Getting ready for a Tournament

[PlutoCuber]

Here is what I do:

1. Make sure that all the algorithms I preform are executed at reasonable speed.

2. Relax. Don't work out or anything so that your arms won't be sore in the mourning.
3. Don't over cube. If your like me, you probably practice like crazy a week before the tournament. Don't do that because there is nothing worse than getting tired of cubing the day before the tournament.
4. GO TO SLEEP! It is SO important to sleep and not cube all night. Trust me you do NOT want to be tired the day of the tournament
5. Be calm, inspect carefully, and do your best.

 

[mazei]

1. Wake up
2. Practice
3. Perform daily life activities
4. Sleep
5. Repeat steps 1-4 even if I'm not competing any time soon.

 

[AlanAlanine]

1. Wake up at some ungodly hour to help set up
2. Do my solves when I haven't had a chance to warm up because I have to help judge
3. Judge, seeing people solve faster than me, or feeling frustrated when the competitor is at the 8 minute mark.

 

[Kian]

I wake up and go to the competition. That's about it.

 

[4Chan]

Aha~! But i have a secret method for my preparations. (;
Not telling you though. D:

Im practicing like mad for a competition next week. I wake up, cube, watch anime, eat, and sleep. Seriously. ಠ_ಠ

 

[cmhardw]

Leading up to the competition:
-----------------------------
1) Get lots of sleep two nights before the competition, as you can't assume you will get a lot of sleep or even that you will sleep well the night before.
2) Review all of my prepared mental images and single syllable words for blindfold events. Do one or two blindfold solves using one of my practice journeys.
3) Print scrambles, cut out competitor time sheets, make sure I have stop watches, pens, etc. for judges. Make sure that speedstacks will send the timers.
4) Make sure my best 3x3x3 cube is tuned up nicely, lubed, etc.
5) Check out a good book on tape for my drive over.

Day of stuff:
------------
1) Review my blindfold images and single syllable words, trying to go through the entire list as quickly as possible.
2) Exercise (stretches, push-ups, jump squats), something to get the blood flowing.
3) Practice slow solves for 3x3x3 speed.

Chris

 

[fanwuq]

Practice favorite events day before.
Sleep. Wake up early. Eat. Drive to competition. Warm up solves. Relearn how to use a stackmat. Compete.

 

[Stefan]

4. GO TO SLEEP! It is SO important to sleep and not cube all night. Trust me you do NOT want to be tired the day of the tournament

Well...

I guess 4 hours of sleep is good for WR's?

The secret is: be bit nervous, tired and hungry.

 

[mrCage]

1 - z: Make sure your cube is not too loose, especially if you have a nervousness disposition :fp

Per

 

[Hadley4000]

1. Wake up.
2. Go to competition
3. Solve cube
4. Have fun.
5. Repeat 3 and 4.

 

[Mike Hughey]

Leading up to the competition:
-----------------------------
2) Review all of my prepared mental images and single syllable words for blindfold events. Do one or two blindfold solves using one of my practice journeys.

Day of stuff:
------------
1) Review my blindfold images and single syllable words, trying to go through the entire list as quickly as possible.

Interesting, Chris. I must admit I stopped reviewing my images a long time ago. I find that I pretty much use them all so much every week that it doesn't seem like they need reviewing anymore. I wonder if I would notice a difference if I would practice this? It seems like they all come absolutely instantly to me now, so it seems counterintuitive to review them for me.

You mentioned in another place that you're currently training, but not doing many actual BLD solves. What other things do you do during "training"? Do you practice BH algorithms? When I first learned BH corners, I did "BH corners time attacks" (took close to an hour to do them all), but I haven't done them lately. Do you find such things helpful? Do you do any other interesting training exercises for BLD?

Mostly I just do solves, and probably too many. For Ohio, that didn't work out very well. But the day before the Virginia Open I did six 5x5x5 BLD attempts as practice, and that turned out REALLY well, with 2/2 successful solves and both under 19 minutes. So doing lots of practice solves the day before isn't necessarily a bad thing.

