Older cubers discussions

[pglewis]

When I was younger, I was always at my best in the examination room, which is a "do something within x time" situation, but never as good in a "do something as fast as you can" case, which a Rubik's comp is. Made me try to go faster than I can = mistakes. But I am learning how to handle that with home solves against the clock.

This is why I was so shocked after my first comp. I never experienced "test anxiety" and didn't even understand it because tests were a moment to shine. Now I know what that feels like.

 

[mark49152]

When I was younger, I was always at my best in the examination room, which is a "do something within x time" situation, but never as good in a "do something as fast as you can" case, which a Rubik's comp is. Made me try to go faster than I can = mistakes. But I am learning how to handle that with home solves against the clock.

The approach I took at my first comp, and which I would recommend, is simply to forget you're going against the clock. Don't try to race. Instead, know that you are simply measuring how long it takes you to do a solve. Relax, start the timer, solve without rushing, stop the timer; measurement complete. I surprised myself by actually measuring pretty close to my home average

 

[Old Tom]

The approach I took at my first comp, and which I would recommend, is simply to forget you're going against the clock. Don't try to race. Instead, know that you are simply measuring how long it takes you to do a solve. Relax, start the timer, solve without rushing, stop the timer; measurement complete. I surprised myself by actually measuring pretty close to my home average

That's the ideal way. Now, how do I mentally trick myself into doing that? I guess by going to lots of comps. Sounds like a plan.

 

[pglewis]

Solid day of untimed 3bld solves yesterday and I think I'll repeat it again today and then do a 7 cube mbld attempt tomorrow. I'm already prepared to attempt 7 but attempts at 4-6 were all legit and could have been scoring if not for tracing and execution probs so I'm pounding execution with a focus on very high accuracy first. Execution confidence is already much higher after yesterday. I'm also drilling my images at the same time, looking them up if I'm having trouble on a pair, thus untimed. The focus is "if tracing and memo are a given then execution should be a given".

 

[mark49152]

That's the ideal way. Now, how do I mentally trick myself into doing that? I guess by going to lots of comps. Sounds like a plan.

Quite the opposite. Once you have an official result on record, it's virtually impossible to resist trying to beat it at every subsequent comp. Which is OK, since that is kinda the point!

 

[Old Tom]

Quite the opposite. Once you have an official result on record, it's virtually impossible to resist trying to beat it at every subsequent comp. Which is OK, since that is kinda the point!

Sounds a bit like Poe's "Descent into the Maelstrom." But I'm game.

 

[mafergut]

Quite the opposite. Once you have an official result on record, it's virtually impossible to resist trying to beat it at every subsequent comp. Which is OK, since that is kinda the point!

Oh my! You're right! I'm lucky that I have lots of events where I can register a result for the first time in upcoming competitions. Probably my next 3x3 average will be bery bad, just because of trying to beat my current one.

 

[newtonbase]

There was a thread on Facebook asking if your n/n MBLD PB was better or worse than your best 3BLD success streak. I have 7/7 but pretty sure my 3BLD streak was very low so when I got successes on my first 3 practice solves at lunch I went with it and ended up with 9. They were fairly slow but not overly cautious so I'm pretty happy with it.
How about the rest of you blinders?

 

[Mike Hughey]

I'm pretty sure my best 3BLD streak is way beyond my best multiBLD n/n result. I just checked my timer (where I only store solves that are not for online competitions), and even though it was reset just 99 solves ago, I have a streak of 14 successes in it. My best n/n multiBLD is 14/14. I'm pretty sure I've had an average of 25 before (with only one DNF) - I suspect that one had a streak of at least 17 or 18. I wouldn't be surprised if I've had a streak of 25 or more before, but I haven't kept track.

 

[SpartanSailor]

Given my MBLD result has only yeilded success once (2/4)... easily my 3BLD success has exceeded that.

Although, I think my best 3BLD success rate is 5 or 6 in a row. But getting more than 2 in a row exceptionally rare.

I guess I’ll just have to do more MBLD to up the ante some.

 

[pglewis]

My best n/n is still an untimed 2/2 that was possibly over 20 mins. Holding out hope for much better soon

 

[Mike Hughey]

My guess would be that only a few of the very best multiBLDers might actually have a bigger n/n multi than their longest 3BLD streak. To do that, you'd probably have to practice multiBLD a lot more than 3BLD.

