Hello, Thomas from Sweden here

[TP]

Hello fellow cubers,

I first learned to solve the cube 2008 or 2009, it felt like a fun thing to be able to do. After learning the 3x3x3 I wanted to learn all cubes from 2x2x2 to 7x7x7 which I managed except for a few parity cases. Just those parity errors, which were no fun at all to learn, and bad cubes that locked up a lot made me get tired of the cubes and I put them away on a shelf. Every now and then I solved them just to see if I could.

During october 2012 I started cubing again for real. I bought a Pyraminx and learned to solve it, as well as a Megaminx which I haven´t learned to sovle the last layer yet (not that fun puzzle). Last few weeks I have only solved the 3x3 since it is by far the most enjoyable puzzle.

My goal is to be sub 30s on average, I am now down to around 40-45s. After reaching sub 30s well see if i start with the 2x2 or 4x4 instead, not really sure what I want to do. Pretty sure I will be neading a break from the 3x3 though.

I do the white cross, F2L, 2 look oll and I am currently learning full PLL as well as look ahead during F2L.

I recorded a video with my mobile phone (sound and video ain´t that good) of me solving the cube 3 times. This is the first time I can see myself solving which is very interesting, easy to see things I can improve on. Please feel free to comment on the solves.

Cheers
Thomas

 

[arvind1999]

Welcome! Try looking at other methods too. Roux, ZZ, Petrus and CFOP. All are good.
You might want to be color neutral too if you continue with CFOP. It will help you get a better cross every time.
Color neutrality is not a difficult thing at your times.
So you might want to become color neutral.

 

[kunparekh18]

Is that a stickerless Zhanchi? Cool! Also, I use the same alg for that edge permutation (M2 U M2 U M U2 M2 U2 M U2)! Welcome to the forums.

 

[TP]

Welcome! Try looking at other methods too. Roux, ZZ, Petrus and CFOP. All are good.
You might want to be color neutral too if you continue with CFOP. It will help you get a better cross every time.
Color neutrality is not a difficult thing at your times.
So you might want to become color neutral.

I did averages of 12 on all colours, one colour after another. To make the transition easier I did two solves before doing the average.

Two things come to mind:
1. Continuous improvement
2. Equally fast with both yellow and white. But I have solved a bit on yellow before.

I will probably do some best of 12 using two opposite colours at the same time later. As well as full colour neutrality. A few big problem is that I get very confused when switching between colours, I sometimes do F2L pair with the top colour, wrong insertions, can´t find the correct pieces and overall need to think a lot. But it will be a fun experiment to do. Spontaneously I believe going with white and yellow crosses will be the best for me.

Is that a stickerless Zhanchi? Cool! Also, I use the same alg for that edge permutation (M2 U M2 U M U2 M2 U2 M U2)! Welcome to the forums.

Yep, it is the Zhanchi. Beautiful cube and a good one as well. Only problem I have is that sometimes the tension loosens on one side and I need to tighten it, not sure if that is the cube or my cubing style.

 

[mchedlo213]

sup nice to meet ya
i also have time like that...
and btw the phone ain't bad,actually its pretty good xD

 

[arvind1999]

I did averages of 12 on all colours, one colour after another. To make the transition easier I did two solves before doing the average.

Two things come to mind:
1. Continuous improvement
2. Equally fast with both yellow and white. But I have solved a bit on yellow before.

I will probably do some best of 12 using two opposite colours at the same time later. As well as full colour neutrality. A few big problem is that I get very confused when switching between colours, I sometimes do F2L pair with the top colour, wrong insertions, can´t find the correct pieces and overall need to think a lot. But it will be a fun experiment to do. Spontaneously I believe going with white and yellow crosses will be the best for me.

It will seem difficult now. After you become fast,say like sub 15. Then you'll realize how important full color neutrality is.
White and yellow have the same f2l pairs. Other colors will confuse you but you have to practice anyway. You'll benefit later form it.

