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Random Cubing Discussion

aerocube

Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2019
Messages
212
the current UWR as stated by speedsolving wiki is 8:17.688
i suck at 4x4 so i couldn't do that,but i'm pretty sure anyone with a half decent time could smash that record,pretty sure someone like max park could do that in 30-40 seconds
 

cmhardw

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Apr 5, 2006
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:wave:

It's amazing to think how many hours I spent here between 2008 and 2012.
2000hrs?

Any old cubers still on this site?

Hi Stachu!

First day back on this site in a long time for me. I started having problems with Tapatalk connecting a couple years ago and mostly migrated to a Facebook around that time.

I’m still cubing, though parenting means that free time for cubing is a precious and rare commodity these days. I did a coaching session with Jay McNeill recently to give me a kick in the rear end and identify the biggest things about my cubing that still hold me back.

Shout out to Mike and Pat as other older cubers still around!

I haven’t contributed new content to the community in ages as I feel like most of my content is too old to be relevant anymore. I’ve thought a bit about videos or other content talking about how cubing changes as you get older, but that content feels pretty niche and might not have a huge following.

I’m still around and still love cubing, I just don’t feel I have anything new or exciting to add and mostly lurk these days *shrug*
 

PapaSmurf

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Jan 4, 2018
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Woah. The og people are here. @StachuK1992 I know you were interested in L2L methods a while back. Here's the best one I could think of: Layer, 3 E slice edges (probably comms/other algs), CLL, L5E. Could be extended to: layer-corner, keyhole 3 edges, L5C, L5E. L5C is 614 algs though, although if you add up the moves in each alg, it comes to the same as ZBLL ish.
 

pjk

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Staff member
Joined
Mar 13, 2006
Messages
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2007KELL02
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Hi Stachu!

First day back on this site in a long time for me. I started having problems with Tapatalk connecting a couple years ago and mostly migrated to a Facebook around that time.
Hey Chris! Good to hear from you.

Tapatalk was causing a lot of issues in the past so we abandoned it, though the functionality of the mobile site has got a lot better since we first installed Tapatalk. Are you using the forum on mobile now? Any feedback you have would be useful.

I’m still cubing, though parenting means that free time for cubing is a precious and rare commodity these days. I did a coaching session with Jay McNeill recently to give me a kick in the rear end and identify the biggest things about my cubing that still hold me back.
Nice! What were the biggest tips you got from Jay? I saw your PB avg for 3x3, impressive.

I haven’t contributed new content to the community in ages as I feel like most of my content is too old to be relevant anymore. I’ve thought a bit about videos or other content talking about how cubing changes as you get older, but that content feels pretty niche and might not have a huge following.

I’m still around and still love cubing, I just don’t feel I have anything new or exciting to add and mostly lurk these days *shrug*
Part of me thinks that most constructive sort of discussion has already been had, for the most part. There is only so much you can talk about it, but I could be totally wrong.

Much of your older content is still super relevant I'd say - tons of people still read it. There has also been a shift in the demographics I think - as the community has grown, a lot more younger people have come into the community, which changes the dynamic of how the community discusses things. It's been a fascinating thing to watch.
 
Joined
Feb 23, 2019
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The FitnessGram Pacer Test is a multi stage...
Sorry to slightly change the topic, but there’s an idea I’ve been toying around with recently to help people improve at 3x3 and other events. I listen to old episodes of the cubing show, and in one of the 2016 ones they mention that the best way to improve at 3x3 is to watch people solve who have jut broken the time barrier you are about to break. This make sense because you can evaluate what they’re doing and see how you need to change your solves to match theirs. For example, let’s say I was averaging 16 secs and really wanted to average sub 15. I would watch a cuber who is averaging around 14 seconds, using the same method as me, do an average of 5 and pick out what they’re doing that I’m not. The problem with this idea, I realized, is that these solves (that are not necessarily world-class) can be very hard to find, because either you can’t really see what the person is doing (e.g competition solves), or they just aren’t there on commonly found/used YouTube channels because these youtubers know that solves are not a good way to make your channel grow.

So I thought of 2 possible fixes to this problem. Both of these have to do with consolidating a bunch of solves in one place, but they do it in different ways. My first idea was to have a YouTube channel dedicated to collecting averages of 5 from people of different speeds and different methods. You would have multiple playlists for different skill levels and different barriers that have been broken. This is probably the easiest idea, but I don’t like it as much as my other idea because it’s not as organized.

My other idea was to create a separate database on it’s own website, structured like Algdb.net. Each puzzle/event (yes, this format would let you have other events as well, like OH or 4x4) would have it’s own major category, and then each major event category would be split into methods (for 3x3 I’d imagine there would be CFOP, Roux, and ZZ). Each of those method categories would be split up into barriers that people often break, like sub-25, sub-20, sub-15, etc. In each of those method categories would simply be a bunch of videos of people solving just past the barrier that others are trying to break.

