Older cubers discussions

[newtonbase]

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.

View attachment 9319

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.

Well done. Now that you know your capacity for the hour you can work on increasing it.
I sometimes switch pieces with their opposites too. I men's V instead of X on one yesterday but luckily realised during execution so still got a success.

 

[pglewis]

Well done. Now that you know your capacity for the hour you can work on increasing it.
I sometimes switch pieces with their opposites too. I men's V instead of X on one yesterday but luckily realised during execution so still got a success.

Yeah, the swapping is common enough for me but the reason the O/N confusion was bizarre is O was already solved and I still trace using fingers so it should have been covered. It was my weird dyslexia of looking right at N and memo'ing O anyway.

I'm thinking a solid day or even two of sighted execution (maximize tracing practice) and untimed 3bld (was very helpful for yesterday's attempt) before my next attempt. 8 is probably doable soon but I'd like to see comfort on time for 7 first.

 

[mafergut]

Yeah, the swapping is common enough for me but the reason the O/N confusion was bizarre is O was already solved and I still trace using fingers so it should have been covered. It was my weird dyslexia of looking right at N and memo'ing O anyway.

I'm thinking a solid day or even two of sighted execution (maximize tracing practice) and untimed 3bld (was very helpful for yesterday's attempt) before my next attempt. 8 is probably doable soon but I'd like to see comfort on time for 7 first.

I think I should start practising 3BLD again... I see all your progress, guys, and it makes me envious. But it's difficult for me to find the time and, most of all, the conditions to practise BLD. My house is a constant party of noise

I already uploaded and got approved a picture to my brand new WCA profile just in case any of you is curious what the real face is behind that 3x3 cube avatar.

 

[Mike Hughey]

My house is a constant party of noise

That's the sort of thing that can make you deadly awesome in competition. People who practice in environments like that can become impervious to distraction!

 

[pglewis]

But it's difficult for me to find the time and, most of all, the conditions to practise BLD. My house is a constant party of noise

I learned 3bld a year and a half ago now but it's been slow progress because a single attempt was so mentally taxing for a long time. I really had to be ready for an attempt vs. the mindlessness of 3x3 where I could squeeze in practice whenever. It's gradually getting better though and the multi push makes a 3bld solve feel like a light snack now.

That's the sort of thing that can make you deadly awesome in competition. People who practice in environments like that can become impervious to distraction!

Yeah, I'm totally stacking the deck in my favor for these attempts, picking a time of day when my brain is clicking at its best and with headphones playing ocean waves. I won't have either luxury at comp. When I have an official attempt coming up I do distraction practice with 3bld at the coffee shop a few days a week and it's a big difference.

 

[Old Tom]

That's the sort of thing that can make you deadly awesome in competition. People who practice in environments like that can become impervious to distraction!

I guess I do have a one-up on you guys. Being deaf, as in REALLY deaf, I am oblivious to noise distractions (though not to vibrations, clumping feet, etc.)

And, big news, for me anyway, I just this morning started to study BLD. Some of the videos have good captions and take things slowly, and some of the text sources are good also. Tons of stuff on Google about memo techniques. It all seems to make sense to me, though surprised there are so many ways to go about it. I will try Old Pochmann, Speffz letter pairs, probably "rooms" imaging, etc. I do not use T-Perm, J-Perm, etc. in my current sighted method, but am already learning those, easy enough, though setup moves may be a problem. Still have to get the Aa-Xx lettering system to be automatic, just drill and practice. Maybe by this weekend I can try some fully sighted solves, but while doing some primitive memo anyway.

Long, long way to go, so wish me luck. Expecting lots of DNFs, no problem, since you guys still get them.

Would allowing myself 30 minutes initially be too much, or would that much time make retaining the memo too difficult?

 

[mark49152]

@Old Tom - great to hear! Good luck and have fun.

To answer your question, different people will give different advice, by mine would be to practise your method sighted until you have fully grasped it, then move on to memo. For memo, keep reviewing until you can recall it no problem, even if that takes several reviews. Don't worry about how long it takes. If you've reviewed very thoroughly you will probably find you can still remember it the next day

 

[Old Tom]

@Old Tom - great to hear! Good luck and have fun.

