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Older cubers discussions

h2f

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I think he was talking about MBLD

In the general cubing news: I'm kinda feeling sad for Mark B. Beats the most hallowed and oldest standing WCA record (I think), but then only holds it for a few months. Then FMC single and average which he only had for, what, a week? I didn't wanna muddle the WR thread with that and certainly don't wanna diminish the amazing accomplishment, but damn the luck lol.

I guess you're right.
 

AbsoRuud

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Yep it's the slowing down that I know I have to do but find really difficult. It's just like hitting a golf ball, the harder I try to hit it, the less distance it will go, but the temptation is almost overwhelming. I must employ/learn more self restraint.
Oh, and I do not follow my own advice at all. Not at all. I like your comparison. I compare it ot bowling. Throwing the ball as fast as you can is fun. Hitting the pins, eh, it's a bonus. :)

But with cubing it really does help to slow down.
 

pglewis

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So look ahead is starting to feel good, I feel like my good solves are becoming reasonably fluid without too many pauses, they’re starting to feel effortless. I’ll try a few timed solves see if my times are coming down. Hmm tough cross but I can work with it, dammit I didn’t find my first pair, I can’t see it, where is it? turn faster I’ve got to make up time, hell I turned too fast now my look ahead has gone completely out of the window, I should feel like I’m one step ahead but I’m one step behind, I’m way behind now TURN FASTER, MAKE UP TIME!! I need a good pll, which one is it, my brain has frozen, that one, wait something’s not right, arghh wrong one, another pll and stop the clock, 38 seconds… fan-bloody-tastic!

OK they’re not all that bad, but does this sound familiar or am I destined to never be any good at this thing?

Happens to me all the time, in one form or another. "I'm going to pay extra close attention to X in this solve" *stops timer* "Oh crap, I didn't pay attention to X at all."
 

SpartanSailor

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So look ahead is starting to feel good, I feel like my good solves are becoming reasonably fluid without too many pauses, they’re starting to feel effortless. I’ll try a few timed solves see if my times are coming down. Hmm tough cross but I can work with it, dammit I didn’t find my first pair, I can’t see it, where is it? turn faster I’ve got to make up time, hell I turned too fast now my look ahead has gone completely out of the window, I should feel like I’m one step ahead but I’m one step behind, I’m way behind now TURN FASTER, MAKE UP TIME!! I need a good pll, which one is it, my brain has frozen, that one, wait something’s not right, arghh wrong one, another pll and stop the clock, 38 seconds… fan-bloody-tastic!

OK they’re not all that bad, but does this sound familiar or am I destined to never be any good at this thing?
This. SOOOOOO... this.
 

SpartanSailor

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Slow down more until you can do it literally without making a single pause, even if it takes you 2 minutes. It's alright. Speed will come once you get the technique right.
This is what I tell myself al the time. But in reality, when you’re already at a plateau point it’s WAY more difficult to actually slow down than to simply TPS spam the Alg or F2L insertion you know. I find it incredibly difficult to pace myself so that I don’t just insert the pair I’m working as fast as humanly possible. Of course, inserting super fast just means I’m hunting for he next pair rather than fluidly connecting the next pair.

Despite working untimed solves and trying to turn smoothly... whenever the timer starts, I just go as fast as I can, then waste a time of time hunting only to do the next pair as fast as possible... repeat.

I wish I could do timed/comp solves how I do my random untimed solves with smoothness and flow. I’m not even sure what those times would be, although I’d bet they are consistently faster than my timed solves and WAY beyond my competition times.
 

openseas

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Just finished Western Championship (CubingUSA) - One of the worst outcomes in terms of results (10 DNFs in one day) but it was quite fun working with young & fun staffs in Cali area. Basically, all BLD results were DNF, not a single success including MBLD (3 out of 12).
  • 3BLD: 2 DNFs were, one edge and one corner comms error but both of them I screwed up U/U' unsetup. Looks like it happens when I slow down for accuracy
  • 4BLD: all 3 of them, decent time - 6,7,8 min. A little bit of 5BLD practice helped for both faster memo and execution. Even with a triple DNF, it is a progress. All 3 missed just 1~2 comms.
  • 5BLD: both 4BLD and 5BLD combined time limit was 75min, and I was able to finish all 6 attempts (almost). Time wise, 19, 18, 15 (judge stopped me in the middle of wing execution, probably 17 min if I was allowed to finish). Memo was around 9min. Execution has to be improved in speed and accuracy.
  • MBLD: another lesson learned, all my "evening" MBLD attempts were DNF (4~5 total?). After exhausting all day staffing, going for the maximum cubes in MBLD was not a smart choice. The only bright side was execution time: 12 cube execution was about 11 mins (including multiple pause), comp execution PB for MBLD.
  • 333: not much to add but one interesting result. The worst solve, I screwed up OLL - had to start with cross again. When I looked at the cube, it was U2 away from all corners solved. So, instead of CFOP, floated (U2) and did 2 edge comms and finished. Regardless of the time, felt quite good.
 

