Older cubers discussions

Sometimes jumps can happen. But I find it is harder to improve the faster you get. Remember early on in your cubing days it took a few days maybe to shave 20 seconds off your 2min solve (for example's sake)? I started speedcubing with about 1:15 or something with my old beginner's method, Rubik's brand, and no fingertricks. After learning 2-look OLL and PLL, I was pretty much instantly at around 48. First "barrier" I felt was about 36. Then later I was stuck at 22 barrier for awhile. Then I was stuck at 18 for awhile longer than when I was at 22. Now I'm at 15/16. I feel progress though so that's ok. A few months ago I was aiming to get at least one sub-15 solve a day (or a couple more). Then a few weeks ago I could get some sub-15 solves ok but sup-13 mostly. Now I'm aiming to get at least one sub-12 a day or a few more. Personally, I don't mind slower improvement as long as I don't feel like I've completely stagnated!
 
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Username said:
My first barrier ever was 14.5 :P
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I suppose it could be subjective what feels like a "barrier". For me it means it takes longer than normal for visible improvement. Do you do worse in competition? Because it appears that between March and May (2 months) you only improved a second but between May and now (1.5 months) you improved a lot more?
 
sneaklyfox said:
I suppose it could be subjective what feels like a "barrier". For me it means it takes longer than normal for visible improvement. Do you do worse in competition? Because it appears that between March and May (2 months) you only improved a second but between May and now (1.5 months) you improved a lot more?
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I do really bad in comp, especially in the may comp. To me a barrier is when it takes longer and is harder to get sub-x.
 
I find that improvements comes tend to come in jumps. I went from sup-30 to about sub-26 in what seemed like a week. I steadily improved, slowly, and then jumped from ~21-22 to ~19 in a couple days. I haven't had a "barrier" yet, but I have noticed that there are periods of relatively slow progress, followed by short periods of very rapid progress. Those days of rapid progress feel amazing, but usually they're followed by frustration when I wish I was still improving at the same rate. My guess, most people follow the same progression patterns. When these jumps occur probably differ among cubers, but I'm sure the pattern is there.

On a side note, whenever I see something like "I was sub-XX in XX months", it's generally exaggerated. I've checked people's youtube pages, and their competition records and found they were cubing long before they said they were, or actually improved slower than they claimed. I always take those comments with a grain of salt. Not implying at all that anyone on this thread is doing that, but something I always keep in mind when it comes to "well I'm better than you" posts (which there seem to be more of lately).
 
YddEd said:
Since switching to Roux (Used it for a month and 2 weeks) I have had no barriers and I'm around sub 27 o.o
It took me 6-7 months or something to get to sub 25 CFOP (with a 6 month break in between)
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I've heard similar stories, but I believe a lot of how you got fast at Roux in so short a time has to do with your CFOP training/experience that you already have. Skills such as look ahead, fingertricks, and pattern recognition have been developed from CFOP training. J-perm and Y-perm are already learned and practiced usually. So, is Roux now your main method, YddEd?
 
Definitely seems to correlate with age - my first barrier was 26! And by 'barrier', I mean stuck there for > a week or so.

I'm now 'stuck' at 22/23, because I've been here > a week or so. I'll get there one day soon. Occasionally I have a flash of look ahead and get an 18, 17, 16, 15 or 14 (only had 3 sub-15s), but normally I struggle to get sub-20.

Only about the 48th time I've seen it quoted on this forum, but: If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them - Bruce Lee.
 
sneaklyfox said:
I've heard similar stories, but I believe a lot of how you got fast at Roux in so short a time has to do with your CFOP training/experience that you already have. Skills such as look ahead, fingertricks, and pattern recognition have been developed from CFOP training. J-perm and Y-perm are already learned and practiced usually. So, is Roux now your main method, YddEd?
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I don't use the J perm, I use the T perm because I think it's faster :P Yeah Roux is my main method now, it improved my M slices alot and I found out a few things by myself without looking on the internet. I never had lookahead until these few days though :P

pipkiksass said:
Bruce Lee.
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Bruce Lee = 20% cooler than Jackie Chan
 
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Ok T perm then. I'm practicing some Roux too. It's fun to do for a change though I don't see it becoming my main method.

Off topic... actually, very off topic... this is Marcel's thread and we're just having a random conversation... but... MY CUBES ARE IN MY CITY RIGHT NOW!!! Which means I will probably get them later today. I'm SOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
About the T / J perm in Roux: It depends on the case! If 2 unoriented pieces are opp. each other in the top layer do a J to get them adj. If adj. already do a T. This is just personal opinion as I think there is less work in the adj. cases.

Its the same with Y. UB and UL swaps places, so use it to your advantage.

