[Member Intro] Am I the oldest beginner? HI from Melbourne!!

LBr said:
Its very impressive that you have taken the time to learn at an old age. My advice, if you want to get faster, would be to watch J perm's video on getting faster at 3x3 with the beginner method (Disclaimer. You may not use the method he is going over, if that is so, then don't proceed with the video). If your method has a Last Layer of :

Yellow cross, Corners in the right place, orient the corners, then watch the video. It will go over Mirrored algorithms, which is when algorithms are essentially the same but are done on the opposite side of the cube. This is to make sure that you don't have to repeat algorithms two or more times to do what you want to do with the pieces, and inverted algorithms, which serve for the same purpose
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Wow! I am so touched with all the attention and also helpful advice. Thank you, LBr. I appreciate your advice and I have found JPERM's video on impoving the Beginner's Method. I can see this is going to take time and some serious planning with the overwhelming amount of material (which is great!).

PS I am so grateful for the option in Youtube to adjust playback speed for slow motion and also for slow speech. Apparently all the fast cubers on Youtube also talk very fast.
 
If you are thinking about competing I’m afraid to inform you that there aren’t any competitions around in Melbourne now :(
The Victorian State Championships is full and the other competition on right now is Cranbourne Crazy Clock Challenge which isn’t holding 3x3 ;/

Even if you don’t feel like you are good enough or even want to compete I would recommend going to a competition because it’s a great place to meet people, get tips and enjoy the atmosphere.

I heard that a Glen Waverley competition was going to be put up at some point but that was a few weeks ago so I don’t know if that’s going ahead.

(btw I think that during this lockdown is a perfect time to actually learn some tricks and improve and practise)
 
Waffles said:
If you are thinking about competing I’m afraid to inform you that there aren’t any competitions around in Melbourne now :(
The Victorian State Championships is full and the other competition on right now is Cranbourne Crazy Clock Challenge which isn’t holding 3x3 ;/

Even if you don’t feel like you are good enough or even want to compete I would recommend going to a competition because it’s a great place to meet people, get tips and enjoy the atmosphere.

I heard that a Glen Waverley competition was going to be put up at some point but that was a few weeks ago so I don’t know if that’s going ahead.

(btw I think that during this lockdown is a perfect time to actually learn some tricks and improve and practise)
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There was also Brilliant Ballarat but that was cancelled due to the lockdown.
 
Waffles and CodingCuber! from the most livable and lockable city of the world. ;)

So, I missed out on the competition, jeez, and most likely on being the last competitor to cross the line. :D

Is it possible for me to just visit, assuming the lockdown is over by then? I could not find any information about that on the organiser's website.
 
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Dante Newbie said:
Waffles and CodingCuber! from the most livable and lockable city of the world. ;)

So, I missed out on the competition, jeez, and most likely on being the last competitor to cross the line. :D

Is it possible for me to just visit, assuming the lockdown is over by then? I could not find any information about that on the organiser's website.
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Yes. Anyone is welcome to spectate a competition and just take a look around.

You might also want to check out Speedcubing Australia's mailing list to get notified about upcoming competitions in your area. https://speedcubing.org.au/
 
Hi and welcome! I'm always happy to see an older cuber than me join our ranks - makes me feel less old. :-)

Anyway, if you haven't dug deep into the older cubers thread, I thought I should point you to this site maintained by one of our members (Logiqx). It keeps track of older cubers in competition. The following link points to your age category specifically, but it handles all categories over 40. It requires opting in, so it doesn't include all competitors, but it does include most of the official competitors your age and above.

Senior Rankings

Senior Rankings
logiqx.github.io logiqx.github.io

You can see there that you would be faster than at least a few of the over-70 competitors in that list if you were to compete officially. I hope it will inspire you to compete!

I also thought I should say that if you are currently solving fairly consistently under 3 minutes (which it looks like you are!), you should really consider competing in whatever competition you go to, not just spectating. You'll have a great time and feel a lot more part of it than you otherwise would - I think it would be a much better experience! And you'll probably be appreciated by all for competing at your age. I really recommend it - it's such fun to compete! Don't worry about being last - someone has to be in last place at every competition. It's not about how high you place; it's about doing your best and experiencing the fun of the competition.
 
Mike Hughey said:
Hi and welcome! I'm always happy to see an older cuber than me join our ranks - makes me feel less old. :)

....
...

You can see there that you would be faster than at least a few of the over-70 competitors in that list if you were to compete officially. I hope it will inspire you to compete!
...
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Hi, Mike. Thank you for the warm welcome. I guess it would also make me feel less old when I meet others in the comps older than even myself. :D

You are very encouraging and I will definitely consider going to a competition as soon as it is possible. I have read the WCA regulations. Whew! Please tell me how many solves I will likely have to do on the day, just so that I know what to prepare for. (My average over 5 or 12 solves are both around 2 and 1/2 minutes.)

