One-Answer Blindsolving Question Thread

[Mike Hughey]

Which is harder, BH edges or corners?

I find edges a little harder, but they're not all that different. You have more to choose from with BH edges, because you have to decide whether or not to go for the optimal solutions that aren't center-safe on big cubes. If you do go for those (which I've done for a lot of cases), there are a few more cases you need to learn to recognize.

are you serious? I'll attempt 4 cubes again and I really need to forget the last one

Using different journeys/rooms can help; at the very least, it's nice to swap between two sets of journeys so you don't reuse the same one twice in a row. Other than that, I find that it's helpful to not memorize too vividly. It seems like if you make the images really super vivid (like it sounds like Chris Hardwick does), it can be hard to forget. Mine aren't as vivid, I think, so they're easier to forget. If you hear Ben Pridmore describe his memorization of a deck of cards, it doesn't sound all that vivid (it sounds a lot like mine), so perhaps it's really helpful. It's like there's a balancing act - you want to make it as vivid as necessary to keep it through the solve, but not vivid enough to last after you're done.

I like to tell people that just about anyone can remember a big cube blindfolded (once they learn the techniques); my talent is that I'm really good at forgetting.

 

[Ordos_Koala]

how many attempts did you need to do first BLD solve? I tried 3 times only edges, but mostly I have about half of the cube right

 

[cmhardw]

Which is harder, BH edges or corners?

I agree with Mike, I find edges a bit harder. I do have to be honest that I use U perms when they come up on 3x3x3, but otherwise I still do all move optimal algorithms. The cases that were hard for me to get used to at first were the "Wide setup into a XXXX" cases. Those take a while to get used to, kind of like the A9's for corners. I've gotten a number of sub-1:10's using move optimal BH for edges, and I really want to prove that sub-60 is possible using it. I'm so sick of hearing that move optimal BH edges is "too slow" that I'm using that as motivation to try and prove that myth wrong

Definitely go with sup-optimal moves like U perms and the like whenever you get an easy case, I'm not saying that you have to also do move optimal. I'm just being weird and trying to prove a strange and mostly irrelevant point that move optimal BH edges can be fast enough to get a sub-60 single, even if non-optimal algs are faster. Also, and to be perfectly honest, I don't want to practice non-optimal algs on 3x3x3 as I know they would interfere with my 5x5x5 and 7x7x7. 3x3x3 practice for me is mostly just to reaffirm my 5x5x5 and 7x7x7 technique more than anything else, so definitely speed-optimize your algs if you do go wth BH edges.

Other than that, I find that it's helpful to not memorize too vividly. It seems like if you make the images really super vivid (like it sounds like Chris Hardwick does), it can be hard to forget. Mine aren't as vivid, I think, so they're easier to forget. If you hear Ben Pridmore describe his memorization of a deck of cards, it doesn't sound all that vivid (it sounds a lot like mine), so perhaps it's really helpful. It's like there's a balancing act - you want to make it as vivid as necessary to keep it through the solve, but not vivid enough to last after you're done.

Yes I do have a problem with memorizing too vividly. I even went back to the memory sports recently to fess up to this, and am trying to work through their advice about this. Another thing I struggle with is trying not to make the journey location too vivid in your memory. The less detail the better in general, this goes both for speed of memorization and ease of forgetting after. Read the memory sports yahoo group for some ideas. You don't even have to go very far back, I asked my question as it related to my problems with this only about a month ago.

Also yes, definitely make more journeys so that you don't have to reuse them. Ideally you should rest any journey 24 hours before using it again (according to the memory experts on the yahoo group). I find I get my best times when I rest a journey for at least a week before reusing. The journeys that I use in competition solves I always rest for minimum 1 month before using it at the competition. I prefer to rest journeys 4-6 months in advance for a big competition like Worlds or Nationals (and no I'm not joking either).

 

[Julian]

I'm considering branching into M2. It seems to me that there are a lot of B setups, how do most people get around the slowness of these moves?

 

[aronpm]

x'

 

[Sakarie]

I've gotten a number of sub-1:10's using move optimal BH for edges, and I really want to prove that sub-60 is possible using it. I'm so sick of hearing that move optimal BH edges is "too slow" that I'm using that as motivation to try and prove that myth wrong

Do "people" say that you can't get sub-60 with move optimal BH edges? A lot of people saying that this isn't the second best edge method, while speed optimal is the best? How many claims M2 is faster than pure BH-edges? And what would you have "proved" by doing sub-60?

I couldn't imagine M2 would be faster, but maybe that's just me. And please do not give responses only with "This cuber uses M2, and he's so good", because you could probably be sub-60 with any commonly used method.

Anyway; My recommends is that you start with move optimal center safe edges, except given U-perms and M'U2MU2, and then expand to non-center safe, and then non-move optimal.

 

[mati rubik]

ok thanks, I can make another room/journey for another attemp, thanks to both Mike and Chris

 

[Mike Hughey]

I've gotten a number of sub-1:10's using move optimal BH for edges, and I really want to prove that sub-60 is possible using it.

I haven't kept statistics, so this is purely anecdotal, but generally, it feels like most of my sub-1:10 solves are ones where I use a lot of BH edge cases. If I have to do many extra moves, I generally can't sub-1:10. Or at least, it feels that way.

