Methods Vs. Solve Times (Project!)

[abr71310]

Hey guys, I decided to do my Final Gr.12 Data Management Project (8-10 min presentation, + brochure and other stuff) on CUBING!!

My "question" that I have to research (primary/secondary) data is:
"What is the relationship between speedsolving methods and world record times?"

I'm not ONLY going to cover that, but I want to cover the entire cubing community as a whole as to methods + solve times, efficiency, types of cubes, et cetera et cetera.

So what I made this post for was to make a detailed "profile" about you, the speedcuber. No, I don't want a specific set of speedsolve times (as in sub-15 only), I'd actually rather have EVERYBODY do this so I have a nice sample size in a nice compact location that I can draw from! (Namely, this forum! )

The Information I'll likely need (updated as needed in bold)

Name:
Nationality (Doesn't really matter but still):
Age: (don't have to answer if it's touchy, but age groups are nice when plotting data tables and graphs)
Gender: (Good for male to female ratios of speedcubers??)
Speedcubing Method: (List the ones you know well and your times for each, if you know more than one) (EG. Fridrich: ~25 seconds, Petrus: ~45 seconds, Roux: ~85 seconds)
Best/Worst Solve Time:
Best Average (of 5):
Best OFFICIAL average (of 5):
Method used in official:
Time cubing (how long, when did you begin...?):
Progression: How long did it take you to get where you are now? What were your times like? What did you change? What around you changed? (That last one is for old-school cubers from the 1980s ^^)
EDIT: A good template to use is the following:
Progression:
1) beginners' LBL
2) added algorithms
...
7) Fridrich 4LLL
etc, etc...
How long you practice per day/ per month/per week (in hours)
Favourite Speedsolve event (I'm going to focus on 3x3x3, but this is good for "extra" data):
Speedcube: (OH, speedsolve, BLD, whatever, list them all if you like!)
Your projected "potential"?: (Random, eh?) (don't have to answer this)
Any other useful information!:

This is basically my drawing for "primary" data in the community: If you like I'll type this up FORMALLY and drag it around TOW for a nice sample size too (but augh, I have to outline "bias" and stuff... ><).

Thanks for helping, and even just for reading, as there's probably no better place for me to draw data from a speedcubing "community" right now besides here!!

UPDATE: (April 6, 2009)
We've chosen our topics "officially", and my question to examine is:
"What is the correlation between World Record 3x3x3 times and solve methods?"
It's basically a cross between my original:
"How has solving the cube evolved over the years?" (Well, that depends, VERY vague)
and
"What is the fastest solving method?" (dumb question, they're all fast)

Again, thanks for all of the input! The pool of "primary data" is likely going to cite this forum!

--Michael

 

[panyan]

Name: Pan Yan
Nationality: British
Age: 17
Speedcubing Method: LBL (learning CFOP)
Best/Worst Solve Time: 1:40.24->dunno!
Time cubing: October 08
Progression: my times suck and will suck until i learn cfop and practice more than two solves per day!
Favourite Speedsolve event: never been to one
Speedcube: speedsolve (if you can call it that!)

BTW - i have just started and im not competitive at all so am not looking to become world standard

 

[Odin]

Name: Jonha/Jonah Rodriguez
Nationality: Mexican (Born in the U.S.)
Age: 13
Speedcubing Method: 4LLL with intuitive f2l
Best/Worst Solve Time: Best: 33.13 Worst: Any thing above 50 seconds
Time cubing: I first solved the cube on August the 10th, 2008
Progression: I’m progressing slowly but surely!
Favourite Speedsolving event: 3x3x3 speed (2 hands)
Speedcube: Cube4you cube blue.
Your projected "potential"?: To be Sub-10


*EDIT*

Best Average (of 5): 43.89 seconds
Best OFFICIAL average (of 5): (48.92 Average) 56.86 47.46 1:02.68 39.97 42.43
Method used in official: 4LLL with intuitive f2l
Any other useful information!: I cant solve a 1x1x1....

