All these little 5-12 year old kids solving the cube in under 20 seconds makes me feel discouraged.

[Discomantis]

If you practice a lot which in other threads you said you have, this means that you aren't practicing right. Just doing solves isn't practice. Doing the same thing over and over doesn't help. If you really want to improve, find your weaknesses and practice them.

 

[Running for cube]

Maybe send us a video and we can critque you and tell you what you are doing bad.

 

[qwr]

About the N perms, there is one alg where it is goes like: R U R’ U (jperm but take away the U’ at the end) U2 R U’ R’ for Na. I don’t know NB though. I started cubing a year ago and average like 32. I’m 11 and have the same thoughts as you honestly. I am a 32 second solver and then see a 9 year old get WR average? How?
Just keep practicing and don’t quit.

There are several Nb perms. One traditional with RUF moves, one bad one with RUL moves, and a newer one with wide f moves. I haven't decided which to use.

 

[Jennah]

@EmmaTheCapicorn Instead of just doing timed solves, use the 50/50 practice method. Spend 50 percent of your practice in a day doing slow solves, learning algs/fingertricks, whatever you need to work on, and the other 50, do solves to implement what you learned while you were doing the first 50 percent of your practice.

After you use this method, you will see improvement. Rapid or not, you probably will.

If you need motivation throughout your cubing journey, do this: create a google sheet and record your current ao5 or ao12 (ao12 recommended) for the day. That way, you can look back when you are unmotivated, and say, "I really have improved..."
Here is a little piece of mine:

Date	3x3	2x2	Pyraminx	Clock
3/27/23	28.74	7.03	11.62	-
3/28/23	27.89	6.07	12.6	28.52
3/29/23	28.05	5.36	10.84	27.42

between the 28th and 29th, you can see that I improved at 2x2 like crazy. That is because I did some practice on my first face (ortega) efficiency.
This is the idea. You can look back and see when you improved. It will motivate you.

Something to keep in mind: In every event you are trying to improve at, ALWAYS be learning! If you are not learning something new for awhile, you will not improve. It can be an alg, lookahead, anything. Just always be learning and implement things into solves.

You got this! Don't give up!

 

[quanloh]

Don't be discouraged, just enjoy yourself.

As an working adult with kid to take care of,
even weekend could be too busy to even have 5 solves.

I think "3 months", "1 year" or "3 years" of cubing do not provide meaningful information, sometime even "1k", "5k", "20k" solves are not meaningful either, as mindless solving only improve your recognition & TPS and only to certain point you can improve these.

I use Roux, my improvement by doing solves is very much stagnant now. Doing solves does not help, learning to do things more efficiently does, or I would say that's the most "helpful" thing I/you can do.

To be more efficient, I need to improve even more on my recognition, and I can picture myself being better at recognition and more efficient, that's gonna make my solves faster, and give me more time to track or lookahead. And with less pauses, my time can be improved, and to a certain point, I will be confident enough to slowly increase my turning speed.

All these will make a solve faster, less fatiguing, with give you more time/energy to solve/practice per session. Picture yourself in such progress too, dont care about those insanely fast kids or others, but don't just solve blindly. You can, and you will improve.

Don't be discouraged, just enjoy yourself.

 

[SpeakCuba]

There are several Nb perms. One traditional with RUF moves, one bad one with RUL moves, and a newer one with wide f moves. I haven't decided which to use.

Avoid the wide move algorithms for last layer.

 

[JDAW6]

Really? I use the wide t perm for a perm and for nb I use the one with th r and D.

 

[SpeakCuba]

Really? I use the wide t perm for a perm and for nb I use the one with th r and D.

Wide moves tend (usually) to be slower and riskier… I would suggest to just learn the ones most people use.

 

[abunickabhi]

Seriously?! 5 and already sub 20? I’ve been cubing CONSISTENTLY for as long as this kid’s been alive!

I feel really discouraged. I waited FIVE YEARS just to get nowhere. A few of my latest averages:
2x2: 7.63
3x3: 30.84
4x4: 1:58.82
5x5: 4:01.97
Pyraminx: 9.84

What am I doing wrong? FIVE YEARS and some people who have been cubing a month are already faster than me, everyone is so impressed when I solve but on the inside I feel like crying. Countless hours spent trying to learn just some simple 1 look PLLs and not even remembering the G perms or the N perms. I’m not getting anywhere. I haven’t gotten anywhere with speed in maybe 3 months. I’m not quitting cubing, but why do I have to be so horribly awful at it?

Good results.

Just compete against yourself.

I am 27 and am Speedcubing since age of 13. I do feel bad when a lot of kids beat me at comps.

 

[Arcanist]

Really? I use the wide t perm for a perm and for nb I use the one with th r and D.

the typical a perm algs are generally considered faster:

• y' x' R U' R D2 R' U R D2 R2
• y x R' U R' D2 R U' R' D2 R2

 

[OldSwiss]

I don't think that is the right place do discuss about algs and wide moves.
My N-Perm was just a suggestion of an easy alg for somone having problems memorizing algs.

It is not the fastest and not suited for OH, but it is very easy to learn and for a wide move alg also quite safe because it's always the same.