 

[aronpm]

@Chris and Mike: what are your average movecounts for 3bld? And if you've reconstructed fast solves, what's your lowest known movecount?

 

[cincyaviation]

Are M2 and R2 the fastest 2 cycle methods, or are there others that could conceivably be faster?

 

[toastman]

I don't think anyone knows. Rumor has it that Chris Brownlee has done it in under 15 minutes, but he has never confirmed it with an announcement of an actual time, that I know of.

That is beyond insane.

(Then again, most of the stuff you do, Mike, is beyond insane)

 

[toastman]

Also yes, definitely make more journeys so that you don't have to reuse them. Ideally you should rest any journey 24 hours before using it again (according to the memory experts on the yahoo group). I find I get my best times when I rest a journey for at least a week before reusing. The journeys that I use in competition solves I always rest for minimum 1 month before using it at the competition. I prefer to rest journeys 4-6 months in advance for a big competition like Worlds or Nationals (and no I'm not joking either).

Dude! How many journeys do you have?

I'm currently trying to learn one journey of 100 places (which is 10 groups of 10 places, based on the city where I live and places I go). Am considering using various "parts" of this when doing memo so that you get used to using all of it and don't over-use any.

Wow man, you must have a lot of journeys. Can you give a brief overview?

 

[Mike Hughey]

@Chris and Mike: what are your average movecounts for 3bld? And if you've reconstructed fast solves, what's your lowest known movecount?

I just tried doing an average of 12 where I counted moves of a normal 3x3x3 BLD solve:
average 10 of 12: 107.3 moves
117, 78, 86, 107, 107, 134, 101, (146), 117, 115, (78), 111

This felt a little worse than average. The reason for the high movecounts is usually twisted corners, flipped edges, or parity. I am sometimes quite inefficient with parity; I always set up to a T perm and will do standard M2 for the last piece to set up for it. I wonder if this might really benefit me a lot to improve.

I know I have counted a couple of solve reconstructions that were under 70 moves, but I'm not sure I've ever been under 60 that I know about.

Dude! How many journeys do you have?

I know you asked Chris, but I thought I'd chime in. I use rooms; I have 22 rooms that I use regularly, with at least 9 locations in each room, so a total of 198 locations. Actually, some of those rooms have "spillover locations", so I actually have a few more than that, but it's more common that I won't use all my locations, so I usually get less than 198 out of it.

Ryosuke Mondo once told me he used his memory image list as his journey, which is a rather clever idea. That gave him 552 locations!

 

[uberCuber]

I am sometimes quite inefficient with parity; I always set up to a T perm and will do standard M2 for the last piece to set up for it. I wonder if this might really benefit me a lot to improve.

This reminded me that I was actually going to ask about this.

To all BH users (well, not literally all, just whoever feels like answering), how do you handle parity in a 3x3 solve?

 

[aronpm]

Say my last corner target is DFR, I'll do the cycle UBR->DFR->ULB which leaves ULB and UBR swapped. If my last edge target is say FR I'll do DF->FR->UB which leaves DF and UB swapped. Then parity is just y L2 Tperm L2. I also know algorithms for T perms that flip those two edges or twist those two corners. Like (F2U2) (rU'r U2 R'FR U2 r2F) (U2F2) or (F2U2) (RU'R' F'UF RUR2 FRF') (U2F2)

 

[TheMachanga]

Is the Journey method when you make a story out of the letters? Simply by making something like ex. David Ran To Mordor With Bob? I don't understand what Chris is talking about. Also, I've learned Turbo, but I stopped for some reason. I it generally faster than M2

 

[Tyjet66]

I actually have three questions:
1. What does "BH" stand for? Some unconscious part of me is screaming "Back Hand" every time I read it.
2. When would you suggest learning M2 edges? (See my signature for how many BLD solves I've done.)
3. I really enjoy visual memo but would you suggest that I work on labeling sticker locations? I'm curious about doing so but I'm not sure if it'd be worth it.

how many attempts did you need to do first BLD solve? I tried 3 times only edges, but mostly I have about half of the cube right

http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?26625-How-many-attempts-did-it-take

 

[aronpm]

Beyer-Hardwick

 

[TheMachanga]

2. When would you suggest learning M2 edges? (See my signature for how many BLD solves I've done.)

I learned them when I averaged around 5 minutes with Old Pochmann edges and Orienting then permuting corners with J-perms. I suggest maybe 5-7

3. I really enjoy visual memo but would you suggest that I work on labeling sticker locations? I'm curious about doing so but I'm not sure if it'd be worth it.

What do you mean by visual? Do you mean remembering the order of the cycle with an imaginary arrow (like, first this goes here, then here, then here), or with colors White red edge = WR = war, or Orange Green = OG = Oger.
I defiantly recommend labeling sticker locations, or at least using the color one. M2 uses labeling sticker locations. I think the reason you BLD times are really slow are because you don't do that.

 

[Tyjet66]

I just tap the locations in order and it gets forced into temporary muscle memory. I think I'll label all 24 locations soon and then learn M2 shortly afterwords. As for my BLD times, honestly, I only timed my first DNFs and my very first success, other than that, I have yet to time myself.