Older cubers discussions

Comitting to a memory system that works for you is always the hardest part, because there's no magical recipe that works for everyone. You need to really try different combinations and see which one you deal with the better, but it requires comittment and a few tries.
Since you already know a letter scheme and how to execute, you should try a different way to memorize things, because making sentences is not always the easiest thing to do.

Consider the following:
Instead of trying to build a phrase with the letters you come up with in pairs, think of objects or people that relate to you or that you can immediately identify with or know. The idea is to place those items in an order that will be familiar to you so you can automatically recall without thinking too much about it. One of the easiest ways to memorize things is to place them in locations you use every single day, like rooms in your house.
You can certainly know instantly what is where in your house, like your own room or the kitchen.
Close your eyes and visualize spots where objects can be placed or do things. Organize this list of places in a room in a clockwise manner, from left to right always, so you know where to begin and end. For instance, I can see in your room, there's a chair, then the bed, then the computer table, .... think of up to 7 places so you have just enough space to memorize like the edges if you have cycles. You need two rooms, one for edges and one for corners.
The advantage of using this method is you don't have to think what comes next in your room after the bed, you know by heart it's the computer without thinking at all.

The memorization process will then only be thinking of putting these objects/people/something that relates to you in those places doing something. The most important thing is those letter pairs can't be random, they have to mean something that says something special to you.
For instance, to start memorizing let's say the memorization you had before, you used the UJ OW IH DA NG
Let's pretend just for an example that after your computer you have your own box of cubes, a trashcan, a window, and a closet.
So to start memorizing, always going left to right, think of *your* Uncle John (UJ) sitting in that chair, farting or picking his nose and sticking it to the bottom of the arms, cursing at you and waving his arms around or doing something that is very familiar to you. Then move on to the bed and place there an OWl, with its big eyes, tearing appart a small animal and eating it, filling the sheets of your bed with blood and small bones. Then you move on where the Increadible Hulk, (IH) is sitting at your computer, smashing your keyboard and punching your monitor in a very angry mood. Then you can see your friend DAniel peeling all the stickers from your cubes and smashing your favorite against the wall. See him laughing evily as he's destroying your entire collection.
Then think of a big nigerian guy peeing into your trashcan, making all the stuff you have there kind of float around, smelling terrible.
It should be easier to go through the entire room you know by heart and reliving what's in each place. You can see these images more vividly and longer.
Do the same for another room you have in your house that you know very well, for the other set of pieces.
Remember that memory sticks better the more ugly, foul, sexual, disgusting and dirty it is and the closer to you the better. It's how our brains work and we should take advantage of that. Also, use your own language, no need to memorize in english. This was just an example, you need to make up your own things by yourself. It's your brain so it's only you that know what works better.

This of course was poorly written and not complete at all, and not the most optimized way to do it, but it should help think differently about memorization and improve success. You are not supposed to think while you are memorizing, you are supposed to feel the objects/persons/things that directly are close to you and say something to you and move on to the next location.
For further reference, see for instance Noah's channel on youtube, he has some good information about memorization.
Hope that helps out in some way. Having so many blind failures is very very sad.
 
Comitting to a memory system that works for you is always the hardest part, because there's no magical recipe that works for everyone. You need to really try different combinations and see which one you deal with the better, but it requires comittment and a few tries.
Since you already know a letter scheme and how to execute, you should try a different way to memorize things, because making sentences is not always the easiest thing to do.

.. Having so many blind failures is very very sad.

Thanks for the explanation. I have read the theory of Elefant path several times but never figured how to apply. I even asked about it in the one question BLD one answer topic. Now I understand. Yeah for me memo is the hardest part. Seeing where the pieces go and keeping track of the parity, braking into new cycles and stuff keep me from concentrating on making a story.

yeah, 2 out 200 solves success rate is not the greatest. ;) But hey, I have had many almost successes. I have had quite a few successes with half solved scrambles. Meaning I solve the cube half way before I start continue the rest doing BLD. I think it will get better in time ;)
 
Okay, I ordered a bunch of stickers,. We will see when it gets here. ;)

Okay, last Sunday I made the order. Today (Saturday) they came in. And they are awesome. I order different sets of fitted/ShuangRen and 4X4 stickers sets in half bright and full bright.

Looks like The Cubicle has a new sticker customer.
TheCubicle-01.jpg


TheCubicle-02.jpg
 
I use Old Pochman style for excecution and letter pairs for memo. I try to make words for the letter pairs to make a sentence that I can remember. I have had only two successes in 3 months. I do at least 12 solves per week. My memory is my weakest point. Sometimes I get lucky with a scramble like this one with one edge in place and no braking into new cycles. Then remembering the letterpairs seems doable.

Wow, 12 solves a week. I know for some people that is not much but it would be for me. I think doing BLD takes me like 10+ minutes or something though I have never actually timed myself. I'm soooo slow. But seeing you can do it in a few minutes... maybe I should practice my BLD and try to get under 5 minutes. I wonder if I would have enough motivation/time/energy to make one attempt a day...
 
