A hopeless situation

[tievoke]

I have been cubing for 1 year and a month. My average is now 38, which is slower than a herd of turtles stampeding through peanut butter. Also, my times (I had a fresh average of 12 to post but I closed the tab :fp) are very inconsistent, ranging from 33's, to 45's.

This is very embarassing (which is also the reason I won't go to competitions - let's be honest; who has been cubing over a year and still averages 38's?) and I surely want to get sub-30, but it just doesn't work.

I'm using the Petrus method, and my blockbuilding stinks. I have to stick with the Petrus method though. I know the Fridrich method (all F2L cases) and that gets me stuck in the 40's. Keyhole method gets me stuck around the 45's. Roux does not interest me.

What can I do? Should I give up and quit cubing altogether? I'm starting to think that I'm just not destined for the whole cubing thing. I mean; I've been reading this forum a lot (just registered, but I've been lurking around lots), and I see people on this forum picking up cubing and averaging 38 in 1 or 2 months, which took me over a year.

I really like cubing though, don't get me wrong, and it's been a hobby I've been doing every single day. In the year I've been cubing, there wasn't a single day I have not touched my cube. It's just that it's becoming annoying that I can't take this further; my times remain slow, which refrains me from going to competitions, thus leaving me cubing at home, always getting averages of 38, which gets boring.

Who can help me out here?
Thanks in advance for any tips anyone might give.

 

[Vinny]

Well if you want to stick with Petrus, I say keep practicing. Blockbuilding is something you simple have to practice and you'll get better and better. When I started F2L, I went from 30s to 40s, but in a few weeks of practice, I started to improve.

About the competition, you should be going for fun, not JUST to do good. I met some people at my last competition that averaged up to 2 minutes, but all that matters is that you have a good time and meet new people.

 

[ianography]

Don't quit cubing. You will most likely regret it. And definitely practice Fridrich, it will make you slow at first but then very fast.

 

[JyH]

I would say convert to Fridrich. If you're using a bad cube, get a DIY, and just practice. Everyone improves at different speeds.

 

[sofeeuhh]

I would say to stick with Fridrich. I don't think Petrus is as fast as Fridrich, but I may be wrong. When one starts Fridrich for the first time (mostly F2L), it's very slow and hard in the beginning, but once you get used to it your times will improve by a lot. Just keep practicing and when you need help, use YouTube and forums like this!

 

[Anonymous]

I will admit that it's odd that you're not at least sub-30 after a year. Is it your lookahead that's suffering, or do you just have extremely low TPS?

 

[cubeslayer]

I have been cubing for 1 year and a month. My average is now 38, which is slower than a herd of turtles stampeding through peanut butter. Also, my times (I had a fresh average of 12 to post but I closed the tab :fp) are very inconsistent, ranging from 33's, to 45's.

This is very embarassing (which is also the reason I won't go to competitions - let's be honest; who has been cubing over a year and still averages 38's?)

Hi THERE !

I picked up the cube three years ago. Why? Because it was fun. After one year of cubing, I was averaging 1 min and 30.
A year and six months later from when I initially began cubing, FTW 59 sec! .
Two years and a few months later from when I initally began cubing, I'm a GENIUS 43 SEC AVG.
Now, three years since I've began cubing, 29 sec average.

SO STOP WHINING,
PICK UP THE CUBE,
ENJOY CUBING,
AND have patience. :tu:tu:tu:tu:tu:tu:tu:tu

 

[~Phoenix Death~]

(which is also the reason I won't go to competitions - let's be honest; who has been cubing over a year and still averages 38's?) QUOTE]

~Phoenix Death~
My advice: You have to practice A LOT. Way more than you think.

 

[DGraciaRubik]

If you blockbuild using petrus, switch to roux. You blockbuild the blocks and it's fast.

 

[Vinny]

I guess some people might just pick it up slower than others.

 

[wontolla]

You don't mention what is it you are doing to get better. Are you practicing solves? Not speedsolves, but looking for ways to avoid cube rotations etc. Are you trying to slow down to improve your look ahead?

 

[KYLOL]

If you blockbuild using petrus, switch to roux. You blockbuild the blocks and it's fast.

lol

 

[NaeosPsy]

You can get 20-30 with burst solving without lookahead.
I would say, practice more, practice execution, practice recognition, not just do it like "blaah, will solve it this evening, have nothing to do... "

 

[crashdummy001]

almost exact same story here, until i realized that my cube was locking every 4 turns. I got better cubes with reverse corner cutting and nice M slices and my times went from ~40 to ~30 immediately. From there, I regained some lost interest and now i'm around 23

 

[freshcuber]

Try watching some of badmephisto's tutorials. Also go to a comp. You'll learn a lot there and people will be willing to give you tips and practicing tricks to help you improve.

 

[Zarxrax]

I was in the same boat. I averaged around 40 seconds after 1 year. Now I'm going on 2.5 years and I'm averaging about 25 sec.
Just keep going. You should probably switch to fridrich if you want to get faster, but if you just don't like fridrich for some reason, then by all means stick with what you prefer.
If you don't know all the LL algs, start learning them.

You probably practice about like I do: do several random solves throughout the day, and maybe one or 2 averages of 5.
That's not going to cut it.
If you really want to improve, you've gotta put in the time. Try to set aside one day each week to do an average of 100. If that's too much right now, maybe start out with an avg of 30 or avg of 50, and work your way up.

 

[DavidWoner]

This is very embarassing (which is also the reason I won't go to competitions - let's be honest; who has been cubing over a year and still averages 38's?)

The only thing you should be embarrassed about is that you are stupid enough to believe that people will care if you are slow.

 

[collinbxyz]

If you can, make a video of and average of 5 to help us see what's wrong.

 

[Bryan]

What kind of cube do you have? Just going to a nice one or even something lubed can drop your times if you actually have all the cases memorized. You say you know all of F2L in Fridrich, but how long are you taking to recall the steps. If you know something that takes 5 moves, but you take 3 seconds to find the piece and determine the move, it's pointless.

 

[waffle=ijm]

Don't switch to roux. It's not a fast method :3