Age vs Speed

[ElectricDoodie]

There are graphs for this on the wca site somewhere

I saw the graph, which is what got me interested on why there are more fast teens than adults.
The graph doesn't explain why.

Adults just have a lot of thing to worry about.. work, wife, kids its really hard to practice properly in this conditions... And another motive is probably the lose of interest in those things when you are an adult..

This is also the same reasoning I'm using.

 

[That70sShowDude]

I think that your fingers cannot move as fast as you grow older.
Does anyone know any examples of this?
Maybe someone that has gotten slower over time as an adult?

 

[anders]

This topic has already been discussed at www.speedsolving.com

 

[Nestor]

I started cubing at 31, got into 30" avg after 9 months. A couple of teen friends got the same avg in less than 2 months. Then again, social factors relative to age play a role in determining how much effort and time you invest into cubing.

I also think physical and neurological factors need to be taken into account as well.. as you age developing a neurological structure to deal efficiently with new skills gets harder, and dexterity decays.

 

[Mike Hughey]

I do think there's a difference for older people. Even though other people are correct that I spend more time on BLD solving than I do on speedsolving, it's still true that I put a pretty fair amount of practice in on 3x3x3 speedsolving, and yet I make very slow progress. It's pretty obvious that younger people (like most of you here) make quicker progress with speedsolving than I do, per hour of practice. Yet I make progress on BLD solving just as fast or faster per hour of practice as the average person. So there appears to be something about speedsolving in particular that is harder for me.

I acknowledge that it could be that I'm practicing incorrectly - I often wonder if that's the problem. But really, it seems as if it just takes me longer to have new algorithms or ideas get set in muscle memory. With BLD solving, muscle memory isn't quite as important, so it's okay that I react a little more slowly - I only lose a few seconds, which isn't that bad on BLD solving. But on speedsolving, that few seconds is a significant percentage of the total time.

I don't think the issue is dexterity - I'm reasonably quick, and with my regular practice playing piano and juggling, I'm sure my finger dexterity is equal to most twenty-year-olds.

Honestly, I don't think anyone can really know the answer to this - it's too hard to measure. But I do know that I'm really struggling at trying to improve with speedsolving. It's just really really hard for me to improve.

 

[Cube-Fu]

Martial artists often grow into their fastest reactions, an un-fettered mind is key, I feel.

 

[ElectricDoodie]

I started cubing at 31, got into 30" avg after 9 months. A couple of teen friends got the same avg in less than 2 months. Then again, social factors relative to age play a role in determining how much effort and time you invest into cubing.

I also think physical and neurological factors need to be taken into account as well.. as you age developing a neurological structure to deal efficiently with new skills gets harder, and dexterity decays.

This would be interesting to do. Gather information on people's ages, and how long it took them to become sub30. This still wouldn't help understand if it was coming from a mental factor, or just because the person has more priorities than spending too much time on cubing.

Also, I'm 23, and I got to sub30 in 4-5 months.
I was using the Beginner's Method, and averaging 1 minute. After 4-5 months, I was sub30.

 

[Cubezz]

Martial artists often grow into their fastest reactions, an un-fettered mind is key, I feel.

Yea, but cubing requires faster finger movement, while martial artists need faster body movement. Give Bruce Lee a cube and I don't think he will get high TPS
But really, I think since adults have to worry about jobs, kids, etc, they get less practice, and so that affects their times.

 

[cmhardw]

Thread mergification has just occurred.

 

[waffle=ijm]

Mergification is such awesome word, Chris. Just saying

 

[David Zemdegs]

The Age vs Speed needs to be updated....again

 

[Kenneth]

The Age vs Speed needs to be updated....again

Stefan told me he is working on automation, guess we have to wait for that.