I wonder if I would have enough motivation/time/energy to make one attempt a day...
I think I will cut down a bit on the BLD for a while. I want more focus on 3 X 3 speed. So.. Melody can you look at this walkthrough video of mine and tell me if I am on the righttrack to be a sub 20 solver? Anyone who wantto comment, please do:

[video=youtube_share;XrmUc4UWR34]http://youtu.be/XrmUc4UWR34[/video]
 
I'm not used to seeing full brights on original colour plastic. If you really want my critique...

Solve 1
- actually I prefer D moves instead of u moves to align the cross edges because nothing moves on the top. But u is probably good if you can't see anything already.
- I'm not sure what you did for the last pair but it looked like a lot more moves than it needed to be.

Solve 2
- trick for the last cross edge at the bottom but flipped... if you can hold it so the wrong edge is in DR, you can do R'uR'u'
- 3rd pair... you probably noticed... you did U2 U2...

Solve 3
- too many cube rotations and too many moves on some pairs... you need to get more comfortable inserting pairs in the back maybe?
- need better PLL recognition

Solve 4
- not sure if because you're doing walkthrough... but cross wasn't very fingertrick friendly
- definitely need more efficient F2L... you have a lot of 11-move pairs and things

Solve 5
- yeah, it would help to not have a camera in your face lol. I can't solve a cube when I can't see what I'm doing either. :p

In general:
- more fingertrick friendly crosses
- need more efficient F2L and less cube rotations during F2L
- when F2L corner pieces are stuck in the D layer, find better ways of getting them out and pairing with edge

I haven't mentioned look ahead. For walkthrough, make use of the slower solving to always track your next pair. Sometimes you finished a pair you were doing and didn't know what you were going to do next. Try more walkthroughs but instead of just "I am doing this pair now" also tell yourself "And I am tracking this pair". Hope this helps!

Unrelated: I practiced some BLD yesterday. I did 4 scrambles but didn't do any memo. Instead I just typed up the letter pairs I was going to do and solved the cube while looking at what I had typed. Just to practice figuring out the letters themselves faster (getting used to my letter scheme) and also making sure I know the setups and executions I do. I will work on the memo part later.
 
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I think I will cut down a bit on the BLD for a while.
You should cut down on cube rotations instead. Last solve has 7 cube rotations. Try to identify cases where you rotate and try to adjust the way things are solved without dancing with the cube so much. Most of the times it's only a matter of using the left hand to insert or learn mirror algs. The red face center seems red and the rest seems pink, that would throw completely off my lookahead, no idea how you use it like that.
 
I'm not used to seeing full brights on original colour plastic. If you really want my critique...

Solve 1
- actually I prefer D moves instead of u moves to align the cross edges because nothing moves on the top. But u is probably good if you can't see anything already.
- I'm not sure what you did for the last pair but it looked like a lot more moves than it needed to be.

Yes, I use D2 more often than u2. But like you said, when you haven't found you first pair yet, u2 is a better option.

Solve 2
- trick for the last cross edge at the bottom but flipped... if you can hold it so the wrong edge is in DR, you can do R'uR'u'
- 3rd pair... you probably noticed... you did U2 U2...

I do crosses normally without rotations and always with cross on D. But for the sake of walkthrough I did strange stuff. Yes, 3rd pair I did not know I was looking at the wrong cubies at first. Not sitting straight in front of my cube throws me off.

- need better PLL recognition

Yeah, I need that. It's not something you can train quickly. I quess it comes with time. Now, sitting not in front of the cube and camera blocking my view does not help eighter ;)

- definitely need more efficient F2L... you have a lot of 11-move pairs and things

Yes, I have been working on that. I am learning to do the advanced F2L cases. Most of the time however I still do the 'beginner' way which is waaaay faster for me. That way I can do it without thinking and start looking for the next pair.

For example Set up R U' R' F' L' U' L F

F' L' U L F R U R' is the shortest way doing this case. For me it is a lot quicker just to do a rotation y' U' brake them up and set up for insert.. making way to many moves..


In general:
- more fingertrick friendly crosses
- need more efficient F2L and less cube rotations during F2L
- when F2L corner pieces are stuck in the D layer, find better ways of getting them out and pairing with edge

I haven't mentioned look ahead. For walkthrough, make use of the slower solving to always track your next pair. Sometimes you finished a pair you were doing and didn't know what you were going to do next. Try more walkthroughs but instead of just "I am doing this pair now" also tell yourself "And I am tracking this pair". Hope this helps!

I practice slow solves quite a lot. And in real solves I am doing better and better in not pauzing. When I am in the zone I can look ahead all pairs without pause. Still needs a lot of work for me to become sub 20 though. Thanks for your comments.

Unrelated: I practiced some BLD yesterday. I did 4 scrambles but didn't do any memo. Instead I just typed up the letter pairs I was going to do and solved the cube while looking at what I had typed. Just to practice figuring out the letters themselves faster (getting used to my letter scheme) and also making sure I know the setups and executions I do. I will work on the memo part later.

