A word about practice

[Schmidt]

Tape yourself! If your cross takes 8 sec, work on that. If you are starring at the cube for long seconds at a time during F2L, work on that. If you are applying the Sune until OLL is done, learn more algs. Read through the already made threads on how to practice instead of making new ones, there might be something useful. Then, when YOU find out what is slowing YOU down, you can ask for specific help.
My guess is: The most helpful cubers are only helpful until a certain point! When they have answered the same Q over and over again, and given directions to the same YouTube channel over and over again, they become indifferent and shout "PRACTICE" at anyone.

 

[cubersmith]

I just wish people would link my thread on practice more. I was hoping it would solve the problem of new users replying to other new users threads with bad/outdated practice advice

http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?27870-How-to-practice.

Heh, there we go

Also,

So if you think that "practicing" (or as you would define it, solving the cube a bunch of times) is bad, then why cube? That is what cubing is, is it not?

Not in my opinion.

 

[tozies24]

But its...its easy ... to, to talk about... It's easy to sum it up when you're just talking about practice. We're sitting in here, and I'm supposed to be the franchise cuber, and we in here talking about practice. I mean, listen, we're talking about practice, not a comp, not a comp, not a comp, we talking about practice. Not a comp. Not, not ... Not the comp that I go out there and die for and play every comp like it's my last. Not the comp, but we're talking about practice, man. I mean, how silly is that? ...

And we talking about practice. I know I supposed to be there. I know I'm supposed to lead by example... I know that... And i'm not.. I'm not shoving it aside, you know, like it don't mean anything. I know it's important, I do. I honestly do...

But we're talking about practice man. What are we talking about? Practice? We're talking about practice, man. (laughter from the media crowd) We're talking about practice. We're talking about practice. We aint talking about the comp. (more laughter) We're talking about practice, man. When you come to the venue, and you see me cube, you see me cube don't you? You've seen me give everything I've got, right? But we're talking about practice right now. We taking about pr... (Interrupted)

 

[Erzz]

until the very very top, in almost anything, all that matters is how much work you put in, the only problem is most people cant work hard even at things they do enjoy, much less things they dont have a real passion for.

It's true.

 

[DaveyCow]

Just want to add this link in as well as my opinion on the matter

http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?27870-How-to-practice.

Thanx for posting this link! Sorry if I missed it in the "noobs sections" of the forums.... This is insanely useful advice for a noob like me - I even copyied/pasted to a word doc and saved on my computer so I don't forget it (and can take it with me on vacation in a few weeks for reference when I'll have no internet

So again, thx waffle for posting link and your additional advice and THANK YOU Escher for the article!!

 

[DaveyCow]

LOL - I must have this picture <like>

 

[jonlin]

So how fast are you now?

I am sub 25 now.

 

[DaveyCow]

Lol... If someone made that into a rap I would actually like it.
Especially with the canned laughter. It'd be great to annoy people with.

The rap would be called "Eminem practices cubing"

 

[Akuma]

And then I hit a roadblock of 30 seconds.

...the fudge?

I never ever encountered a roadblock at 30 seconds. I hit sub-25 using a magic method called 'learning full PLL'.
After that I easily hit sub-25.

 

[Andreaillest]

Rowan's thread is ace and is basically everything you need to know about how to practice. When people just say, "practice" they forget to tell you on what to practice on. If you think we're not helpful or doing this to spite you, then you have it all wrong. We do want to help people get faster. Complaining or whining about it won't help.

A nice way to see on what to practice on is to tape yourself doing an avg. When you watch it, take notice of your mistakes and weak points. Then PRACTICE on improving those points. And maybe find or search some tutorials on youtube or speedsolving that talk about those points. It most likely will already be up.

 

[macky]

I just wish people would link my thread on practice more. I was hoping it would solve the problem of new users replying to other new users threads with bad/outdated practice advice

Yeah, seriously. I thought this p-word business was the dumbest thing on SS. I'm glad it's died down a bit.

 

[Godmil]

I would not suggest hours and hours of practice! Sure practice is important but it's the way one practices that matters more than how many hours.

I'm not a guru cube solver, recently got into it, but I know from many years of guitar playing plus I live in a house full of musicians and I can see what works - it's better to practice what you need in a focussed way for 10 to 15 minutes a day rather than hours and hours of utterly useless drivel!

There are some good points there. (although I suck) I too follow similar principles about working on my alg speeds as I did when trying to get faster on the guitar (economy of movement and such like). However there is a big difference, Cubing also has the Recognision/recollection component, where the more times you see a case (be it an F2L case or an OLL) the quicker you'll get at recognising it and remembering what to do. In that respect I find it to me more similar to language learning where immersion can be a lot better than just 10-15mins a day.

 

[ARyder]

There are some good points there. (although I suck) I too follow similar principles about working on my alg speeds as I did when trying to get faster on the guitar (economy of movement and such like). However there is a big difference, Cubing also has the Recognision/recollection component, where the more times you see a case (be it an F2L case or an OLL) the quicker you'll get at recognising it and remembering what to do. In that respect I find it to me more similar to language learning where immersion can be a lot better than just 10-15mins a day.

Hmm, language learning, interesting, I never thought of it that way but I think it's a fair point. And granted emersion certainly has it's part to play in recognition.

I guess my point was simply quality over quantity but quality and quantity is even better.

"Economy of movement" - sounds like Malmsteen, love him or hate him, he certainly has mastered the guitar.

Cheers.