How are more mature cubers' turn speed and other experiences?

[AlexCube]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this but I'm sub 25 right now and I have been cubing for 7 months. Is this good? I'm 12. I'm kinda stuck at sub 25 and I ask you what should I improve? I guess that look-ahead on F2L. I actually only know 13 PLLs and about 20 OLLs. What do you think?

 

[newtonbase]

Some encouraging words here. I suppose my biggest issue is impatience. Maybe I'd be faster if I didn't keep learning new PLLs and concentrated on F2L recognition.

 

[Chree]

How mature is mature? I started cubing when I was 22. After a little less than a year I averaged about 33 to 35 seconds with Petrus, but never learned anything new so I never improved. PB single stood at 25 seconds for a long time.

Fast forward 6 years, at 28 years old... I set a goal for 2013 that I would get at least 1 sub20 single. Bought a Dayan, learned CFOP, and practiced to the detriment of my sleep and social life... I achieved my goal 5 months later with a PLL skip, 18.93. I'm 29 now and with a year and some months of speedcubing experience, I set my PB Ao100 at 18.63 a couple days ago.

Someone else said it earlier, but I think one of the biggest problems with being an older cuber is having less free time. I listened to an interview with Kevin Hays where he described being a high school student and doing 300 solves a day for 8 months in order to become a sub16 solver. I don't really have time for that, but truly believe that's what it takes to get fast... just tons and tons or practice.

Sometimes I think having a job and a girlfriend SERIOUSLY impedes my speedcubing progress.

 

[pipkiksass]

Sometimes I think having a job and a girlfriend SERIOUSLY impedes my speedcubing progress.

Tell me about it - try having a job, wife, and baby! I started cubing when my daughter was 4 months old, she's now 19 months. The most solves I've ever done in a session was 100, and that's only happened once. I'm massively envious of people who can do 300 solve sessions.

I'm 31 and average about the same as you - I was thinking about starting a thread asking for ages and 'global' averages, and graphing the results. I think it would be interesting to see what is 'normal' for each age/age-group. Don't think it's already been done, the search facility doesn't reveal anything!!

 

[moralsh]

40 here averaging 23-24, I've always felt that the limit is still very far. What seemed very hard a few months ago seems rather doable right now, both on the look ahead side or on the TPS side. I have decent solves on both categories but seem to have a problem on mixing them both

I think that we need to relay on our advabtages over youngsters to keep improving, like taking the time to plan a more focused practice or just being constant, obviously some youngsters have these and natural talent and lots of time, but I don't think we are a lost cause in a sport with so many categories and still so many unexplored possibilities. Just keep on it.

My goals when I go to a comp is just doing well and if possible, doing bette. It's very easy to improve and have fun this way.

 

[Chree]

Tell me about it - try having a job, wife, and baby! I started cubing when my daughter was 4 months old, she's now 19 months. The most solves I've ever done in a session was 100, and that's only happened once. I'm massively envious of people who can do 300 solve sessions.

I'm 31 and average about the same as you - I was thinking about starting a thread asking for ages and 'global' averages, and graphing the results. I think it would be interesting to see what is 'normal' for each age/age-group. Don't think it's already been done, the search facility doesn't reveal anything!!

Should also somehow incorporate experience level. How long they've cubed, how often they practice. Happy to be a graph point. I'd be interested to see how I do compared to other people around my age.

I admit, not having children might be a competitive advantage to me right now. What's your cubing progression been like?

40 here averaging 23-24, I've always felt that the limit is still very far....
My goals when I go to a comp is just doing well and if possible, doing better. It's very easy to improve and have fun this way.

This.

 

[Lazy Einstein]

I am 28 years old. I have 2 sons. 22 months and 10 months. Work in the Military and doing my training at a college. Although I am pretty busy I have noticed a steady improvement. I have been cubing since November and recently hit a sub-30 Ao100. I, similarly to yourself, bought up as many cubes as I could under my wife's watchful eye hahah. I usually cube on my breaks during the day or sometimes in class if it is going slow. I know full OLL and PLL, Ortega for 2x2x2, parity algs for the 4x4x4, Sarah's beginners method for the Skewb, and am starting Antoine's OH algs.

I personally found learning OLL very easy but I was dedicated. I practiced two a day every day until I know all of them. From there I drilled the ones I was having trouble with while watching movie and what not with my wife after the kids were asleep.

Something I have noticed in the in the last four months of speed solving is the speed increases come out of nowhere. I will solve 100 times stuck at 45 average and randomly find myself in the 30s a few weeks later. Just practice frequently and have fun with it. =)

And welcome to the wonderful world of speed cubing !

 

[pipkiksass]

Should also somehow incorporate experience level

I disagree. If people give an honest global average, i.e. what you'd see as being the absolute maximum time you'd be happy seeing from an Ao100, and I plot this against age, this will give a graph showing age/accomplishment. Ergo, if you are a 40 year old who has cubed for 12 months, but put in 4 hours practice a day, and see yourself ahead of other 40 year olds, you will probably know why. The purpose of the graph is to illustrate where you are relative to your age-peers.

