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

[An Animating Cuber]

I think the reason a lot of people have fast progression is spending a lot of time practicing, when I started I spent a lot of time practicing (probably too much) and eventually started averaging sub 30 around late February.

 

[JDAW6]

I was saying that one look seems hard but I’ll see right now I am focused on 3x3

 

[JDAW6]

@An Animating Cuber what is a Rubik’s triangle i thought that there was only turny cube and twisty pyramid.

 

[An Animating Cuber]

@An Animating Cuber what is a Rubik’s triangle i thought that there was only turny cube and twisty pyramid.

A non cuber way of saying Pyraminx
Edit I just realised you were joking too

 

[EngineeredCube]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. I think times come secondary to the fun part of the cubing life. I've been cubing since I was in college back in 05' (in my petrus days) and I'm not what anyone would call world class by any means. My fastest time ever is about 15 seconds. But I average around 30ish seconds with CFOP. I'm 38, and my fingers are not quite as nimble as they used to be. I can't cube for 5 hours a day like I used to without a little pain in the fingers and even my elbow sometimes. But I don't cube to podium either. I would ask more so how much do you practice? I have a friend that is sub11 and occasionally gets sub10 solves. My gosh does he practice though. IMO he cubes a lot, like 400 to 500 solves a day and does targeted practice daily or every other day. Some on these forums do even more solves a day. I've seen some post that say up to 1k solves a day. It really makes a difference. Some world class solvers are solving or training 4, 5 and 6 hours a day. I only do about 50 or 80 solves in a day, but I only do it for fun and most of mine are casual solves where I look for new and super interesting F2L solutions and multi-slotting techniques. I may do some targeted OLL and PLL practice once a week or maybe twice if I am slow on a particular Alg, or if I want to try out a new one. Kids have a lot of free time usually lol...and usually no job. All those life factors make a difference. Some people take longer to progress than others too. Don't beat yourself up. Cubing is supposed to be fun first and foremost.

 

[kubesolver]

I think you also can't underestimate talent. Maybe cubing just isn't your thing. The talent is the thing you don't have control over but it definitely plays a role.

Even if someone practices a lot and right they will still progress less than someone who has more talent.

I'm 40 now and got to around 15s average over 2-3 years of practice. I had countless hobbies in my life. For some of them I had talent and I just swept through the ranks like a prodigy, and for some other I lacked talent and I just kept being terrible despite the effort. I haven't stayed long enough with any to get really good though.

Having said that. If your still average 30s in cubing I would consider asking someone to critique your solves. I'm quite sure there are some low hanging fruits or some very bad habits.

The main thing though is to only cube if you actually enjoy it at your current speed. If you don't enjoy it and get frustrated over your progress at 30s, you still will be at 15s, and at 10s.

 

[SpeakCuba]

I think you also can't underestimate talent. Maybe cubing just isn't your thing. The talent is the thing you don't have control over but it definitely plays a role.

Even if someone practices a lot and right they will still progress less than someone who has more talent.

I'm 40 now and got to around 15s average over 2-3 years of practice. I had countless hobbies in my life. For some of them I had talent and I just swept through the ranks like a prodigy, and for some other I lacked talent and I just kept being terrible despite the effort. I haven't stayed long enough with any to get really good though.

Having said that. If your still average 30s in cubing I would consider asking someone to critique your solves. I'm quite sure there are some low hanging fruits or some very bad habits.

The main thing though is to only cube if you actually enjoy it at your current speed. If you don't enjoy it and get frustrated over your progress at 30s, you still will be at 15s, and at 10s.

Great post right here. I do have to ask though, for cubing, isn’t it more of a learned skill? Not a natural talent kind of thing?

 

[ProStar]

Great post right here. I do have to ask though, for cubing, isn’t it more of a learned skill? Not a natural talent kind of thing?

There’s still a lot of talent when it comes to pattern recognition, dexterity, memory, etc.. All of those can be trained but having a natural talent for them is incredibly helpful

 

[SpeakCuba]

There’s still a lot of talent when it comes to pattern recognition, dexterity, memory, etc.. All of those can be trained but having a natural talent for them is incredibly helpful

Ah, didn’t think about that. Thanks

 

[EngineeredCube]

I practice PLLs to get them memorized and practice recognition and execution.