With headlights on left: T=UL and UR swap
J=UF and UR swap
 
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MarcelP said:
Whooohoo!!! Happy day today!.. Let us know when you unpacked them which you prefer at first glance..
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Sure! I'll try to do an unboxing video.

Schmidt said:
About the T / J perm in Roux: It depends on the case! If 2 unoriented pieces are opp. each other in the top layer do a J to get them adj. If adj. already do a T. This is just personal opinion as I think there is less work in the adj. cases.
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Not sure what you mean exactly. Do you mean opposite corners? If so, I would just do a Y perm. For adjacent, either J or T work fine. For me those algs are pretty much the same.
 
Whooo, after a busy day at work I filmed the first 12 solves of the evening. Ao12 24.32. These are on my Youtube channel ofcourse. In that was this Ao5 of 22.58:

8. 25.14 F2 L2 D' L2 F2 L2 U' B2 D' L2 D2 R' U' F2 R L2 D B F R D F
9. 21.24 D B2 R2 D' R2 U F2 U' L2 U B D U B' L' U' L2 F' R' U'
10. 25.51 D L2 U' R2 U2 R2 U L2 U L2 U F' R2 D2 F2 R2 U' F' R' U' R2
11. 21.07 R2 D U L2 F2 U' B2 F2 R2 B2 D R' D B U' F R2 L D R2 B U2
12. 21.36 F2 L2 B2 U L2 D R2 U L2 D2 R' B F D' B2 R2 D L' F' D'

[video=youtube_share;QEAQ1-N4XKo]http://youtu.be/QEAQ1-N4XKo[/video]
 
sneaklyfox said:
Not sure what you mean exactly. Do you mean opposite corners? If so, I would just do a Y perm. For adjacent, either J or T work fine. For me those algs are pretty much the same.
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I mean edges. I hate to solve just 2 opp. edges, 2 adj. are easier to deal with

[video=youtube_share;dJqhX1aXWKY]http://youtu.be/dJqhX1aXWKY[/video]
 
MarcelP said:
Whooo, after a busy day at work I filmed the first 12 solves of the evening. Ao12 24.32. These are on my Youtube channel ofcourse. In that was this Ao5 of 22.58:

8. 25.14 F2 L2 D' L2 F2 L2 U' B2 D' L2 D2 R' U' F2 R L2 D B F R D F
9. 21.24 D B2 R2 D' R2 U F2 U' L2 U B D U B' L' U' L2 F' R' U'
10. 25.51 D L2 U' R2 U2 R2 U L2 U L2 U F' R2 D2 F2 R2 U' F' R' U' R2
11. 21.07 R2 D U L2 F2 U' B2 F2 R2 B2 D R' D B U' F R2 L D R2 B U2
12. 21.36 F2 L2 B2 U L2 D R2 U L2 D2 R' B F D' B2 R2 D L' F' D'

[video=youtube_share;QEAQ1-N4XKo]http://youtu.be/QEAQ1-N4XKo[/video]
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Nice, Marcel! On video too!

New cubes update: I got my cubes but I haven't opened it yet because I wanted to try doing an unboxing video and was planning on doing it after all my kids were in bed. My daughter wants me to open it sooner though because she wants to see what I got. I guess we'll see about that. Either way, I'm going to have a fun night.

Edit: So unboxing video didn't work. Or more like my camera shut itself off after the first minute and a half... stupid thing. Annoying. I don't know why it does that. It better be working by the time I get into labour. Too bad the camera was weird or I would have opened my cubes sooner. Anyway, Zhanchi is just a Zhanchi. All the cubes probably need lubing and tensioning, but I can tell that I'm definitely going to have a new main. Which one? Not sure yet, but as I already know somewhat about Zhanchi, I think it's more likely my main is going to be the ShuangRen or the WeiLong. My first impression is that I actually prefer the feel of the ShuangRen which was a surprise because the sandy sound from reviews I've watched made me think I might not like it. I hate the stickers on it though. The MoYu stickers are nicer looking. (I ordered all 3 as black cubes.) Anyway, I'm going to tinker with them (lubing, tensioning, restickering) and play for a few days before deciding for sure.
 
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sneaklyfox said:
Nice, Marcel! On video too!
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Yes, and my current PB Ao12 23.92 is not far off. I think after almost 6 months of plateau-ing I finally am improving ;)

sneaklyfox said:
My first impression is that I actually prefer the feel of the ShuangRen which was a surprise because the sandy sound from reviews I've watched made me think I might not like it.
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My white ShuangRen is my main now. I have ordered a bunch of pink bright stickers. Maybe my white Weilong with pink on orange will replace the ShuangRen. In any case I am going to re-sticker most of my good cubes with orange -> pink. I seem to have a better look ahead on pink.
 
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