Greetings and introduction

sk8erman41

sk8erman41

Veteran
Joined
Mar 7, 2013
Messages
393
Location
Denver, CO
WCA ID
2015BURK01
Greetings all! I just wanted to introduce myself and say hello. I have been reading the forums for a long time but have had a personal goal to hit sub-30 before posting. I am excited to say that I had my first successful solve today!

Some general info on me (skip if you find boring)…
I got my first rubiks cube as a kid to kill some time on a road trip. Being young and having no idea how to solve it I never completed it and it wound up in my parents storage. Many years after moving out of their home, they decided to do some spring cleaning and dropped a box of my old junk off at my house. I found the rubiks cube and decided that I would learn how to solve it. This was about 7 years ago. I have been into cubing ever since but never started speed solving until this February. After finishing the 3x3 I bought a 2x2 a 4x4 a 5x5 a 6x6 and a 7x7 and a 360. I have always kept up solving just for fun.

Then at a superbowl party this year my friend had one lying around and was just beginning to learn. They asked how fast I could solve it and I picked it up to see. This started my obsessive practice ever since. I am the type of person that once I get into a hobby I can be a bit crazy about it. I have since picked up a lot of cubes and have practiced enough to **** my wife off.

I mainly have been focusing on CFOP (thanks badmephisto) and use 2LOLL and full PLL. I would say that I still average in the low 40’s but crack the 40 barrier fairly often after being warmed up. I feel that I have plateaued however and have recently gotten into Roux a bit (thanks waffle). I find that I really like this method but will also keep working on my CFOP.

My current cube collection:
-3 rubiks brand 3x3’s (one no lube, one vasoline lubed [newbie], and one jigalubed)
-2 Cube4U brand 3x3’s
-Alpha V
-MF8 Legend
-2 Dayan Zhanchi’s
-Dayan TaiYan
-Dayan GuHong V1
-Dayan GuHong V2 Stickerless
-Dayan LingYun V2
-Ghosthand II
-Funs FangShi ShuangRen
-2 rubiks brand 4x4’s
-1 rubiks brand 5x5
-VCube 5x5
-VCube 6x6
-VCube 7x7
-Rubiks 360

the obsession continues…..
 
Hi, welcome to the forum. You sound just like me, except you have more cubes - my wife would kill me if I bought that many! ;-)

I too have an old Rubik's brand, then someone asked me how fast I can solve a cube one day, and I had no idea. So I stumbled on Badmephisto's site and bought a Guhong 2. So began the obsessive practice on December 17th last year (first day I timed any solves). My goal was sub 30, which I hit for the first time on 23rd January. My original intention was to be consistently sub-30, and stop there. But I guess I'm just not programmed that way!

I got my first sub-20 some time in March, but my average was stuck around 28 seconds. It gradually crept towards 26/27 over the next two months. I recently spent 12 days with no internet, and didn't do a single timed solve, just played around with cross + F2L. Since coming back, I've shaved almost 2 seconds off my PB average of 50, and smashed my Ao5 and Ao12 PBs.

I'm still (mainly) 2-look OLL and full PLL, although I've crept away from Badmephisto's algs for about half the cases, because there are MUCH faster algs, especially for V, J(a), N (both), E, F and both R perms.

In my latest Ao50 there were only 2 sup-30 solves, but also 2 sub-20. Average was 24.84. My (short term) goal is now to consistently average sub-25, with a long term goal of sub-20. I don't think I can go much faster than that, but we'll see.

So what I'm basically saying is that a plateau is just something you hit on the road to improvement. I can highly recommend spending some time away from timed solves, and working on F2L efficiency with slow turning and starting some elements of look-ahead. I can't really look ahead, but when I do I get anything between 17 and 21 second solves, which makes me happy!!!

I wouldn't say not to look at Roux, I've dabbled myself, but always end up going back to CFOP. Nothing against Roux whatsoever, but I feel I've invested so much time in learning algs and practicing CFOP, it would be a shame to waste it. I know <5 seconds is possible with the method I use, although I don't imagine I will ever get close to that! I've also dabbled in ZZ, but I think focussing my efforts on CFOP has helped, although some block-building knowledge has helped with my cross and x-crosses.

Anyhow, welcome again - enjoy!
 
Welcome! I'm always happy to meet some older cubers (at least a little closer to my age). Nice cube collection... it's definitely better than mine. I'd like more but don't like to spend money very much. My husband wouldn't kill me if I did though but maybe my kids would go hungry. :p j/k

@pipkiksass: stopping never works. You DO realize how addictive this puzzle is, right? I think I was like you... I told myself there was absolutely no reason why I couldn't get to about 30 or sub-30 and made that my goal and figured I would be happy and it would be "good enough". But then I thought... hey, that wasn't so bad. Surely I can get sub-20 too? THEN I'd be happy, right? Nope. I don't know if I can stop. I foresee that I won't stop until the age factor has really caught up to me to the point that I get worse over time even with practice and maybe just maybe I will accept that my prime is over. Maybe.
 
Thanks for the welcomes. I realize that my collection is a bit intense, but I really enjoy trying new puzzles. I also find that it was SUPER helpful for practice. I would set up like a dozen cubes with different PLL's and mix them all up and try to improve my recognition and implementation of the algs. I also sometimes set up about six cubes with the same scramble and work on improving my look ahead. I know thats cheating a bit but I find that knowing what is supposed to come up next forces me to find those pieces rather than focusing on inserting an F2L pair.

