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[OreKehStrah]

If you’re new, or really any skill level, take the time to learn good finger tricks or you’ll end up like me having to spend a lot more time fixing bad habits that make you slower than you could be.

 

[Duncan Bannon]

Practice with a stackmat whenever possible. It helps prepare you for comps, and improves your pickups!

 

[Ash Black]

use hand warmers at competitions, it helps with turning in cold venues, and also helps if you have shaky hands

 

[Triangles_are_cubers]

Never Table Turn for megaminx, It restricts you to only the moves on the upper layers and you have to use the lower layers in the future if you want to learn any good algs with lower layer moves. Also, don’t always limit your choices (as a beginner) to go to CFOP. A few years ago, when I got my first rubik’s cube (though I only knew how to fully solve it this year), I thought CFOP was the only method to switch to and I didn’t even know Roux existed. But now, I went from LBL to Roux and got fairly consistent times while averaging about Sub-25. If you are a beginner thinking about going to a more advanced method and stumbled across this here are somethings which would help your decision:
Go to CFOP if you don’t care about rotating and want to get high TPS while not caring about learning algorithms.
Go to Roux if you don’t want rotations and don’t care about high TPS and don’t want to learn alot of algorithms.
Go to ZZ if you want to learn something which could help you in FMC in the future (EO) and really don’t care about alg count (400+ you would probably have to learn to get fast but probably not needed).
Go to Petrus if you like to blockbuild and also don’t care about alg count (also 400+ if you want to get fast but not needed).

 

[Zain_A24]

Tip:
Take advantage of online resources. There are tonnes of resources out there in areas such as Youtube and forums such as this one. If one resource doesn't work for you, just try another one, there are likely to be multiple resources/videos/alg sheets for the same skill. Don't be afraid to ask on forums and make full use of the wiki/reviews of certain puzzles .

Note: Not sure if this was already covered but had a quick read through previous posts.

 

[GenTheSnail]

When you switch to ZZ and are trying to learn EOLine, break it down into two steps: EO and then Line.

For EO, place your fingers on all the bad edges so you don't have to bother remembering where they are. Once you've found all of them, you can sort of see an EO 'shape' and you'll begin to recognize patterns and similarities between shapes.
Take your time and don't try to rush it. If it takes 45 seconds to inspect, that's all right. With enough practice, EO inspection can take under 2 seconds easily (I just did an ao5 and got 1.83 for EO inspection).

For Line, just try and track them so that you know where they are after EO is done. Once you get a little bit more comfortable, try and see alternate solutions to EO that puts the Line edges in better positions.

 

[cubeshepherd]

When practicing at home, competing in comps, or whatever you do when trying to get better, remember that you are not competing against other people (or trying to beat them) but remember that you are competing against yourself and trying to beat your own times.

 

[tx789]

Caring too much about events makes you more nervous. So don't put too much pressure on yourself.

 

[onion cuber]

Here's a tip that really helps me a lot.
Competitions are a mental game; you know that you avg x but in comp, you might not avg x. What im saying is that at home you avg sub 15 but in comp you might avg slower than sub 15.
What I found that helps me to avg the same at home as in comp is not thinking about how you are going to do. (Don't overthink your solves.)

Sorry for the weird advice. It works for me. It might not work for you, just give it a try.

 

[rubik2005]

For people who haven't gone to comps, don't bring your entire collection with you. It's unnecessary. Just bring your mains, backup mains, and some cubes you like and/or want to trade/sell. When I brought all my cubes, a bunch of people started to crowd around me and it has hard to keep track of what was mine, plus someone even poped several of my cubes.

 

[Lapse.]

Don't just buy a 3x3! Make your cubing life more interesting by buying some other puzzles like a 5x5, a skewb, a clock, or any other non-WCA puzzle like an ivy cube or a redi cube. Cubes are getting so cheap right now, its worth expanding your collection and make cubing more fun, as its not just the 3x3 or 2x2, there are many more cubes! You'll also get to learn many new things when solving other puzzles!

 

[pjk]

50 replies so far, 8 days left to share a tip/resource if you haven't done so yet!

 

[Dusty cheese]

Slow down. Make shire that your solves are optimized and that you are not making any unnecessary movements during solves before you start speeding up. If you’re already trying to turn really fast, you won’t be able to make optimal decisions during solves.

 

[2018AMSB02]

I would recommend working on your lookahead because it helps with all types of puzzles. My favorite way to do this is to set a metronome at 60 BPM and solve a cube (or whatever step you need to work on, especially F2L or edge pairing on big cubes), only turning whenever you hear the beat, and try not to miss a single beat. As you get better, turn up the speed on the metronome. This forces you to turn slower and plan your next moves so that you pause less during solves.

 

[PyraMaster]

Here's my tip:

Learn full OLL and PLL before you are averaging sub 20, it's a whole lot easier!

 

[Ordway Persyn]

I've found that doing practice ao5's where you pressure yourself to do good actually helps before a competition.

 

[Fredrick]

I’ve experienced first hand that if you want to improve in a certain cube or event you can’t use other cubes because then you will get distracted and won’t be able to improve as fast or not at all. Also take time to learn algs I normally give myself a couple days between each alg that I learn.

 

[GAN 356 X]

When you practice, start with big cubes, because when you transition back to 3x3 you will feel like god. Also, I am happy with my current 4x4, so I really don't need a new one, so I have just commented to hopefully help someone out

 

[ngmh]

My advice would be to start being colour neutral from the start. After cubing for very long time I tried to become colour neutral but I gave up after a while because I could only really recognise white well.

 

[Cheese11]

I used to be really into this community a long time ago, and decided to take some time off after competing at 2013 worlds. Unfortunately this time off turned into 4 years of barely touching a cube, and maybe did 200 solves in those 4 years. But, when an old friend of mine was running a competition nearby I decided to go for old time sake, and broke every single old PB of mine at one comp, after 4 years of no practice.

My advice is that sometimes a break from cubing, or even just serious practice might help your times in the end. It is also worth it to not always try so hard, and to remember that there is a lot more to life than cubing. I've been to a few comps in the last year, and I see a lot of young kids beating them selves up over a single solve, or not breaking a PB. Your times aren't going to define you as a cuber, but the friends that you make cubing will last a lifetime. Make sure your focus is to meet new people. The friendships I made on these forums and through other mediums are lifelong, and I have the Rubik's Cube to thank for that.

I guess what I'm trying to say is if I had only cared about times and not the speedsolving community, I do not think that cubing would have been as paramount in my life as it was. Remember that times do not define you, and to make lasting relationships in the community, with people you respect and can drive you to be better.