And did you get a 4/4 success? ;)

You should cut down on cube rotations instead. Last solve has 7 cube rotations. Try to identify cases where you rotate and try to adjust the way things are solved without dancing with the cube so much. Most of the times it's only a matter of using the left hand to insert or learn mirror algs. The red face center seems red and the rest seems pink, that would throw completely off my lookahead, no idea how you use it like that.
The camera just does not capture the true colors. In real life the contrast is very good. The pink shows really weird on camera.

Marcel,
If you don't get to sub 20 I owe you €10, 000. :p

Ha ha ha... I think it will take at least one more year. We'll see.
 
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Hey marcel her a question what is you're PB avg and single?
Also if u have problem with F2l cross or LL don't mind asking me at amstelveen It would be a pleasure to help you out.:)
 
Hey marcel her a question what is you're PB avg and single?
Also if u have problem with F2l cross or LL don't mind asking me at amstelveen It would be a pleasure to help you out.:)

I average about 26 seconds on 3 X 3. I would love to get an offical 26 average. I have had a few sub 25 Ao100. Only on a good day I can pull that off. ;)
 
If you're interested, here's my first Ao100 with my Weilong:

number of times: 100/100
best time: 15.66
worst time: 38.05

current avg5: 23.92 (σ = 0.56)
best avg5: 18.91 (σ = 1.73)

current avg12: 24.00 (σ = 1.01)
best avg12: 21.08 (σ = 2.43)

current avg100: 22.86 (σ = 3.45)
best avg100: 22.86 (σ = 3.45)

session avg: 22.86 (σ = 3.45)
session mean: 22.94

22.31, 23.56, 22.56, 19.39, 22.67, 29.92, 23.33, 15.66, 18.20, 34.50, 21.78, 21.58, 23.58, 23.98, 22.74, 15.70, 24.11, 23.30, 22.91, 38.05, 23.95, 24.70, 24.94, 18.13, 24.74+, 17.39, 21.34, 19.41, 27.38, 22.19, 18.02, 21.09, 21.11, 25.53, 19.20, 25.58, 30.42, 21.52, 20.72, 20.63, 24.53, 19.74, 26.31, 24.34, 20.02, 22.00, 18.78, 20.00, 27.28, 17.92, 23.53, 19.17, 21.33, 26.52, 19.03, 21.34, 32.58, 21.75, 22.41, 21.67, 21.02, 23.03, 20.03, 25.92, 19.26, 24.66, 21.52, 25.31, 21.07, 23.16, 22.10, 20.62, 27.40, 29.99+, 28.84, 23.60, 24.52, 18.20, 19.30, 23.02, 27.60, 17.60, 21.77, 17.69, 17.68, 21.35, 29.99, 21.75, 27.98, 23.79, 20.24, 25.29, 24.07, 24.66, 22.72, 24.53, 23.18, 25.49, 22.21, 24.04
 
If you're interested, here's my first Ao100 with my Weilong:

number of times: 100/100
best time: 15.66
worst time: 38.05

current avg5: 23.92 (σ = 0.56)
best avg5: 18.91 (σ = 1.73)

current avg12: 24.00 (σ = 1.01)
best avg12: 21.08 (σ = 2.43)

current avg100: 22.86 (σ = 3.45)
best avg100: 22.86 (σ = 3.45)

session avg: 22.86 (σ = 3.45)
session mean: 22.94

22.31, 23.56, 22.56, 19.39, 22.67, 29.92, 23.33, 15.66, 18.20, 34.50, 21.78, 21.58, 23.58, 23.98, 22.74, 15.70, 24.11, 23.30, 22.91, 38.05, 23.95, 24.70, 24.94, 18.13, 24.74+, 17.39, 21.34, 19.41, 27.38, 22.19, 18.02, 21.09, 21.11, 25.53, 19.20, 25.58, 30.42, 21.52, 20.72, 20.63, 24.53, 19.74, 26.31, 24.34, 20.02, 22.00, 18.78, 20.00, 27.28, 17.92, 23.53, 19.17, 21.33, 26.52, 19.03, 21.34, 32.58, 21.75, 22.41, 21.67, 21.02, 23.03, 20.03, 25.92, 19.26, 24.66, 21.52, 25.31, 21.07, 23.16, 22.10, 20.62, 27.40, 29.99+, 28.84, 23.60, 24.52, 18.20, 19.30, 23.02, 27.60, 17.60, 21.77, 17.69, 17.68, 21.35, 29.99, 21.75, 27.98, 23.79, 20.24, 25.29, 24.07, 24.66, 22.72, 24.53, 23.18, 25.49, 22.21, 24.04

Nice!! I just now realise you are not far off my times. I just had a new Pb with my CX3 ao12 00:22.07 and then the next solve was 19.XX making a new ao12 PB of 21.78 ;)
 
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