Dan
 
David Zemdegs said:
I am also from Melbourne and started when I was 55. The best advice I got (from you know who) was to be colour neutral from the start. Hope to see you at a competition soon (as soon as this lockdown ends...)
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Good morning, David. So happy to see your reply and have expert advice.

I was surprised that I could quite easily solve on Yellow. I now choose either White or Yellow on all my solves. I would occasionally make a mistake, which I can fix and recover. Overall, it is worthwhile as I have doubled the chance of finding a good scramble. I also tried to solve on other colours, but make mistakes very frequently. Should I persist with them, or should I add a new colour at a time?

Grateful for your advice.
Dan
 
Dante Newbie said:
Good morning, David. So happy to see your reply and have expert advice.

I was surprised that I could quite easily solve on Yellow. I now choose either White or Yellow on all my solves. I would occasionally make a mistake, which I can fix and recover. Overall, it is worthwhile as I have doubled the chance of finding a good scramble. I also tried to solve on other colours, but make mistakes very frequently. Should I persist with them, or should I add a new colour at a time?

Grateful for your advice.
Dan
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The best way is to just to dive right into becoming full CN but if you don't find that enjoyable you can just do one at a time. Starting out as CN like @David Zemdegs is better because the longer you cube the more your brain will get set on that color. I switched when I averaged 33 seconds meanwhile my friend who just got into cubing (and has yet to create an SS account) started out CN and had no problem at all.
 
Dante Newbie said:
Hi, Mike. Thank you for the warm welcome. I guess it would also make me feel less old when I meet others in the comps older than even myself. :D

You are very encouraging and I will definitely consider going to a competition as soon as it is possible. I have read the WCA regulations. Whew! Please tell me how many solves I will likely have to do on the day, just so that I know what to prepare for. (My average over 5 or 12 solves are both around 2 and 1/2 minutes.)

Dan
Click to expand...
Odds are extremely likely that you will have 5 solves that day. You'll probably be done after the first round, and for 3x3x3, almost all competitions allow a full 5 solves as long as you're solving in under 10 minutes. And probably if you keep practicing, you'll be a good bit faster than 2 1/2 minutes per solve by then. :-)
 
Thecubingcuber347 said:
The best way is to just to dive right into becoming full CN but if you don't find that enjoyable you can just do one at a time. Starting out as CN like @David Zemdegs is better because the longer you cube the more your brain will get set on that color. I switched when I averaged 33 seconds meanwhile my friend who just got into cubing (and has yet to create an SS account) started out CN and had no problem at all.
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Thank you, TheCubingCuber. I think I can do it. It sounds right, taking the time to do it properly in the beginning and building on a better foundation.
 
Mike Hughey said:
Odds are extremely likely that you will have 5 solves that day. You'll probably be done after the first round, and for 3x3x3, almost all competitions allow a full 5 solves as long as you're solving in under 10 minutes. And probably if you keep practicing, you'll be a good bit faster than 2 1/2 minutes per solve by then. :)
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Thanks, Mike. Not too stressful then.
 
Dante Newbie said:
Good morning, David. So happy to see your reply and have expert advice.

I was surprised that I could quite easily solve on Yellow. I now choose either White or Yellow on all my solves. I would occasionally make a mistake, which I can fix and recover. Overall, it is worthwhile as I have doubled the chance of finding a good scramble. I also tried to solve on other colours, but make mistakes very frequently. Should I persist with them, or should I add a new colour at a time?

Grateful for your advice.
Dan
Click to expand...
I started colour neutral from the beginning. Im not sure whether picking one new colour, say, once a week is better or just diving in. I always just look at what colour makes the cross easier to solve and go with that. In the end I think it just all about practice. My problem is actually intuitive F2L. Its always just soooo slow. When I started my goal was to get a sub one minute solve and Ive done that. so Im happy :)
 
David Zemdegs said:
I started colour neutral from the beginning. Im not sure whether picking one new colour, say, once a week is better or just diving in. I always just look at what colour makes the cross easier to solve and go with that. In the end I think it just all about practice. My problem is actually intuitive F2L. Its always just soooo slow. When I started my goal was to get a sub one minute solve and Ive done that. so Im happy :)
Click to expand...

I will give it a go, i.e. going full colour neutral, before going one colour at a time, and share my experience later. Thanks. Yeah, I will be absolutely thrilled if I could one day get a sub 1-m solve. :D One thing at time, I am still trying to learn the Beginner level 4-look OLL/PLL. All these algorithms look daunting but this lockdown is helping me to be focussed. :D
 
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