To answer your question, different people will give different advice, by mine would be to practise your method sighted until you have fully grasped it, then move on to memo. For memo, keep reviewing until you can recall it no problem, even if that takes several reviews. Don't worry about how long it takes. If you've reviewed very thoroughly you will probably find you can still remember it the next day

Will do, thx. But will start on memo techniques on the side anyway, the whole idea of it is intriguing. Just watched a video of a performance cuber who gave a Ted Lecture (with captions). He called a young lady from the audience onto the stage, had her quickly memo room images, and then she repeated them to him while he did a blind solve. (Of course, if she had made a mistake he would have solved it anyway. But she didn't.)

 

[pglewis]

My first 3bld success at home and my official success (right up against the time limit) were easily the two most exciting moments for me cubing thus far. A reasonable n/n multi will likely be a loud moment.

I started with sighted corner execution to get the setups and mechanics down and confident. There are fewer corners than edges and csTimer will even provide corner-only scrambles, selecting "3x3" and "corners only" at the top. Perfectly fine and a good idea to work on learning the letter scheme, tracing, and the memorization tactics separately at the same time but I found it easier to get confident with the different parts independently before trying to put them all together.

The fine folks here will steer you right, if it weren't for Mark and Mark egging me on I'd probably still be at 3-4 cubes in multi.

 

[Mike Hughey]

Regarding time for first solve, my first attempt took me more than 45 minutes. Spending a long time means your memory gets better, not worse, since it means you can review it again and again to make sure it's solid.

 

[Old Tom]

Here is an interesting question about what the regs allow in BLD. I do know that you are not allowed to write anything down during memo. But I also do know that some of you use audio memo methods. Are you allowed to speak out loud during a solve? Regardless of the answer to that, my question is: can I use sign language as part of the memo and recall? In particular, I suspect that I could do a "brute force" memo of the eight corner stickers by signing the letters on my hand (note to you UK guys: American signed letters are on one hand). I don't have to actually see them during the solve. The hand shape in my mind would be quite vivid, fed in part by my hand making the letters.

Allowed? @SpartanSailor, what do you think? Want to try it yourself?

 

[Mike Hughey]

You're not allowed to be disruptive to other competitors. So that's the limitation on speaking aloud during a solve. I occasionally am whispering to myself, but I keep it really quiet. More often I'm just mouthing the words to do my "audio" memory, hearing it in my head.

As for signing to memorize, I don't see why not. Just take a look at old Maskow videos back when he was first pursuing the WR, and you'll see he made hand motions all over the place. I still often make motions to help me memorize, especially during multiBLD, although I'm not quite as animated as Maskow used to be.

 

[newtonbase]

Will do, thx. But will start on memo techniques on the side anyway, the whole idea of it is intriguing. Just watched a video of a performance cuber who gave a Ted Lecture (with captions). He called a young lady from the audience onto the stage, had her quickly memo room images, and then she repeated them to him while he did a blind solve. (Of course, if she had made a mistake he would have solved it anyway. But she didn't.)

I saw that video very early on in my blind training.I can't recall exhibit was but it was very helpful in understanding the theory behind memo. I'd suggest using more images per room than he does though.

 

[h2f]

I'm closer to sub-10 barrier in single. I got 10.67 yesterday.

Spoiler

Reconstruction
Time: 10.67
Scramble: D B2 F2 L2 D' F2 R2 D2 F2 D' F2 L' U2 B F' D L2 B D2 L' U
x2 // inspection
F D L R2 F D' // cross
R' U R y' R' U' R // 1st pair
U' R U' R' U' L U L' // 2nd pair
U2 L' U L U2 L' U L // 3rd pair
U' R U' R' U R U R' // 4th pair
U2 l' U2 L U L' U l // 1LLL
U // AUF

http://bit.ly/2Ai8SfU

 

[muchacho]

OH PB single: 15.894 (was 16.447 from 7 weeks ago)

Probably not the most efficient, but no pauses and pretty fast turning.