The concept for both the Youtube and the website database idea are the same, but the execution would be very different. Tell me if either of these ideas would be a viable thing to do, and if I should pursue them. Some parts of this post probable don’t make any sense, so please tell me if that is the case and I will answer your question.

Sorry for the ramble!
 

xyzzy

Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2015
Messages
2,877
Sorry to slightly change the topic, but there’s an idea I’ve been toying around with recently to help people improve at 3x3 and other events. I listen to old episodes of the cubing show, and in one of the 2016 ones they mention that the best way to improve at 3x3 is to watch people solve who have jut broken the time barrier you are about to break. This make sense because you can evaluate what they’re doing and see how you need to change your solves to match theirs. For example, let’s say I was averaging 16 secs and really wanted to average sub 15. I would watch a cuber who is averaging around 14 seconds, using the same method as me, do an average of 5 and pick out what they’re doing that I’m not. The problem with this idea, I realized, is that these solves (that are not necessarily world-class) can be very hard to find, because either you can’t really see what the person is doing (e.g competition solves), or they just aren’t there on commonly found/used YouTube channels because these youtubers know that solves are not a good way to make your channel grow.

So I thought of 2 possible fixes to this problem. Both of these have to do with consolidating a bunch of solves in one place, but they do it in different ways. My first idea was to have a YouTube channel dedicated to collecting averages of 5 from people of different speeds and different methods. You would have multiple playlists for different skill levels and different barriers that have been broken. This is probably the easiest idea, but I don’t like it as much as my other idea because it’s not as organized.

My other idea was to create a separate database on it’s own website, structured like Algdb.net. Each puzzle/event (yes, this format would let you have other events as well, like OH or 4x4) would have it’s own major category, and then each major event category would be split into methods (for 3x3 I’d imagine there would be CFOP, Roux, and ZZ). Each of those method categories would be split up into barriers that people often break, like sub-25, sub-20, sub-15, etc. In each of those method categories would simply be a bunch of videos of people solving just past the barrier that others are trying to break.

The concept for both the Youtube and the website database idea are the same, but the execution would be very different. Tell me if either of these ideas would be a viable thing to do, and if I should pursue them. Some parts of this post probable don’t make any sense, so please tell me if that is the case and I will answer your question.

Sorry for the ramble!
Have you seen this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Cubers/comments/an6nrb
It's unfortunate that it received so little attention because this seems (potentially) very useful.
 

Iwannaganx

Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2019
Messages
464
Location
Victoria, Australia
So earlier today I was just thinking about....
Finish this sentence! I think it would be cool to just have a random thoughts thread, as sometimes I just suddenly think about something cubing related and want to share it with the world.
Happy thinking!
 

pjk

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Mar 13, 2006
Messages
6,686
WCA
2007KELL02
SS Competition Results
Anyone ever try meditating before solving at competitions? Wondering how this would help with nerves.

Also, I was reading recently in 'The Art of Learning" and he was talking about mind control and mind training. I know there are various techniques for staying calm when under pressure, such as running right beforehand to get your heart rate up, but I wonder what techniques could be practiced to stay more focused and less nervous during competition rather than simply taking deep breaths.
 

AbsoRuud

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Joined
Jun 28, 2018
Messages
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Location
Lelystad, Flevoland, The Netherlands
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Anyone ever try meditating before solving at competitions? Wondering how this would help with nerves.

Also, I was reading recently in 'The Art of Learning" and he was talking about mind control and mind training. I know there are various techniques for staying calm when under pressure, such as running right beforehand to get your heart rate up, but I wonder what techniques could be practiced to stay more focused and less nervous during competition rather than simply taking deep breaths.
A bit of nerves is good, that gets your brain active. But too much nerves is not a good thing. I think meditation would make you too relaxed and I'm not sure if that would be beneficial. Also, I'm not sure how effectively one could meditate in a room full of people talking all at once.

I don't think you should rely on too many 'tricks' to get your nerves down. They can become crutches that weigh you down. It's a matter of having the right amount of nerves to give you that focus, but not enough nerves to make you forget your entire plan for solving First Block right after you let go fo the timer. (I speak from experience.)
 

Berkmann18

Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2014
Messages
245
Location
London, United Kingdom
WCA
2014BERK02
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Anyone ever try meditating before solving at competitions? Wondering how this would help with nerves.

Also, I was reading recently in 'The Art of Learning" and he was talking about mind control and mind training. I know there are various techniques for staying calm when under pressure, such as running right beforehand to get your heart rate up, but I wonder what techniques could be practiced to stay more focused and less nervous during competition rather than simply taking deep breaths.

Yup and it helps.
I'll suggest you to also lookup sophrology techniques like the box method etc.
 
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