I'm curious, do you know the breakdown of your solves? Like time for Cross, then F2L, OLL, and then PLL? I agree PLL is important, but F2L and its fluid execution is more important. Cross to F2L transition studies will help you tremendously too. So if you are weak in an area like PLL, take a break from it. Focus more on what should take up the majority of the solve. I don't have high TPS, but I try to have good solutions. Good solutions are a good substitute to offset some of the more problematic areas you may find in your solves. I can't stress enough about solving slow and steady with good solutions. Good solutions are helpful because they'll reduce your move count. If possible I'd count every step of my solution. Then compare the number of steps to the solvers you like the most. If your number is much higher than theirs, that is a good indicator of a problematic area.

 

[imapickle07]

some people do learn things quicker i have been cubing for a year and am sub 20 but younger kids can learn things quicker just depends on the person

 

[SpeakCuba]

some people do learn things quicker i have been cubing for a year and am sub 20 but younger kids can learn things quicker just depends on the person

Even if you’re a younger kid, if you only practice 10 minutes a day, you’ll get nowhere near to a teenager who practices 2 hours a day.

 

[White KB]

Daily for about 3-10 hours depending on what time I have. I’m just slow at learning new things, but I never thought I was THAT slow.

If you're really doing it for 3-10 hours, I think you would be seeing some improvement. Not doubting you, just saying you might want to make a time chart to see exactly what you're spending your time doing and how long you actually end up doing solves. I thought I was spending like 1-2 hours a day doing cubing, but then after looking at how much time I was spending on it, I realized there were days, even weeks where I wasn't doing solves, and it only equaled out to about 5 minutes a day I was practicing. 3 hours is a long time per day to be spending JUST cubing, even if you have an open schedule, and much more so for 10 hours.

Another thing you may want to do is set a quantitative goal for yourself. In cubing (or any sport for that matter), I've come to the realization that there are certain input goals (e.g. doing an ao1000 in 3x3) and output goals (e.g. averaging sub-20 on 3x3). Instead of focusing on the output goal, like getting fast, you could focus on finishing the input goal you set. Here's kind of a chart of how improvement tends to go in terms of solve number:

100 solves: 60 seconds
500 solves: 40 seconds
1000 solves: 30 seconds
2000 solves: 28 seconds
4000 solves: 25 seconds
5000 solves: 23 seconds
8000 solves: 19 seconds
10000 solves: 17 seconds
15000 solves: 15 seconds

Just do some solves and not only will your algs stick, but your times will decrease significantly. Remember: Spamming solves is perfectly OK for getting fast. Lookahead is important, but it comes with practice.

 

[sDLfj]

How are you practicing? If you are just solving, you aren't really going to improve as fast as you could. Try to identify your weakness and focus on that. I just timed splits of my solve (to see how long each step takes) and I figured that if I practice my cross and transition to F2L, I can easily cut about 3 seconds off my time, just doing solves doesn't help me with that. I recommend timing splits of how long it takes for the cross, F2L, OLL, and PLL (I use multiphase in cstimer to do this). Once you do that you can plug your times in here to see what steps are slow: https://www.cubeskills.com/blog/cfop-solve-splits-tool
You could also take a video of your solves and post them here and someone could help to identify your weaknesses. Something else to consider is a different method. If you aren't improving with CFOP, spend a week learning Roux or ZZ and practice that, they might be more enjoyable and you might improve faster.

 

[OreKehStrah]

I mean I think it's natural to see people progressing faster than you and get discouraged. You just need to be able to find your own enjoyment despite that. For the super young Chinese prodigies, keep in mind that yes they do have natural talent, but they are also growing up in a time with better hardware and resources, plus cubing schools that teach good algs, finger tricks, and other fundamentals from the start.

You should look at how you are practicing and learning things to try to find what works well for you and what isn't as well as assessing weaknesses. When learning algs, I suggesting thinking about how pieces are moving like in the picture below instead of just memorizing moves/triggers or relying on muscle memory. In the Sune diagram below, you can just visualize how you are taking the pair out, moving it over, then reinserting it, which gives the alg an intuitiveness that might be easier to learn than just a set of moves.

 

[qwr]

Something I have been working on is untimed solves and f2l efficiency, since "just doing solves" is a slow way to improvement. Even though I average probably 1 tps in F2L I am still not much slower than my normal inefficient solves. Have you tried it?

 

[fes_77]

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?

DON'T GIVE UP Niko believes in youu
I feel like you should make a couple of days focused on learning now algs and practicing them

 

[VincentCuber]

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?

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.

 

[Running for cube]

Or just quit if you want to.

 

[VincentCuber]

Or just quit if you want to.

If you want to (which I don’t recommend) then ok if you don’t think it is fun