To me, one of the most impressive odd stats out there ever is Tim Habermaas's official competition 3BLD streak, visible on the WCA statistics page:


3x3x3 Blindfolded longest success streak
Person Length Best Avg Worst When?
Tim Habermaas 71 1:15.00 1:56.31 3:50.28 Nov 2009 - Apr 2013

71 in a row! Just incredible!! It will be a while before someone beats that with an n/n multiBLD result, I think.

 

[pglewis]

I also have new news! I just managed not only a sub-2 minute but actually now have beaten my previous best of 1:38 with a slick 1:31! And it wasn’t a terribly easy solve either! I am flabbergasted! It came out of nowhere, especially when I consider recently that I have only been doing one or two solves a day and had my first day off yesterday. It seems the brain continues to bury the knowledge deeper and more firmly with time even when you’re not practising.

Congrats! I've also noticed while learning new things that my brain continues to absorb for a few days even without practice. That's harder to do now, I have to keep exercising my case recognition with a lot more last layer algs.

F2L will continue to improve for a long time and you're well on your way, you might want to look into 2-look OLL soon. That'll ensure you can always solve OLL in 2 steps worst case and only requires 10 algs... some of which are short and easy and a few you surely already know.

 

[newtonbase]

My guess would be that only a few of the very best multiBLDers might actually have a bigger n/n multi than their longest 3BLD streak. To do that, you'd probably have to practice multiBLD a lot more than 3BLD.

Shivam has a 44 streak against his 48/48.

 

[SpartanSailor]

My guess would be that only a few of the very best multiBLDers might actually have a bigger n/n multi than their longest 3BLD streak. To do that, you'd probably have to practice multiBLD a lot more than 3BLD.

To me, one of the most impressive odd stats out there ever is Tim Habermaas's official competition 3BLD streak, visible on the WCA statistics page:


3x3x3 Blindfolded longest success streak
Person Length Best Avg Worst When?
Tim Habermaas 71 1:15.00 1:56.31 3:50.28 Nov 2009 - Apr 2013

71 in a row! Just incredible!! It will be a while before someone beats that with an n/n multiBLD result, I think.

Is that 71 comps in a row with at least one success in a comp? Or is that 71 consecutive success (3 per comp for 23 comps and then 2 at the 24th comp) without a DNF?

 

[Mike Hughey]

Is that 71 comps in a row with at least one success in a comp? Or is that 71 consecutive success (3 per comp for 23 comps and then 2 at the 24th comp) without a DNF?

The latter. 71 consecutive successes! And actually he got first and third solve at a comp, then 3 per round for 23 rounds (some of the comps had 2 rounds), then first and third solve in the next round.

 

[SpartanSailor]

The latter. 71 consecutive successes! And actually he got first and third solve at a comp, then 3 per round for 23 rounds (some of the comps had 2 rounds), then first and third solve in the next round.

Well.... I just can’t imagine.

Inspired by this, I have managed a 3BLD streak of 2 so far. Lol... untimed, of course. We will see if I am able to extend that to 3 or even, *gasp*, 4!

 

[SpartanSailor]

Well I got to 4, missed 1 by a flipped edge I forgot to memo (but remembered seeing it), then got 2 more. That’s 6/7 on the days practice. I don’t recall being that consistent before. And the average was sub 3:30... not too shabby.

Edit to add.... Then of course, as is always my frustration, I went on to get 3 DNFs in the weekly comp. And because I couldn’t recall my memo. I don’t feel like i was rushing anymore than i was when I got 6/7 leading up to my weekly comp attempt. But that is just annoying.

 

[pglewis]

mbld day: 4/7, a +2, and I was just over on time before the penalty: 1:00:19 (46:26 / 13:53).

After having chronic issues with edge execution for the past two weeks I was over the moon that I got 6/7 on edges. One was off by a twisted corner, another off by a 3-cycle of corners, and one was all fouled up due to memo fail.

Memo ran longer than I wanted due to a trace mistake I had to straighten out plus my brain really slows down after about 40 mins. I also had to jump up and grab my blindfold right before memo'ing the last/first cube because I forgot it. Execution was faster than anticipated so I almost made up for it. I'll try 'er again tomorrow or Sat.



Postmortem edit: Actually, my memo didn't fail at any point. I thought I had mixed up and used the end of a different edge memo on cube 2 at the time, so I thought that was the prob but it was a trace and execution error combo:

1: good
2: edge trace error (L instead of J), corner execution error
3: good
4: trace error (bizarre: memo'ed O instead of N twice)
5: good
6: good
7: twisted corner, goofy trace error

So, my memory held for what I put there and only one weird execution error in the bunch.

 

[pglewis]

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