[Help Thread] Advice and Tips for Competitions

[Bob]

Make sure your cube is competition legal.

 

[Chree]

Makes friends. Or bring a friend!

Learn the regulations... or at least the ones covering your events. Sarah Strong just started a thread pointing to the essentials Here.

If you don't use a StackMat at home, learn how it works. As soon as you get there, find someone with a stackmat and ask if you can try it out. It's not too tough to figure out.

 

[JakeTheCuber]

Preparing for a competition tomorrow

Only 4 people left, but I need to prepare.
Im getting 50ish second solves with begginers. The other 3 people are around these times

sub-twenty
Sub-fifty
The last one is around a 1 minute solver.

Is there anything I should practice before I get up there tommorow?

 

[Stefan]

Only 4 people left

Huh? A competition with just four people?

 

[pipkiksass]

My money's on the sub-20 cuber!

 

[JakeTheCuber]

Huh? A competition with just four people?

Its very small, and divided into ago groups. Its not even WCA, just some event.

 

[Raviorez]

Preparing for Competition

Hello everybody

On march 12th, there is a competition where I maybe will go to. (in 1 week and a day)
The events are: 3x3, 4x4, 2x2, 3x3OH, 3x3BLD.
I will do for sure 3x3 (avg ~45 seconds), 2x2 (avg ~10 seconds), 4x4 (avg ~4min30), 3x3OH (avg ~2min).

I've some questions to you:
- Should I learn how to do BLD in one week? Is that possible?
- Or should I practise in the events I can do already?
- In what event should I practise the most?

Greetzzz

 

[cubeaddicted]

Practice in the events you know already and, in my opinion, practice 3x3 and OH

 

[AlexCube]

Practise 2x2 and 3x3. They are the easiest and fastest to get faster. Learn BLD if you want but you will be not so fast at it in 1 week and it will take time out of practising other puzzles. So 2x2, 3x3 and also 4x4 a little bit

 

[Raviorez]

Practice in the events you know already and, in my opinion, practice 3x3 and OH

Ok, thnx.
I use currently CFOP with 2look OLL en 2 look PLL, what should I do for practice? Learn something? Or practise F2L or 2LLL?
And what for OH?

 

[awesomecuber150]

Well... First I pretty sure you mean April 12th haha. But personally do the events you really want to do, like no one is stopping you. It doesn't really funny matter what place you get in the comp. as long as you have fun. But mainly if you do get faster with 3x3 then your times for bigger cubes will be faster. I think you could learn to do blind but it'll take quite a bit of practice, I think you should worry about getting around like sub 25 before worrying to much on blind but that's my opinion.

 

[Raviorez]

Practise 2x2 and 3x3. They are the easiest and fastest to get faster. Learn BLD if you want but you will be not so fast at it in 1 week and it will take time out of practising other puzzles. So 2x2, 3x3 and also 4x4 a little bit

Ok thnx.
I use currently CFOP with 4LLL, what should I do for practice? Learn something or practise F2L or 4LLL?
and for 2x2, now I use LBL, learn Ortega? ( I know it already for 70%...)

 

[BaMiao]

Ok thnx.
I use currently CFOP with 4LLL, what should I do for practice? Learn something or practise F2L or 4LLL?
and for 2x2, now I use LBL, learn Ortega? ( I know it already for 70%...)

Just my opinion, but don't try to learn too many new things right before the competition. You won't have it under your fingers and the nerves might cause you to mess things up (it's happened to me!). Spend the rest of the time before the comp just solidifying what you know so that everything is automatic and can be done without thinking.

Also, remember that it's all just for fun, and try not to take it too seriously.

 

[uberCuber]

Just my opinion, but don't try to learn too many new things right before the competition. You won't have it under your fingers and the nerves might cause you to mess things up (it's happened to me!). Spend the rest of the time before the comp just solidifying what you know so that everything is automatic and can be done without thinking.

This is basically what I was going to say. Learning new stuff right before a competition is a bad idea unless you really know what you're doing. Just take what you already know and run with it. You'll have plenty of time to resume learning new things after the competition.

 

[AlexCube]

Ok thnx.
I use currently CFOP with 4LLL, what should I do for practice? Learn something or practise F2L or 4LLL?
and for 2x2, now I use LBL, learn Ortega? ( I know it already for 70%...)

4LLL is just fine and I think you shouldn't learn anything new. Just practise and try to improve your F2L look-ahead and LL algs. For 2x2 you should learn the rest of Ortega and do lots of practise! You'll do just fine

 

[goodatthis]

Competition Pressure

Okay, so my first comp, I had an avg that was 10 sec slower than my best. My first solve was a 1:05 or something, which is the slowest I have solved the cube in months. I was shaking so badly that I could barely write my initials, and my look ahead was absolutely zero. The biggest thing that I noticed was that when my name was called, I started getting butterflies and was getting really nervous.

So now I have a comp tomorrow (Cornell, tell me if you're going too )and I need to know what I can do in practice (I'm doing 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, 5x5, and OH) today, and what I can do in competition tommorrow to help minimize my extreme nervousness. I really don't know whether the fact that it will be my second competition will help at all, but I really want to be able to get a sub 1:30 4x4 single (best is 1:32), sub 4:30 5x5 single (best is 4:08), sub 30 3x3 avg, (best is in sig), and sub 8-9 2x2 avg (best is in sig). OH I would like to get sub 1 single, best is 1:07, but I have probably only done like 50 serious OH solves.

TL;DR: too much nervousness in competition, what can I do to minimize and get solves closer to my best?

Please note: I have searched for this, and I've gotten some great answers, but some things are still unanswered, so that's why I made a thread. Thank you for your time.

 

[10461394944000]

after you get called up to do your solve, do a practise solve first

 

[pinser]

It should get better over time. Try listening to music or doing whatever helps you relax. I still have problems with sweaty palms.

 

[GLgamer10]

I actually signed up for my first competition, which is the Michigan Madness on May 10th, and some tips to prepare for the drive there and when I get there what I should do. I hope I don't get nervous. I feel like my times get slower when people are watching me.

 

[Rocky0701]

I actually signed up for my first competition, which is the Michigan Madness on May 10th, and some tips to prepare for the drive there and when I get there what I should do. I hope I don't get nervous. I feel like my times get slower when people are watching me.

Just try some slow turning and act like it is just a regular solve.