I would say that my biggest struggle right now (which really frustrates me because it seems it should be the easiest thing) is cross. I can set the cross in 5-8 moves, but it takes me much longer than 15 seconds and usually I don't finish my inspection before having to start during timed solves. I find that I am quick to find the pieces and place them without really having a plan, but I know that this is slowing me down considerably and I definitely do not have time or skill to find first pair during inspection.
I have watched many cross/advanced cross tutorial videos but something just isn't sinking in. I know... Practice practice practice (but still... am I missing something?)
 
Ooh, that would be telling! Only kidding - they're from all over the place. Basically, when I first started cubing, I tried to find all 2-gen algs because I really struggled with doing any turns other than R and U. I figured out I prefer D turns, so most of my replacement algs include D turns. These algs are really nice, and easy to finger-trick.

Let's start with R(a) - Badmephisto's algs are a choice of L turns and B turns, neither of which I could do fast. I tried all the algs on the wiki, and chose: R U2 R D R' U R D' R' U' R' U R U R' U. It has a really nice flow to it, and doesn't require any regrips or hands leaving the cube. I don't know anyone else who uses this, but could probably make a vid if you can't find one elsewhere?

Next V - I struggled with the regrip after the d' on Badmephisto's alg (same with F perm), so requested an alg and someone suggested z (D' R2 D R2) (U R' D' R U') (R U R' D R U'). See here for execution guide. It's really fast.

So that leads on to F. Again didn't like the d', so searched the wiki. This alg: R' U' F' R U R' U' R' F R2 U' R' U' R U R' U R contains most of the T perm, with (R' U' F') setup at the start, and (U R) replacing the F' at the end. Really easy one to learn if you already know the T perm, and so can be done really fast as well. Still trying to finger-trick the setup move tho!

E perm is ace, top one on the wiki, and for good reason. Can be done really fast: (y x') R U' R' D R U R' D' R U R' D R U' R' D' (x). Tricky until you realise it's always R, U move, then R', D move: (R U' R' D) - both U and D go to the right; (R U R' D') - both U and D go to the left; (R U R' D) - both U and D go their natural positions; (R U' R' D') - both U and D go their prime positions.

J(a) I put the solved 3x1x1 block towards me and do a z rotation, then (D R U' R2) (D R' D' R2) (D U R'). The final 'D U' can be performed simultaneously. Again, no regrips. Can't find this one on the wiki, probably came from a youtube video.

N perms, I took Badmephisto's algs, which require regrips, and turned them on their side. I don't deserve the credit for this, someone else did it first, I probably saw it on Youtube. For N(a): (z) (U R' D R2 U' R D')2 (z') , so all the L turns become U turns. For N(b) (z) (D' R U' R2' D R' U)2 (z').

Hope this helps. Happy to explain any of these if necessary. They're great algs, although I'm sure there are better ones, and they may not be the best for you. Spend some time on Youtube and the wiki, if there are algs you don't like, find better ones. Like I say, I struggle doing algs that require regrips fast, so all of the above are regripless (or can be performed without regripping). I also struggled with L turns, although I'm getting better. All of the above algs favour the (faster) right hand. If you're lefty then sorry!!!
 
Last edited:
pipkiksass said:
(algs)
Click to expand...
Almost exactly the same ones I use, you have good taste in algs :)

For Rb I use the same Ra as you, mirrored from the back: R' U2 R' D' R U' R' D R U R U' R' U' R

Since you're a <RUD> fan like me, you might like my G-perms. One of them is here. I'll post the others if you're interested.

My execution tips for those those two N-perms: here
 
Wow thanks, I will look into all of these as I have some more time. I am pretty used to my originals (and IMO find them pretty fast), but know that I need to modify as I get faster. I think that where I am at time-wise I will still gain more by practicing look-ahead and cross/first pair recognition but will definitely keep these algs in mind. Its just tough for me to wrap my head around switching algs after having recently (~1 month) learned them. Thank you for the recommendations though
 
@Mark49152 - thanks, I consider myself an alg connoisseur! Took me a long time to find algs I'm happy with, and the G's are the next that need work. I think they're OK - I can prob sub-2 them, but I'd love to see yours if you want to post them here!

@sk8rman41 - Yeah, I thought my PLLs were fast enough too, then I got involved in a discussion on the race to 30 thread about the systematic improvement thread.

I tried the spreadsheet there to see how my PLLs compared to the rest of my solve, and found out I sucked!

Anyhoo, I looked at my really bad PLLs and tried to find better algs.

I think there's always improvement to be had in cross, f2l and transitions, but getting better algs can never hurt! ;-)
 
pipkiksass said:
@Mark49152 - thanks, I consider myself an alg connoisseur! Took me a long time to find algs I'm happy with, and the G's are the next that need work. I think they're OK - I can prob sub-2 them, but I'd love to see yours if you want to post them here!

@sk8rman41 - Yeah, I thought my PLLs were fast enough too, then I got involved in a discussion on the race to 30 thread about the systematic improvement thread.

I tried the spreadsheet there to see how my PLLs compared to the rest of my solve, and found out I sucked!

Anyhoo, I looked at my really bad PLLs and tried to find better algs.

I think there's always improvement to be had in cross, f2l and transitions, but getting better algs can never hurt! ;-)
Click to expand...

What's ur average Adam?
 
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