 

[waffle=ijm]

PREP stuff
all cubes in a case all repaired and ready to go

Night before and day of
1)sleep late
2)wake up late
3)panic (makes me more alert )
4)practice until you get at the venue
5)realize that you're actually 30minutes early
6)practice until venue opens
7) greet some people at the venue
8) practice with the people you met
9)solve the cube and have fun
10)repeat 8 & 9 until the venue closes or there's food
11)go home

 

[StachuK1992]

PREP stuff
all cubes in a case all repaired and ready to go

Night before and day of
1)sleep late
2)wake up late
3)panic (makes me more alert )
4)practice until you get at the venue
5)realize that you're actually 30minutes early
6)practice until venue opens
7) greet some people at the venue
8) practice with the people you met
9)solve the cube and have fun
10)repeat 8 & 9 until the venue closes or there's food
11)go home

This sounds like Newark Winter...

 

[waffle=ijm]

PREP stuff
all cubes in a case all repaired and ready to go

Night before and day of
1)sleep late
2)wake up late
3)panic (makes me more alert )
4)practice until you get at the venue
5)realize that you're actually 30minutes early
6)practice until venue opens
7) greet some people at the venue
8) practice with the people you met
9)solve the cube and have fun
10)repeat 8 & 9 until the venue closes or there's food
11)go home

This sounds like Newark Winter...

except of course the part where all our puzzles were repaired....damn magic

 

[JTW2007]

With me it's more like:

1. Go to competition.
2. Have fun.
3. Barely qualify for finals.
4. Wake up.
5. Have some more fun.
6. Do more solves.
7. Repeat 5 and 6.

 

[Sa967St]

this is what it's like for me...

1) Stay up late practicing like crazy
2) Wake up early to get to the competition early
3) Find some people you know, and sit and cube with them until the competition starts.
4) Practice each event before it starts, to try to get warmed up
5) Try not to be nervous, even though you are
6) End up getting slightly dissapointing times
7) Laugh at the bad times you get, and try to do better the next round (if there is one)
8) Have fun, and try to improve for next competition

Any suggestions?

 

[Kit Clement]

1) Go to bed around midnight the night before
2) Wake up and drive there (This has varied from four hours to four minutes =p)
2a) If in Ohio, look around for building for 30 minutes
3) Start warming up for first/next event
4) Do such event
5) Repeat 3+4 as necessary
6) If not participating in next event, go scramble
7) Somewhere in between and all around 3+4, have a bunch of fun with everyone there

 

[AvGalen]

4. GO TO SLEEP! It is SO important to sleep and not cube all night. Trust me you do NOT want to be tired the day of the tournament

Well...

I guess 4 hours of sleep is good for WR's?

The secret is: be bit nervous, tired and hungry.

I don't know about Anssi, but Erik and I (and many others that tend to join me) have tried perfecting this. It turns out that sleep IS optional, but IF you sleep you should make sure not to interrupt your REM phase. So to be sure you better sleep for at least 2.5 hours or not at all

Other factors that have a positive influence on my times (I did an actual semi-scientific test and have a lot of experience)

1) Have clean hands (especially when doing 333oh after lunch)
2) Use a cube you feel comfortable with (bring your own, don't borrow one)
3) Use a method you feel comfortable with (If you use 2 look PLL, but know some extra PLL's you should probably use 2 look PLL during competition)
4) Feel happy and relaxed, not frustrated about a bad solve or nervous
5) Make sure you have a good general condition both physically and mentally. This will help you with bigcubes and (multi)blind
2-expert) Bring 2 of each puzzle. the extra one is for warmups while waiting for your next solve
3-expert) Learn an (ultra-) advanced method and master it
4-expert) Arousel works (won't eloborate)
5-expert) Physical activity works. A little bit of skating/running/juggling/jumping or otherwise fooling around makes your blood flow faster and your hands more steady

