am a new solver - never did solve it when I was 5 - but experience and wisdom have served me well (only wish I had had those attributes forty years ago ).

Anyone else not solved it until recently?

I first solved using Petrus in my 30s a little, but not too try and improve. But I never really got into it until I was 40. Like everyone else said you can get pretty fast with your method! If you look on cstimer there are different types of scrambles like only the last layer. You could use that to get more practice on just the end of your solve for example.

 

[40yearstosolve]

I first solved using Petrus in my 30s a little, but not too try and improve. But I never really got into it until I was 40. Like everyone else said you can get pretty fast with your method! If you look on cstimer there are different types of scrambles like only the last layer. You could use that to get more practice on just the end of your solve for example.

I have just been playing with cstimer, extremely clever and detailed. Perhaps it’s the haze of the morning, I can’t see how I can scramble just the last layer. Trying it on my phone will look on laptop later.

Thanks hugely for sharing that, someone has gone to a lot of effort.

Cheers

 

[CLL Smooth]

So is there any hope for me? Can I ever achieve a sub 1 minute?

How I solve is (please don’t laugh)...

1. Daisy
2. 180 degrees to Cross
3. Solve white corners
4. Solve first two layers: White facing away
5. Solve yellow: Look for yellow symbols and use algorithms: right sune amongst three or so others.
6. Last later: I have two here. One to solve where no corners match. And another to solve where I just have middles to solve.

It takes me a long time. FIVE FULL MINUTES! But finally I can do it without reading my notes.

I can’t have any distractions otherwise I get it wrong.

The last two algos really hurt my head to remember, I’ve had to craft some weird techniques to remember them. As well as the yellow symbols, I have little memory joggers to remember the rule.

Is there any chance I can speed this up or does my technique confine me to a perpetual 5 minutes!!

Welcome to the speedsolving forum! You’ll find an abundance of useful information here. Everyone on this thread is very helpful as well. As far as your method goes it’s a fine thing to start with. The first piece of advice I would give though is to loose the daisy. It’s an extraneous step and you should be able to figure out how to solve the white edges directly without doing the daisy first. Best of luck on your cubing journey. I believe it’s a quite different journey for everyone but we all have the same passion.

 

[Mike Hughey]

I have just been playing with cstimer, extremely clever and detailed. Perhaps it’s the haze of the morning, I can’t see how I can scramble just the last layer. Trying it on my phone will look on laptop later.

When you first pull up cstimer, click on the box where it says "WCA" and pick "3x3x3" from that menu. Then the box next to it will say "WCA". Click on that box and pick "last layer". Voila - scrambles that only scramble the last layer.

I just had a big near-total success for multi. For the "Nationals Simulation" thread, second attempt:
14/15, 57:41.98 (10:2E; memorization: 37:15.30)
I just had 2 edges wrong on the tenth cube - there were two flipped edges and I only saw one of them when memorizing.
I can really do 15!
Now to start trying to increase. 16 certainly looks doable, anyway.

 

[mark49152]

I just had a big near-total success for multi. For the "Nationals Simulation" thread, second attempt:
14/15, 57:41.98 (10:2E; memorization: 37:15.30)
I just had 2 edges wrong on the tenth cube - there were two flipped edges and I only saw one of them when memorizing.
I can really do 15!
Now to start trying to increase. 16 certainly looks doable, anyway.

Go for it Mike! When's your next WCA comp with multi?

 

[40yearstosolve]

Welcome to the speedsolving forum! You’ll find an abundance of useful information here. Everyone on this thread is very helpful as well. As far as your method goes it’s a fine thing to start with. The first piece of advice I would give though is to loose the daisy. It’s an extraneous step and you should be able to figure out how to solve the white edges directly without doing the daisy first. Best of luck on your cubing journey. I believe it’s a quite different journey for everyone but we all have the same passion.

Thank you, and yep it’s a friendly place - I was waiting for the mocking That’s a great tip thank you for that, today’s mission

 

[40yearstosolve]

This is amazing thank you Mike - found it cheers.

From your message I think you are saying you completed 15 solves!!

When you first pull up cstimer, click on the box where it says "WCA" and pick "3x3x3" from that menu. Then the box next to it will say "WCA". Click on that box and pick "last layer". Voila - scrambles that only scramble the last layer.

I just had a big near-total success for multi. For the "Nationals Simulation" thread, second attempt:
14/15, 57:41.98 (10:2E; memorization: 37:15.30)
I just had 2 edges wrong on the tenth cube - there were two flipped edges and I only saw one of them when memorizing.
I can really do 15!
Now to start trying to increase. 16 certainly looks doable, anyway.