Random Blindfold Cubing Discussion

Just felt like sharing:
Yesterday I ate lunch at a restaurant called Lanesplitter (in Oakland, California). While I was waiting for my food, I did one blind solve, and my corner memo was SPLITR, just like the name of the restaurant. I checked several times to make sure I had it right, and I solved the corners successfully.
Seemed like a pretty neat coincidence.
 
Just felt like sharing:
Yesterday I ate lunch at a restaurant called Lanesplitter (in Oakland, California). While I was waiting for my food, I did one blind solve, and my corner memo was SPLITR, just like the name of the restaurant. I checked several times to make sure I had it right, and I solved the corners successfully.
Seemed like a pretty neat coincidence.

I love it when memos fit the occasion, but that one is just too good! Nice!
 
Just a technique I thought I'd share as it's helped me immensely in reducing pauses and increasing the flow in my Big BLD and Multi solves.

As I have gotten faster, the pressure of getting world-class times has forced me to encode images faster than I used to do. I've found that this sometimes leads to less actual visualisation of the images. While this can actually be a really good thing as it can be much more efficient and lead to very fast memo times, it often results in the transition between certain piece types being much slower. This is also true of switching between cubes in fast multi attempts.

To fix this I have incorporated visual 'cues' into my memo. For instance, in 5BLD I will memo wings first and solve them last. Even with a review, I do occasionally take a while to remember the first image and get myself going = precious seconds wasted.

However, if I bite/flick/pinch the first piece for a piece set (and also for all my other 'first pieces' in other sets) during my review phase I am much more likely to remember what my first word is. If the first word is a bit dodgy, or something I'm not used to visualising (such as XM) I will flick the X and then the M for example. This is my 'cue' to remember the rest of the sentence and continue execution.

Using multi as an example, I have found that I am more likely to have memory lapses in remembering the edge images. If I have 2 cubes to recall after I have finished executing my first one, I will often visualise some sort of interaction between those two 'first pieces.' For instance, UF on #2 and RD on #3 could be connected by a piece of string in my mind. When I come to #2, not only will I know what my first images is for #2, but I also know straight away what my first image is for cube #3. I have, in some form, rehearsed it during execution.

Memo shouldn't be a passive process, because it isn't. Since bringing imaginative ideas such as these into memo means I can still actually enjoy memorising.

Does anyone else do this already?
 
I haven't done exactly that (it sounds like a great idea), but I have taken over the past few months to "visual memorizing" first pieces in sets lately. I remember visually where the pieces are to start the sets, and that acts as my cue to get me going. It has definitely helped me some. It's funny - I didn't really do it intentionally, but when practicing for 5x5x5 BLD for WC I just started doing it almost by accident.

I'm thinking it might be nice to use extra images to "connect" the first pieces of different sets. But strings connecting pieces visually is a neat idea too. All kinds of interesting possibilities here - thanks for bringing it up.
 
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