 

[Tetris Cube]

Name: David
Nationality: USA
Age: 16
Speedcubing Method: Petrus (45 seconds), Fridrich (70 seconds, I started two days ago and I'm going to stick with Fridrich)
Best/Worst Solve Time: Best 39 seconds, worst... I don't know.
Time cubing: Since around June last year, so around 8 months
Progression: I didn't bother to ever look up anything advanced until around two months ago, which is probably why I'm not very fast for someone who has been cubing for as long as I have.
Favourite Speedsolve event: 2x2
Speedcube: Type D
Your projected "potential"?: My goal is sub 30 average, that's it.
Any other useful information!: The only puzzles I own are 2x2-4x4, and Square-1.

 

[TheBB]

I'd like to point out that you will need data on how long each cuber have practiced with each method. Presumably, most people will have an artificially low Fridrich average compared to other methods, not because it is better (which it might be, of course) but because they spent more time working on it. To me it sounds like a very difficult statistical exercise, if you want to get precise results.

Name: Eivind Fonn
Nationality: Norwegian
Age: 24
Method: Fridrich, 19s
Best/worst: My best is 16.69 official, 11-something privately. No idea about my worst. I had an unsolved cube on my shelf for about 11 years before I solved it, use that if you want... My worst consistent solves at the moment are about 25s.
Time cubing: Since april 2002. Didn't cube (roughly) in the years 05-aug 07 and mar 08-jan 09.
Progression: I hit my current skill level, for 3x3 speed, in early 2005. Due to my lack of effort since then I've improved only slightly.
Favorite speedsolving event: 3x3-BLD i guess.
Speedcube: Rubik's DIY.
Potential: I guess I can average about 15 if I just put in some work.

 

[Escher]

Name: Rowan Kinneavy
Nationality: British (Irish)
Age: 17
Speedcubing Method: Fridrich (plus I'm learning a few additions, but you don't really need to know that)
Best/Worst Solve Time: 10.05 full step, lucky. worst - my first? the worst in an average of 12 is a bit above 20.
Best Average (of 5): 13.82 (I think)
Best OFFICIAL average (of 5): 22.90, hehe.
Method used in official: Fridrich (less OLLs than i know now)
Time cubing: May '08 - 9 months then!
Progression: i got my first sub 20 avg in less than 90 days... and then stayed between 19-22 for a very long time, and around xmas i dropped 2s and avg about 15-16 now.
Favourite Speedsolve event: 3x3 speed.
Speedcube: A core, AII pieces.
Your projected "potential"?: As fast as i can. In a few months I'll hopefully be sub 15/14.
Any other useful information!: erm, i regularly throw my cubes around in a rage?

 

[shelley]

So many people use Fridrich compared to other methods (and a lot of people who use multiple methods practice Fridrich the most) that it would be very difficult to derive any significant conclusions about the different methods and their relation to speedsolve times.

Has any 3x3 WR been achieved with a method other than Fridrich?

 

[Vampirate713]

Name: Andrew Fontana
Nationality: USA
Age: 14
Speedcubing Method: Fridrich: ~30 seconds
Best/Worst Time: 24 Seconds, 54 Seconds
Time Cubing: 6 Months
Progressions: Learned Fridrich F2L, and Learning PLL and OLL's
Favorite Speedsolve Event: 5x5
SpeedCube:OH

 

[Mike Hughey]

Has any 3x3 WR been achieved with a method other than Fridrich?

I'm pretty sure Minh Thai used corners-first.