Puffin

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I'm having the hardest time doing M turns quickly, especially M2s. Most things I see progress on, slow as it is, but with those turns I'm like a grandpa. I silently think to myself "M, M" and go about one turn per second.
 

SpartanSailor

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I'm having the hardest time doing M turns quickly, especially M2s. Most things I see progress on, slow as it is, but with those turns I'm like a grandpa. I silently think to myself "M, M" and go about one turn per second.
Fluidity will come with time. There are some tricks you can practice, such as using both ring and middle fingers to execute M2. But even that takes a little getting used to before it feels normal.
 

pglewis

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I'm having the hardest time doing M turns quickly, especially M2s. Most things I see progress on, slow as it is, but with those turns I'm like a grandpa. I silently think to myself "M, M" and go about one turn per second.

How long have you been practicing it? I think for the first 8 months M slices ran the risk of sending my puzzle flying, now it's a great feeling when I really nail a Z perm at the end of decent solve. Taking up blindfold with M2 was one factor that improved things but I was already much improved with M slices before that.

Hardware might be a little bit of a factor too. Slice moves can already suffer from more friction and then magnets also add greater resistance to the initial momentum than normal face turns. I'm fond of lighter magnets myself but hardware is very personal and pretty much "try stuff and find what suits your style".
 

SpartanSailor

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Hardware is KEY! I have some cubes where M and M2 slices are a joy and work super well... then others where if my finger even slightly catches on the other layers it goes to crap.

By contrast, I prefer heavier magnets. Stronger magnets suit my turning style. Lighter magnets overshoot for me. In particular with blind solving when I’m not able to see it. If it over shoots or undershoots with a blindfold, I have no idea how to “fix” it. So, for blind I prefer the strongest magnets. I’m also not spamming TPS as much during blind because I’m focused on execution being smooth and what comes next.

But, back to M2 and M-slice turns. They can be fun, but we’re more tricky for me to learn than I anticipated.
 

openseas

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I'm having the hardest time doing M turns quickly, especially M2s. Most things I see progress on, slow as it is, but with those turns I'm like a grandpa. I silently think to myself "M, M" and go about one turn per second.

Was it different from Z or H perm? Or M/M’ turn is always issue?

You may want to check how you hold the cube for M slice turn. I’m using left ring for M’, ring/middle for M2, while right index from top of the cube for M.
For some cases, I use Rw M’ for M2 depends on commutator fluidity.

And, yes, HW is critical- no magnet or weaker magnets are recommended for BLD finger tricks .
 

mark49152

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I've checked Eka method for fun and it ended switching to UF in 3bld.
Yeah I've done a few solves like that for fun, using UF buffer and setting up to DF helper. I think my solutions were quite inefficient though, and not a good approximation of true UF buffer! :)

Anyway I'm not tempted to switch. With a busy life, it takes me so long to implement changes to my solving, and I have a long list of improvements I want to make that will cost less time and deliver greater benefit than switching edge buffer :).
 

h2f

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Yeah I've done a few solves like that for fun, using UF buffer and setting up to DF helper. I think my solutions were quite inefficient though, and not a good approximation of true UF buffer! :)

Anyway I'm not tempted to switch. With a busy life, it takes me so long to implement changes to my solving, and I have a long list of improvements I want to make that will cost less time and deliver greater benefit than switching edge buffer :).

I remember our posts about it. I was learning some UF algs last winter and it showed I remember all UF-UR-xx algs so it wasn't so hard. I see a lot of potence in UF - after two days I was averaging 1:30 with memo 40 seconds and a lot of DNFs.
Haha, interesting!

Do you have any decent document on EKA? or did you just come up with your own setup?

I've seen Grigorij's video and I use Ishaan/Graham lists. Setups are intuitive but I looked at Grigorij's list. The idea is always set your first target to UR even if it means moving second target. I found setups with UB awkward so I've learnt it - algs are very easy. I also start adding all intuitive algs.
 

mark49152

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I remember our posts about it. I was learning some UF algs last winter and it showed I remember all UF-UR-xx algs so it wasn't so hard. I see a lot of potence in UF - after two days I was averaging 1:30 with memo 40 seconds and a lot of DNFs.
What do you average for edge execution only, with DF buffer?
 

h2f

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What do you average for edge execution only, with DF buffer?

I have only sessions with both memo and execution. My execution with DF in full solves was between 20-45. But my mistake giving stats with UF is that I looked only for succesfull solves. Full solves no matter DNF or OK are 1:10-2:00 but it happens sometimes 3 minutes.
 

mark49152

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I have only sessions with both memo and execution. My execution with DF in full solves was between 20-45. But my mistake giving stats with UF is that I looked only for succesfull solves. Full solves no matter DNF or OK are 1:10-2:00 but it happens sometimes 3 minutes.
I try to separate out whatever element I want to measure. For comms training I do safe memo of one piece type only, then time execution only (blindfolded). I throw away DNFs and any result where there was a pause to recall memo, but I keep results with pauses if those were only hesitations in remembering comms. That gives me a pretty good measurement of execution performance suitable for tracking progress learning and optimizing comms.
 
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