My recipe for a tournament:
1) Plan where to go and who is coming with slightly in advance
2) Bring/leave dog with the ex
3) Pack competition cubes, extra toys to entertain and some clothes/TOWEL/toiletry/skates/music
4) Go to work
5) Pick up fellow travellers at planned locations
6) Drive to planned hostel/hotel/friends-house or find somewhere to stay
7) Laugh, drink, cube, teach and eventually go back to the place you were planning on getting a good night sleep
8) Get everyone showered/shaved/fed/at-the-venue at the appropiate time
9) Meet everyone you hadn't met during 7 untill someone tells you you have to give your cubes NOW or else your tushy will be DNS-ed
10) Warm-up by scrambling+judging and have a peek at how others are doing and how new people are doing
11) Wait untill they call you up to the podium while warming up with your spare cube while studying the tables for "optimal" circumstances
12) Sit down behind the "optimal" table, have some short fun with your judge to relax, focus BEFORE you say you are ready, do a good solve, stop the timer
13) Repeat 11+12 untill lunch, don't go for actual lunch but just grab something to eat in 5 minutes and fool around for the rest of the break (or do big-blind or fmc)
14) Repeat 11+12 for the afternoon
15) Try to make a plan for dinner and evening while packing your stuff and leaving the venue
16) Do something you didn't plan and enjoy it untill you reach 7)
17) Eventually buy some new puzzles, say goodbye to everyone and discuss when you will see them all again (during travel, skatenights, dinners, next tournaments, cubemeetings, forums, etc)
18) Do 1) again for the next tournament and plan on doing everything the same, but different
19) Go on the forum and watch others impressions, videos, photo's and "did-you-knows"

 

[Yes We Can!]

1. Wake up at 7:08
2. Do a few warmup solves
3. trust yourself
4. Do it!

 

[Waffle's Minion]

4. GO TO SLEEP! It is SO important to sleep and not cube all night. Trust me you do NOT want to be tired the day of the tournament

Well...

I guess 4 hours of sleep is good for WR's?

The secret is: be bit nervous, tired and hungry.

I don't know about Anssi, but Erik and I (and many others that tend to join me) have tried perfecting this. It turns out that sleep IS optional, but IF you sleep you should make sure not to interrupt your REM phase. So to be sure you better sleep for at least 2.5 hours or not at all

Other factors that have a positive influence on my times (I did an actual semi-scientific test and have a lot of experience)

1) Have clean hands (especially when doing 333oh after lunch)
2) Use a cube you feel comfortable with (bring your own, don't borrow one)
3) Use a method you feel comfortable with (If you use 2 look PLL, but know some extra PLL's you should probably use 2 look PLL during competition)
4) Feel happy and relaxed, not frustrated about a bad solve or nervous
5) Make sure you have a good general condition both physically and mentally. This will help you with bigcubes and (multi)blind
2-expert) Bring 2 of each puzzle. the extra one is for warmups while waiting for your next solve
3-expert) Learn an (ultra-) advanced method and master it
4-expert) Arousel works (won't eloborate)
5-expert) Physical activity works. A little bit of skating/running/juggling/jumping or otherwise fooling around makes your blood flow faster and your hands more steady

My recipe for a tournament:
1) Plan where to go and who is coming with slightly in advance
2) Bring/leave dog with the ex
3) Pack competition cubes, extra toys to entertain and some clothes/TOWEL/toiletry/skates/music
4) Go to work
5) Pick up fellow travellers at planned locations
6) Drive to planned hostel/hotel/friends-house or find somewhere to stay
7) Laugh, drink, cube, teach and eventually go back to the place you were planning on getting a good night sleep
8) Get everyone showered/shaved/fed/at-the-venue at the appropiate time
9) Meet everyone you hadn't met during 7 untill someone tells you you have to give your cubes NOW or else your tushy will be DNS-ed
10) Warm-up by scrambling+judging and have a peek at how others are doing and how new people are doing
11) Wait untill they call you up to the podium while warming up with your spare cube while studying the tables for "optimal" circumstances
12) Sit down behind the "optimal" table, have some short fun with your judge to relax, focus BEFORE you say you are ready, do a good solve, stop the timer
13) Repeat 11+12 untill lunch, don't go for actual lunch but just grab something to eat in 5 minutes and fool around for the rest of the break (or do big-blind or fmc)
14) Repeat 11+12 for the afternoon
15) Try to make a plan for dinner and evening while packing your stuff and leaving the venue
16) Do something you didn't plan and enjoy it untill you reach 7)
17) Eventually buy some new puzzles, say goodbye to everyone and discuss when you will see them all again (during travel, skatenights, dinners, next tournaments, cubemeetings, forums, etc)
18) Do 1) again for the next tournament and plan on doing everything the same, but different
19) Go on the forum and watch others impressions, videos, photo's and "did-you-knows"

Whoa! That is a very good example of getting ready for a tournament. Nice description! For me it is...

1) Wake up

2)Stretch and eat and stuff (good breakfast)

3) Exercise to get the blood flowing

4) Go to tounament