Why do you start speed cubing?

[ISuckAtCubing]

i want to know why do you wanna start speed cubing, my reason was that, when i first learn how to solve it, i showed it to other people that i know how to solve it, at that time, i take me more than a min to finish, and people look away when im too slow, so i want to start speed cubing so people dont look away

 

[soccerking813]

I wanted to get faster from the first time I solved it. I think the first time I realized I wanted to was when I remembered a little part at the end of the film where Will Smith solves the cube, it had a little commentary on cubing. And a guy said, "I would say anyone who can solve the cube in under 5 minutes is a speedsolver." So I just tried to get my time down to five minutes, then to 3, then under 1 minute, and I just kept going. And I am still going, at around 35 seconds now.

 

[leeho]

I saw Yu Nakajima...was amazed, bought a Rubik's storebought the next day. Practiced all day until I got to sub 3 minutes and then it hit me...'this isnt impossible'...then I just kept solving and saying...'maybe ill do better this time'...so...I have to thank Yu Nakajima for the spark.

 

[KubeKid73]

My brother just wanted to know how to, and I thought it was cool, but once i got sub-2 with the beginner method, I got other cubes/puzzles and I Googled something about a Megaminx and I found a topic here, then I decided to join, and I found better 3x3 methods and I wanted to get faster.

 

[Deleted member 2864]

well.... first it was out of curiosity that I got it and I was determined to learn how to solve it... I was never aware of solving it fast until after I memorized everything... so I get some pogobat knowledge and get the basic outline of the knowledge... but I didn't want to memorize any algs so i came up with an intuitive way for the first two layers... but I ended up memorizing algs for the whole cube eventually... then I saw some speed cubers in youtube...


So yea... I guess it was pogobat, the speedcubers in youtube, and pretty much the appeal of it

 

[Zarxrax]

I had seen videos on youtube about how to solve the cube, and I saw people doing it in like 20-30 seconds, so I assumed it must be pretty easy to solve the thing fast like that. I figured there was some trick to it or something. So I thought I'd pick up a cube and maybe be able to impress a few people with it. I was snapped back to my senses though when after trying various tutorials on how to solve the thing, it still took me like 2 days to get it. And then I was taking about 5 minutes to do it in!

I saw a 3 year old chinese girl solving it in like 2 minutes... and I thought if I can't beat a 3 year old kid, then that's just pretty pathetic. So I kept practicing until I beat her time, but by that time I was hooked.

 

[Sa967St]

some guy in my class brought a cube to school one day, and passed it around to let people try to solve it. It was then on that I realized that it was my destiny to learn how to solve it

 

[be_the_truffle]

My best friend learned and I couldn't help but be intruiged. She taught me, and since then I've been a complete cube addict.

 

[shicklegroober]

I was lurking on YouTube and decided to search "rubik's cube tutorial" cause I was sure somebody had to have made one. I was at my girlfriend's grandma's house and I didn't get to watch the whole thing. Later that week I was in Boulder and found a store that carried Rubik's 3x3's so I mustered the 12$ and grabbed one. The next morning at work I searched for that tutorial and learned the Dan Brown method. Ever since I've wanted to be better. Party Kewl I suppose.

 

[EmersonHerrmann]

A guy at Starbucks solved it for me and I vowed to learn to solve and when I got home I learned from Tyson Mao on rubiks.com. I solved it like twice and then went to sleep...I woke up really early because I was so excited to start doing it again...and here I am after 1 year and 4 months. It got me off computer game addictions.

 

[elimescube]

I saw Dave Campbell solve the cube on YTV once. A little while later my second cousin taught me some of the basics and I've been addicted ever since .

 

[Sa967St]

I saw Dave Campbell solve the cube on YTV once.

when was that? I used to watch YTV

 

[Kian]

My little brother learned, I thought it was silly for a while. Then I picked up a cube...

 

[Benc]

After I learn solving the cube on my own (without peeking at the algorithms); I just feel like going faster and see how far I am able to. Those cubing videos on YouTube have also inspired me much.

 

[qqwref]

My story is a bit more long and convoluted than most people's.

I got into cubing starting around 2005. Back then it was mostly making 3x3 and 5x5 patterns and learning/thinking about cube theory. (I first got into cubing basically as an interesting mathematical toy.) I learned to solve too; at first this was just to fix the puzzle when I was trying out a pattern or algorithm, and I didn't really care about speed. I timed myself once in a while (and actually got down to around 35 seconds just through doing it a lot, with keyhole F2L and fruruf/sune/A-perm/U-perm and mirrors) but I wasn't really too interested in speedcubing because I thought that it would take way too much time/intelligence/memorization/whatever and that anyone who could solve a cube in 15-20 seconds was just plain godly. Remember at this time there were NO youtube tutorials or easy Fridrich guides; in fact speedsolving.com didn't even exist, the community was all on the yahoo group, and the only advanced method resources we had were Fridrich's and Petrus's sites, which made speedcubing look pretty difficult with their tables of algs and so on. So it looked really hard.

So sometime in 2006 I met Tim Reynolds and he showed me that speedcubing was actually within my reach. We went to my first competition in late 2006 and I guess it was after that that I really got into it. One thing that really struck me was watching Craig Bouchard solve a 5x5 (in about 2:40, which was way faster than me) - I was using reduction back then (from bigcubes.com), and I noticed that he was doing the same thing I was, just faster. I think it was then that I realized it was feasable to be fast if I just practiced. If I had to choose one thing that really got me started speedcubing, that would be it, seeing someone get really fast times with the same method I'd been casually using.

 

[alifiantoadinugroho]

..........................

 

[snckdude]

I have a lot of useless talents, like juggling etc. ( you know random stuff that doesn't matter on a daily basis). So i just decided to through speed cubing in there.

 

[cookingfat]

When I was a kid, my Dad was really into rubik's puzzles, I remember he had a 3x3, snake, magic and a clock. The rubik's cube was part of the furniture at home. He told me that he got a cube imported from Hungary before they went on sale in the UK and after a while, sent off for a solution from a newspaper advert. By the time the rubik's craze hit the UK, my Dad could already speedsolve and used to win pub bets etc. He told me his best time was 29 seconds back then. It was only last August when I got into cubing, I was off work sick for a long time and randomly came across Dan Brown's video, went out and bought a cube and spent my time off work learning faster and better methods. What I thought was just a phase actually turned into my biggest hobby.

 

[compudaze]

Youtube

I don't remember what I was searching for on YouTube, but a video of Will Smith solving the Rubik's Cube in 55 seconds was one of the recommended videos. I told myself that if he can do it, so can I. A few days after watching that video, I bought a Rubik's cube. My first solve took 5 hours while watching TV. Now, my PB is ~30 seconds. Still learning all the PLL's...

 

[Chuberchuckee]

From an "internet friend", I learned about the fun of speedcubing. I had first heard about it from the special features of The Pursuit of Happyness, but at that time, I dismissed it as a stupid, frivolous, and excessively geeky activity. Then, in late 2008, from another forum I read, I learned that someone can solve the Rubik's cube in 20 seconds. Genuinely intrigued, I requested a Rubik's cube for my birthday in December. The same day I got it, I learned the Dan Brown method and solved it within the minute of the exact time of my birthday (it took me hours, but it felt rewarding). Two weeks later, I got that under a minute. Now, it's been 3-4 months and I average under 25 seconds.