Do you believe in the P-word?

So in like every thread where the opener asks how to get faster, I mainly read the answer 'Practice', 'Practice' and... 'Practice'!

Some cubers even claim that you can average 30 seconds with ANY method. However, what I don't understand is; what exactly is it that makes you better by practicing?

Reduced decision making time (i.e. fewer pauses), improved finger dexterity (i.e. doing turns more quickly), learning new cases by seeing new situations arise that you have never encountered before. The list goes on.

For example, a cuber knows all algorithms by heart and can perform them blindingly fast, what exactly will get better by practicing, then?

Even faster execution, knowledge gained of even more situations that you've never encountered before. Learning entirely new methods that can be used to enhance your current method, etc.

I personally don't believe in practicing. Well, it will help you, for the first two months, but I think that your time will no longer decrease if you already know all algorithms by heart and recognize patterns almost instantly.

Does practice really lower your times, even after like a year?

I can give you the perfect example. I am not doing this to be sarcastic or funny, but I really am taking your argument at face value: that practicing does absolutely no good beyond about 2 months in of learning how to speedcube.

Erik Akkersdijk's first competition average of 22.61 seconds on his WCA profile is from the German Open in April of 2006. His second competition average is 20.36 seconds in September of 2006 at the European Championships also in 2006.

Erik's current best average in competition is 9.89 seconds set just this past weekend at the Alania Open.

I can see one of two scenarios explaining this incredible improvement in Erik's averages. I am, of course, assuming that Erik is a reputable speedcuber and has not learned to peel and re-stick the stickers in sub-10 seconds ;)

Scenario 1) Erik has not practiced at all since 2006 (actually since 2005 or even a bit before that, because this is well beyond his initial 2 month learning curve), and he is now literally more than twice as fast as he used to be simply by the sheer power of magic alone.

OR

Scenario 2) Erik practices all the time, and this helps him to improve over time.

Now I think you can see why you're getting the responses in this thread that you are about practicing and it's usefulness.

Chris
 
Fall of 09 my best average was in the low 40's using intuitive F2L, 2-Look OLL, and 2-Look PLL. Today my best average is 20.xx using intuitive F2L,2-Look OLL + a few OLLs I learned intuitively,and 2-Look PLL + the two Js.

This is similar for me, at the Candian Open (Sept 19/20) I averaged 45.60 seconds (~12 OLLs and ~7 PLLs), and at TOW (Jan 31) I got a 22.18 average (~17 OLLs and full PLL), over twice as fast.
 
Some cubers even claim that you can average 30 seconds with ANY method. However, what I don't understand is; what exactly is it that makes you better by practicing?

L
O
L

and those are just the three 'main' speedcubing methods.


But honestly if you dont practice how did you expect to get faster?
 
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Practicing absolutely helps you with your times.
An example is, when people take a break from cubing they become a little bit slower depending on how long the break was. But when people practice they get faster. But i bet all of the fast cubers started out with xy:xy.xy or x:xy.xy times but as they kept solving and practicing they improved and learned new methods and algorithms.
 
So in like every thread where the opener asks how to get faster, I mainly read the answer 'Practice', 'Practice' and... 'Practice'!

Some cubers even claim that you can average 30 seconds with ANY method. However, what I don't understand is; what exactly is it that makes you better by practicing?

For example, a cuber knows all algorithms by heart and can perform them blindingly fast, what exactly will get better by practicing, then?

I personally don't believe in practicing. Well, it will help you, for the first two months, but I think that your time will no longer decrease if you already know all algorithms by heart and recognize patterns almost instantly.

Does practice really lower your times, even after like a year?

So, you're basically saying that you don't believe in practice. Then you go on to say that only knowing all algorithms by heart (which is nearly impossible including ZB and stuff) will improve your times? Where do you think knowing that comes from?
 
If you don't believe practice is key, what's your idea for improving your times then? Magical flying pony droppings?

That's it! I'm going to follow Dan around at the next competition and collect all his magical flying ponies' droppings. And I'll be awesome!

What a load of crap.
Literally.
Of course not. This word, "practice", does not exist. I do not believe in it.

Lol.
 
If you don't believe practice is key, what's your idea for improving your times then? Magical flying pony droppings?

That's it! I'm going to follow Dan around at the next competition and collect all his magical flying ponies' droppings. And I'll be awesome!

What a load of crap.
Literally.
You are a joke murderer.

This.

@Musicninja17: Don't forget that familiarity is directly related to practice.

Actually, if any interested non-cubers are reading this, and are stupid enough to be my guinea pig, start cubing, and don't actually solve the cube more than 200 times, just learn F2L, and full OLL and PLL (or even ZBF2L/LL), and we'll see how fast you are.

By the way, it's unlikely the above will ever happen, because everyone will think I'm crazy, because practice is also essential to make learning algorithms seem less daunting. Take full OLL for example. The 57 algs seemed like not much at all when I learned them, because of the ridiculous amount of time I'd wasted on cubing, and because I could actually execute them semi-fast off the bat. Learning them as a beginner would be freaking scary for most people, IMHO.

EDIT9001: Souljiashu is also a joke murderer. lrn2sarcasm
 
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I think there's a good way to practice and a bad way to practice.

Mindlessly solving= bad practice
Trying to find what you can improve on by analyzing solves=good practice

While I believe even bad practice will eventually lower your times, I also think that if you want the best results, good practice is best. :D
 
I am getting really bad grades at school, and all anyone ever tells me is "study more." I am somewhat skeptical.

Is this really true? I feel that after two months of studying your brain will have absorbed all the knowledge it ever could possibly absorb, and any further studying will have no results.

Do you all really believe in the S-word?
 
I am getting really bad grades at school, and all anyone ever tells me is "study more." I am somewhat skeptical.

Is this really true? I feel that after two months of studying your brain will have absorbed all the knowledge it ever could possibly absorb, and any further studying will have no results.

Do you all really believe in the S-word?

I think there's good ways to study and a bad ways to study.

Mindlessly staring at a text book OR over-studying= bad studying
Focusing only on the task of studying, taking good notes, and quizzing yourself=good studying

While I believe even bad studying will eventually get the job done, I also think that if you want the best results, good studying is best. :D

:O IT WORKED FOAR STUDIYING 2!!!!!!!!!!
 
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