 

[TP]

sup nice to meet ya
i also have time like that...
and btw the phone ain't bad,actually its pretty good xD

You should join me in the Race to sub 30. Great to have another excuse to cube.

It will seem difficult now. After you become fast,say like sub 15. Then you'll realize how important full color neutrality is.
White and yellow have the same f2l pairs. Other colors will confuse you but you have to practice anyway. You'll benefit later form it.

On timed solves I use white/yellow now, it really helps with easier crosses. Problem is that my inspection time goes away so fast, so no way I can use more colours then two. But when I play around and just solve the cube I use other colours, feels easier for every time I do it. I will play around, see how it goes.

When being real fast, say sub 15. Is it that important to be colour neutral compared to use two colours?

My next goal will be sub 10s on 2x2, guess it will help me a bit there if I already am decent at colour neutrality.

 

[uvafan]

You should join me in the Race to sub 30. Great to have another excuse to cube.



On timed solves I use white/yellow now, it really helps with easier crosses. Problem is that my inspection time goes away so fast, so no way I can use more colours then two. But when I play around and just solve the cube I use other colours, feels easier for every time I do it. I will play around, see how it goes.

When being real fast, say sub 15. Is it that important to be colour neutral compared to use two colours?

My next goal will be sub 10s on 2x2, guess it will help me a bit there if I already am decent at colour neutrality.

Who says you need an excuse to cube?

 

[sneaklyfox]

First off is be able to plan your cross during inspection time. (Practice solving the cross blindfolded.)

2x2... don't worry about having to be CN on 3x3 first. 2x2 is easy to be CN and nobody should be anything but CN on 2x2, imo.

Edit: Efficient cross is important! Try to figure out how to do efficient crosses (8 moves max).

 

[TP]

I try and combine cross training and colour neutrality. I scramble, then try and find the best colour for solving the cross, do the F2L and scramble again. I really gotta think on which side is the best for the cross. A difference is that I don´t automatically see only white pieces so it´s a quite rapid switch in my thinking.

Solving the cross blindfolded works sometimes, but often I miss that a piece gets dislodged when putting down another. But still, I did an average of 10 and got 5.3s as average, much better than 7s as I had last time I did a cross average. Note that 5.3 is when doing white/yellow. No way I can do it that well as colour neutral, yet.

Gotta say it helps that MarcelP already have done the Colour neutral switch and I can follow his progress. It makes me more motivated.

 

[TP]

Got my best session so far a moment ago, new PB for both single, avg of 5 and avg of 12. Also first sub 30 avg of 5!

34.42, 32.70, 32.74+, 30.84, 39.05, 30.01, 33.71, (26.05,) 28.94, 29.78, (48.43,) 32.03

best avg5: 29.58 (σ = 0.46)
best avg12: 32.42 (σ = 2.78)

Great feeling when the cross + F2L goes well, like water in a creek flowing past the rocks.

 

[lcsbiffi]

Great, you got an sub30 average of 5 good progress man

 

[AndersB]

Welcome to the forums! Are you planning to come to any competitions soon? There will one in february and one in march (both in Stockholm).

Have a good time!

 

[TP]

I probably wont participate in any of those competitions, I wanna get started on the 2x2 and 4x4 again first. I only solve 3x3 regulary and Pyraminx a few times a week, but when I am solving more puzzles I might participate in competitions. I saw it´s almost exactly 2 months to the second competition, I have a few cubes on the way so maybe I have learned to solve a few more puzzles decently until then.

 

[lcsbiffi]

I probably wont participate in any of those competitions, I wanna get started on the 2x2 and 4x4 again first. I only solve 3x3 regulary and Pyraminx a few times a week, but when I am solving more puzzles I might participate in competitions. I saw it´s almost exactly 2 months to the second competition, I have a few cubes on the way so maybe I have learned to solve a few more puzzles decently until then.

I just competed in 3x3 on my first competition and I don't regret it, it was really fun the most important part is meeting other cubers and enjoying yourself out there.