 

[person917]

Name: Carmine
Nationality: born in USA
Age: 17
Speedcubing Method: Fridrich(main): 30s, Petrus: about 45s (just started)
Best/Worst Solve Time: Best: 24 Worst: anything over 40 (with Fridrich)
Time cubing: Since December 07 (started with beginners->learned Fridrich 3 months later)
Progression: 1 year of on and off cubing. beginners method->2look oll/2look pll->f2l+2look oll/1look pll->currently practicing using Petrus block building + oll and pll
Favorite Speedsolve event: reg 3x3
Speedcube: combination of diansheng + type d cubies, type d cube, & type c.
Your projected "potential"?: sub 10-15

 

[soccerking813]

Name: Lucas Zeller
Nationality: USA
Age: 13
Speedcubing Method: Fridrich~1 min.
Best/Worst Solve Time: Best: 53 sec, worst right now is around 1:30
Time cubing (how long, when did you begin...?): Started during May 2008.
Progression: How long did it take you to get where you are now? What were your times like? What did you change? What around you changed? I have been on/off since the summer of 2008, when my times started getting down under 2 min. Since then have messed around with a couple of methods, roux, ortega, petrus, fridrich.
Favourite Speedsolve event (I'm going to focus on 3x3x3, but this is good for "extra" data): I have not competed in any events, but favorite would be 3x3 single.
Speedcube: Currently use a store-bought. Am getting Type A soon.
Your projected "potential"?: I hope to get under 30 seconds some day.
Any other useful information!: Rubik's cubes and stuff are hard for me to get here.

 

[leeho]

Name: Le (no last names for you x])
Nationality: British chinese (hell yeah!)
Age: 16
Speedcubing Method: Fridrich(2 look oll): 16-17 secs, LBL method just for fun: (25-30 secs)
Best/Worst Solve Time: Hmm, Best is 12.03 non lucky. Worst? As of now when im averaging...24 seconds-ish i think?
Time cubing: I dont know. I started in December 2007, cubed till June 2008, quit until November 2008 then started again till now. Lets just say around a year? x] hehe
Progression: Took me a year? to get to where I am now. Erm, my first time solving it was 6 minutes then the next solve was 3 minutes. Then got down to 1 minute the next day. Then I waited till i averaged 40 seconds with LBL method before moving on to Fridrich.
Favourite Speedsolve event: 3x3 Speedsolve ^^
Speedcube: Type C DIY =D
Your projected "potential"?: No idea, hoping to get down to sub 15?
Any other useful information!: i'll be getting some new cubes soon, so maybe my times will drop by about 0.000001 seconds if im lucky x] hehe

 

[Abolish]

Name: Robin Svensson
Nationality: Swedish
Age: 19
Speedcubing Method: Roux ~1 min (don't know all CMLL yet)
Best Solve Time: 40-ish
Time cubing: Began last summer, so about seven months
Progression: At first I was kind of stuck at ~2 min becuase I used a beginner method, thought about going friedrich for a while so got really good at F2L, but when it came to algs I decided to switch method. After watching Big Green's christmas video I decided to go with Roux, that was about two months ago.
Favourite Speedsolve event: 3x3 speedsolving, only own a 3x3 and cba to focus on BLD and Fewest moves.
Speedcube: Dian Sheng type D, the white one.
Your projected "potential"?: Should be able to get sub-20 without too much hassle.
Any other useful information!: Should really buy some else than 3x3's

 

[Jai]

Name: Jai Gambhir
Nationality: Canadian
Age: 15 (turning 16 in April)
Speedcubing Method: Fridrich
Best/Worst Solve Time: Best is 8.xx (not sure exactly). A bad solve would be anything over 16.
Time cubing: I started around 2-3 years ago. Not sure exactly when.
Progression: It took me a year or so, to get sub-20, and around another year to get to my current PB avg of 10.52.
Favourite Speedsolve event: OH.
Speedcube: Orange C4Y cube, 2007 Rubik's DIY, Type A II, and 25th Anniversary store bought Rubik's cube for 2H, and Dian Sheng core and centers with white Type F pieces for OH.
Your projected "potential"?: Consistent sub-13 and eventually consistent sub-12 (I don't practise 3x3 much these days), sub-19 OH PB average (current is 19.88).
Best Average (of 5): 9.99 (10.05, 10.19, 9.68, 11.04, 9.74). Part of a session containing my PB average of 12 (10.52)
Best OFFICIAL average (of 5): 15.80. I don't go to many competitions, and I usually mess up a lot. Hopefully I get a decent average at TOW.
Method used in official: Fridrich.

