Is it okay to hand-scramble in certain scenarios?

[NebraskanSpeedsolver]

If I am at home, I will usually hand-scramble 6x6 and 7x7 because I don't want to compete with those events yet, I am just working on getting better, and the scrambles are super long.
Is this okay to do, or do I have to follow WCA scrambles?

 

[JDAW6]

If it is not in an cstimer cession u vount fpr pbs in

 

[NebraskanSpeedsolver]

I do, but I am just doing solves casually, I don't do it competitively until I can get my average to sub-5 min on 6x6 and sub-9 on 7x7

 

[JDAW6]

Id say no then

 

[Billabob]

It's ok, it doesn't matter. Hand scrambling higher-order cubes is way more convenient than following a generated scramble and as long as you scramble for a decent amount of time you'll have a random state.

 

[OreKehStrah]

If I am at home, I will usually hand-scramble 6x6 and 7x7 because I don't want to compete with those events yet, I am just working on getting better, and the scrambles are super long.
Is this okay to do, or do I have to follow WCA scrambles?

Personally I wouldn’t recommend it since people will usually follow the same sorts of hand scramble patterns. If you want a nice compromise, for big cubes I’d recommend loosely following a wca scramble but not worrying about following it accurately since it will add in randomized move selection with the convenience of not fully following a scramble.

 

[NebraskanSpeedsolver]

Personally I wouldn’t recommend it since people will usually follow the same sorts of hand scramble patterns. If you want a nice compromise, for big cubes I’d recommend loosely following a wca scramble but not worrying about following it accurately since it will add in randomized move selection with the convenience of not fully following a scramble.

I will usually try to do something along those lines, but as it is still a hand scramble, I wasn't all that sure

 

[OreKehStrah]

I will usually try to do something along those lines, but as it is still a hand scramble, I wasn't all that sure

Yeah iirc 5+ scrambles are all random moves I since axon state scrambles would take way too much time to generate. So if you’re roughly following a scramble it’s good enough. I just don’t recommend only scrambling by hand due to humans being unable to produce random results

 

[NebraskanSpeedsolver]

Yeah iirc 5+ scrambles are all random moves I since axon state scrambles would take way too much time to generate. So if you’re roughly following a scramble it’s good enough. I just don’t recommend only scrambling by hand due to humans being unable to produce random results

Yea
As I get faster I will start to follow the scrambles more and more, just where I am now (averaging like 7:30), I think that this is a good idea

 

[OreKehStrah]

Yea
As I get faster I will start to follow the scrambles more and more, just where I am now (averaging like 7:30), I think that this is a good idea

Sounds like a good plan. Just be sure to follow 4 scrambles bc those are random state iirc

 

[NebraskanSpeedsolver]

Sounds like a good plan. Just be sure to follow 4 scrambles bc those are random state iirc

yea
like I said, every other nxn I will follow scrambles because at this point I average about 3:30 on 5x5, 1:20 on 4x4, 18 on 3x3, and 6 on 2x2
Those are all good times for comp (I think)

 

[Tabe]

The interesting thing about hand scrambling 5x5, 6x6 and 7x7 is that you often end up with harder scrambles than those generated by CSTimer. When hand scrambling those puzzles, you have a tendency to break up any blocks/bars whereas those occur during CSTimer scrambles rather often.

 

[Mike Hughey]

My method of hand scrambling big cubes: random turns of most/all of the layers about one axis, then random turns of most all layers about a different axis - keep doing this until you've made 25 axis changes. This is really fast and seems to always generate very decent scrambles. I can't believe this generates scrambles that are at all inferior to proper scrambles - they're really quite random, especially if you think about trying to treat the layers somewhat differently with each axis switch. I have never noticed a particularly easy scramble after doing this.

But I only really ever do this for untimed practice solves. If I'm using a software timer, I'd rather just use the scramble from the timer. So I guess that means I don't have any numerical evidence to prove the hand scrambles are just as good. But they seem good.

 

[artless1der]

The interesting thing about hand scrambling 5x5, 6x6 and 7x7 is that you often end up with harder scrambles than those generated by CSTimer. When hand scrambling those puzzles, you have a tendency to break up any blocks/bars whereas those occur during CSTimer scrambles rather often.

I feel ya on that one, have noticed myself making it more sifficult many times lol

in the past year+, I have adopted a strategy similar to what Mike Hughey lists, also mixing up single and double turns as I go through the scrambling process... I also make sure add around 25+ quasi-random moves on the 3×3 stage into the mix...
and I rarely even look at the cube anymore til I feel it's ready

 

[Davian]

If it is not in an cstimer cession u vount fpr pbs in

I tvtlly uvsersband

If I am at home, I will usually hand-scramble 6x6 and 7x7 because I don't want to compete with those events yet, I am just working on getting better, and the scrambles are super long.
Is this okay to do, or do I have to follow WCA scrambles?

It doesnt really matter i think, you can try not to look, thats what i kinda do at 5x5.

If your really bad in it you can think of a good goal and if you get much times below that goal time, you can start using cstimer. I do that mostly too

 

[OldSwiss]

The bigger the cubes get, the less I do official scrambles.

I think I do twice the moves in a handscramble and I also include cube rotations because you tend to do less of the harder moves like B in Handscrambles.
I don't think that they are worse than the generated scrambles and if they are, I don't care

 

[White KB]

If I am at home, I will usually hand-scramble 6x6 and 7x7 because I don't want to compete with those events yet, I am just working on getting better, and the scrambles are super long.
Is this okay to do, or do I have to follow WCA scrambles?

USE A CALCULATOR

But yeah hand scrambles are fine if you use csTimer like all the peasants bwahaha~

 

[Jorian Meeuse]

USE A CALCULATOR
View attachment 25518
But yeah hand scrambles are fine if you use csTimer like all the peasants bwahaha~

I use my calculator to time OH solves. Every hundredth of a second, i press +0.01= while solving the rubiks cube with the other hand.

 

[NebraskanSpeedsolver]

USE A CALCULATOR
View attachment 25518
But yeah hand scrambles are fine if you use csTimer like all the peasants bwahaha~

I'm hurt by this statement

 

[Cuban_Cuber]

I had to hand scramble for the past 3 weeks because I got grounded from my phone and computer. Although I guess it didnt really matter since I couldnt time my solves either.