 

[SittingDeath]

Sv: Hello, Thomas from Sweden here

Välkommen!
more Swedes
Hope you like it here

 

[TP]

I just competed in 3x3 on my first competition and I don't regret it, it was really fun the most important part is meeting other cubers and enjoying yourself out there.

I enjoy myself a lot just sitting at home and play with the cubes. But yeah, when I watched videos from last years US Nationals it looked pretty awesome. Gotta try it out sooner or later.

Välkommen!
more Swedes
Hope you like it here

Tackar!
I signup up to your facebook group for "östgötska speedcubers," we should meet up some day. Would be fun to try a few other cubes and compare to mine.


I got a Lubix Ultimate Guhong V2 today, first feeling was very bad. I had to wipe lube of from the stickers, the cube felt like a rubber band and it poped directly. But it got much better soon, I´ve played with it for maybe 1,5h and compared to my stickerless Zhanchi it´s much looser, faster and more prone to lockups and it pops which my Zhanchi never have done. But my Zhanchi is pretty tight, still I got surprised that the Guhong poped because after all it has torpedoes.

Well, I look forward to play with it a bit more and see how I like it later on, hardest thing now is recognition and handle the speed. Hopeless to control the M slices now.

 

[lcsbiffi]

I enjoy myself a lot just sitting at home and play with the cubes. But yeah, when I watched videos from last years US Nationals it looked pretty awesome. Gotta try it out sooner or later.



Tackar!
I signup up to your facebook group for "östgötska speedcubers," we should meet up some day. Would be fun to try a few other cubes and compare to mine.


I got a Lubix Ultimate Guhong V2 today, first feeling was very bad. I had to wipe lube of from the stickers, the cube felt like a rubber band and it poped directly. But it got much better soon, I´ve played with it for maybe 1,5h and compared to my stickerless Zhanchi it´s much looser, faster and more prone to lockups and it pops which my Zhanchi never have done. But my Zhanchi is pretty tight, still I got surprised that the Guhong poped because after all it has torpedoes.

Well, I look forward to play with it a bit more and see how I like it later on, hardest thing now is recognition and handle the speed. Hopeless to control the M slices now.

I know that feeling. When I got my lubix zhanchi, it felt really bad out of the box, but after 15 minutes playing with it, it got extremely fast and I couldn't control it properly haha it was hard in the beginning, but then I got used to it, as you probably will in time

 

[TP]

I´m so used to the Dayan stickerless, so having stickers that are 30% smaller and that also all are quite dark makes it really hard to see the colours easily. I´ll probably buy a half bright set and replace the existing stickers.

I feel real nerdy now haha, ordering lots of new cubs, fidgeting over stickers, adjusting tensions. Maybe I should concentrate on becoming a better cuber instead.

 

[TP]

It´s been a week since I got my Wittwo V1 and Shengshou 4x4 and a day since my new stickers arrived.

I have learned Ortega on the 2x2 and did 50 solves today and got this:

Average: 11.29
Best time: 5.17
Worst time: 19.93
Best average of 12: 9.88

Biggest problems is recognition and to always be able to solve the first face and at the same time figuring out if any pieces in the bottom layer have to be switched.

I got new half bright stickers for my Guhong and I was less than 0.1s from my average of 5 and 12 records today. Did 24 solves today and average was 30.47, so I have soon passed the 30s barrier. Time to do another average of 100 this week.

On the 4x4 I use 3-2-2-2-3 reduction, I have yet to learn the OLL and OLL + PLL parity cases.

Got these times today: 3.23:40 2.56:35 2.56:16 (OLL parity not done) 2.24:89 4.16:32

Average: 3.05:11, would be higher if I know the OLL parity.

The 3x3 stage is by far the most difficult, PLL recognition is way off, the parity makes it even harder and occasional lockups does that I lose my place in the algorithms and screw them up.

Goes I should do an average on the Pyraminx as well, I rarely solve it despite being a nice puzzle.