 

[Sa967St]

Name: Sarah
Nationality: half-Japanese half-Canadian
Age: 17
Speedcubing Method: Full Fridrich
Best/Worst Solve Time: I average 14, sometimes 13. 16+ singles are bad
Time cubing: Since April 2007, less than 2 years
Progression: It took me about 15 months to consistently sub-20 and about 20 months to average about 15. I learn new algs whenever I can (currently learning OLLs from other angles and some CLS)
Favourite Speedsolve event: I focus on 3x3x3 speed, but I like BLD too.
Speedcube: 3x3x3 speedsolve: violet c4y brand cube with type A screws/washers and core
Your projected "potential"?: not getting any worse?

 

[Slamatic]

Name: Jake Stewart
Nationality: Born in the United States
Age: 16
Speedcubing Method: Intuitive F2L / 4LLL
Best/Worst Solve Time: 57-1:25
Time cubing: February 09; about a week, and a half ago.
Progression: Learning 4LLL, and all the PLL's.
Favorite Speedsolve event: Never been to one.
Speedcube: Store bought not lubed, just recently ordered a 3x3 DIY TypeA White from PuzzleProz
Your projected "potential"?: To be sub-10.

 

[Lucas Garron]

Name: Lucas Garron
Nationality (Doesn't really matter but still): DE
Age: ~18
Speedcubing Method: MGLS-F, ~14 (Petrus [MGLS-P], ~20)
Best/Worst Solve Time: Official 10.00, worst normal solves after a bit of warmup ~16
Time cubing: Since beginning of 2006
Progression: See here and here.
Favourite Speedsolve event: Everything
Speedcube: Type A
Your projected "potential"?: Sub-12

 

[Erik]

Name: Erik
Nationality: Dutch, about 1/4 or 1/8 indonesian
Age: 19
Speedcubing Method: CFOP + ELL + OLL skip algs + opposite colour neutral
Best/Worst Solve Time: good times non-lucky 8, bad times 11.00 and above
Time cubing: Since august 2005 so 3.5 years
Progression: not learning more stuff
Favorite Speedsolve event: changing, 5x5 atm
Speedcube: Rubiks.com DIY + B type cubies
Your projected "potential"?: Sub-10 averages

 

[ErikJ]

Name: Erik Johnson
Nationality: USA
Age: 18
Speedcubing Method: Petrus (EJF2L): 13, Fridrich: 20, Roux: 25
Best/Worst Solve Time: Best: Best ever is 8.87, Good times are <14, bad are >15
Time cubing: 5 years. (Lots of breaks)
Progression: Times generally improved as I adapted new techniques over the years.
Favourite Speedsolving event: fewest moves
Speedcube: Type C DIY
Your projected "potential"?: I want to see how far I can push Petrus method.

 

[AvGalen]

Name: Arnaud van Galen
Nationality: Dutch, so from Holland/The Netherlands
Age: 32
Speedcubing Method: Layer-by-layer with 4 alg LL: 30, CFOP: 25 with 4 step LL, Keyhole: 21 with 4 step LL
Best/Worst Solve Time: 16/28 (best and worst times I get without skips or mistakes)
Time cubing: Started early eighties
Progression: about 20 years with a 1:05 average. It took 1 year to get sub 30 and 1.5 more years to get to 21. First change was learning keyhole and 4 look last layer, second change was practise. The internet (especially text+images+applet tutorials, forums and youtube) and the WCA (worldwide competitions)
Favourite Speedsolve event: 5x5x5
Speedcube: Type F
Your projected "potential"?: 13 average if I ever learn full OLL/PLL and start to practice
Any other useful information!: I like teaching people, travelling all over the world (14 countries ATM), meeting other cubers and solving many other puzzles