Spoiler

R2 U2 L2 F2 U B2 L2 B2 D2 R2 U B L2 U' F' L U L2 U2 F U2

z2 y
U M U2 M' U2 L U' Lw' U2 L' U L' z2
Lw' U' Lw2 U M U2 M2 L U' L' U2 M U2 Lw' U' Lw
U F R U R' U' F'
M' U' M U2 M' U M' U2 M U2 M' U2 M2 U' M' U2 M'

52 STM
3.27 TPS

 

[Old Tom]

Well, starting third day of learning BLD. Still at the base of the mountain, but have established camp, and am pretty well supplied with videos and text manuals. Have done small parts of a solve, sighted, successfully but best described as "tortuous." Not yet considered the parity issue.

One thing is bothering me, advice please. Setup moves. They are not immediately obvious to me, but when I fiddle a bit (sighted, of course) I always get to the "oh yeah" moment. Then, likely as not, I will have forgotten what I did when it is time to reverse the setup.

So? Will practice be enough? Or, do I need to make a list, drill and memorize setups? And, most especially, when it comes time to do an actual blind attempt, do you guys plan the setup during the inspection, or just handle it from experience during the solve? Or?

 

[openseas]

Well, starting third day of learning BLD. Still at the base of the mountain, but have established camp, and am pretty well supplied with videos and text manuals. Have done small parts of a solve, sighted, successfully but best described as "tortuous." Not yet considered the parity issue.

One thing is bothering me, advice please. Setup moves. They are not immediately obvious to me, but when I fiddle a bit (sighted, of course) I always get to the "oh yeah" moment. Then, likely as not, I will have forgotten what I did when it is time to reverse the setup.

So? Will practice be enough? Or, do I need to make a list, drill and memorize setups? And, most especially, when it comes time to do an actual blind attempt, do you guys plan the setup during the inspection, or just handle it from experience during the solve? Or?

Yes, make a list and drill it. Once you have a taste of success, then, your obvious goal will be speed. No shortcut but drill & practice.

 

[One Wheel]

One thing is bothering me, advice please. Setup moves. They are not immediately obvious to me, but when I fiddle a bit (sighted, of course) I always get to the "oh yeah" moment. Then, likely as not, I will have forgotten what I did when it is time to reverse the setup.

So? Will practice be enough? Or, do I need to make a list, drill and memorize setups? And, most especially, when it comes time to do an actual blind attempt, do you guys plan the setup during the inspection, or just handle it from experience during the solve? Or?

As a fellow rank amateur blind solver (~100 attempts, I think 4 or 5 successes mostly either tracing or memo errors): I picture the piece that I'm setting up as I'm setting it up. There are usually only 2 or 3 logical setup sequences for any given sticker at most, and with practice I'll settle on one setup that I always use.

 

[pglewis]

One thing is bothering me, advice please. Setup moves. They are not immediately obvious to me, but when I fiddle a bit (sighted, of course) I always get to the "oh yeah" moment. Then, likely as not, I will have forgotten what I did when it is time to reverse the setup.

So? Will practice be enough? Or, do I need to make a list, drill and memorize setups? And, most especially, when it comes time to do an actual blind attempt, do you guys plan the setup during the inspection, or just handle it from experience during the solve? Or?

Practice will do the trick. I "recently" (several months ago by now) changed my setups for K/V/G/J thinking the transition would be a snap. It has actually taken me a little while to get confident with them though, I had the old setups in muscle memory to a degree. I understood and could visualize the new ones perfectly but in the end: they were new.

Setups for OP was a big "aha!" moment for me in general and it has done wonders for my spatial IQ. You'll get there though, just the boring old advice for now unless there's something specific giving you trouble: practice it.

 

[newtonbase]

Well, starting third day of learning BLD. Still at the base of the mountain, but have established camp, and am pretty well supplied with videos and text manuals. Have done small parts of a solve, sighted, successfully but best described as "tortuous." Not yet considered the parity issue.

One thing is bothering me, advice please. Setup moves. They are not immediately obvious to me, but when I fiddle a bit (sighted, of course) I always get to the "oh yeah" moment. Then, likely as not, I will have forgotten what I did when it is time to reverse the setup.

So? Will practice be enough? Or, do I need to make a list, drill and memorize setups? And, most especially, when it comes time to do an actual blind attempt, do you guys plan the setup during the inspection, or just handle it from experience during the solve? Or?

Choose your setups carefully as you don't want to have to change them. Drilling should mean that you only need to recall the letter and not have to think where it is or how to set it up. Like @pglewis I've changed a few and it's hard.