I could, however, plot a different graph with global average against something like estimated hours spent cubing... but the responses (from some of the younger forumites especially) would be ridiculous. Take a look at the 'how long did it take you to be sub-20' thread - there's lots of 12 year olds who claim they did it in x weeks, and only cubed for an hour a week, and similar garbage.

I'm concerned that people will lie about their global average, which will totally skew the results. I'm intending to put something in the title thread about formatting results, something like:

Age: xx
GLOBAL AVERAGE (THIS IS NOT A LIE):

Underline and block capitals compulsory!

Happy to be a graph point. I'd be interested to see how I do compared to other people around my age.

This is my main motivation in doing this. I'm very curious to see if the results give a discernible trend.

What's your cubing progression been like?

I knew how to solve a cube when I started speedcubing, using a method I'd learnt/been taught over a period of time 10 years previously. I hadn't picked up a cube in about 5 years.

I was under a minute in a week or so, sub-50 in a month. After 2 months I was barely sup-30. It took me another 10 months to get sub-20. In the last few months I've gone from high-19 averages to low 18s. I regularly have sub-17 Ao5s, sub-18 Ao12s, but would describe myself as globally averaging 18.5-19. That's after 15 months cubing.

My progress slowed massively at around 23 seconds, where I sat for probably 6 months. This is almost certainly due to the fact I completely stopped learning new stuff, and hours cubing a week stopped yielding the required results!

I personally found learning OLL very easy but I was dedicated. I practiced two a day every day until I know all of them. From there I drilled the ones I was having trouble with while watching movie and what not with my wife after the kids were asleep.

My wife hates it when I cube when she's watching TV. And I'm not dedicated! Trying to be - I have a blank OLL sheet waiting to have my chosen algs added to it, but I've been at around 45 OLLs for probably 3 months, and have stopped really learning anything new.

Gotta get out of the habit of not looking ahead, as well!

 

[CheesecakeCuber]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this but I'm sub 25 right now and I have been cubing for 7 months. Is this good? I'm 12. I'm kinda stuck at sub 25 and I ask you what should I improve? I guess that look-ahead on F2L. I actually only know 13 PLLs and about 20 OLLs. What do you think?

Your gut was right. This doesn't really qualify as the help thread.

anyway: I'm 15, cubing for ~2 years, sub-18ish

 

[DeeDubb]

We should have our own 30 y/o+ "senior's bracket" haha.

 

[stoic]

The most solves I've ever done in a session was 100, and that's only happened once. I'm massively envious of people who can do 300 solve sessions.

I'm feeling this. I changed my sig from Ao100 to Ao50 because I've only ever done about 3 Ao100s. Even Ao50 timed is pretty unusual for me.

 

[Logiqx]

Age: xx
GLOBAL AVERAGE (THIS IS NOT A LIE):

It may be worth adding a description of global average as well. Perhaps some people think it means their typical Ao5 / Ao12?

Additional pieces of information which may be incorporated are gender and method. Do they differ by age and how do the averages differ?

 

[stoic]

Additional pieces of information which may be incorporated are gender and method. Do they differ by age and how do the averages differ?

Inb4 gender controversy

 

[newtonbase]

It may be worth adding a description of global average as well. Perhaps some people think it means their typical Ao5 / Ao12?

Additional pieces of information which may be incorporated are gender and method. Do they differ by age and how do the averages differ?

So what does it mean?

 

[~Adam~]

Any chance that someone can name some older sub 15 cubers? I'm 29 and am on the brink of sub 15. I know that there are lots of areas of my cubing that I can work on but just don't have the inclination.

 

[pipkiksass]

We should have our own 30 y/o+ "senior's bracket" haha.

Totally. In athletics you have junior, senior, then veteran categories sub-categorised by age, e.g. v.40 is veterans aged >40,<45; v45 is veterans aged >45,<50, etc...

It may be worth adding a description of global average as well. Perhaps some people think it means their typical Ao5 / Ao12

So what does it mean?

I always intended to add a definition of 'global' average in the original thread post. My personal definition would be something along the lines of "if you sat down and did 5, 12, or 100 solves, what could you reasonably expect the average of this session never to exceed." For example if I did an Ao12 now, I'd expect sub-18.5. It might be sub-18, or even sub-17, but I would never expect an Ao5, 12, or even 100 to exceed 19 seconds. If I got 19.5 for an Ao100, I'd probably cry. As a result, I'd say my global average is around 19 seconds.

If anyone has a better definition of 'global average' then please let me know; I'll start the thread as soon as I have one I'm happy with.

My reason for dictating the formatting of posts in the thread is that, after the first page, people will see a thread about time and gender, and start posting their PB Ao5s, or other useless information that will ruin the statistics. My idea was to combat this by putting a default format for results, linking to the definition in the original post. If people don't post their details in the format specified, their results will be ignored, as it's an indication that they haven't read the original post.

Additional pieces of information which may be incorporated are gender and method. Do they differ by age and how do the averages differ?

Interesting thought; however I don't believe cubing ability is affected by gender, in any way other than the volume of competitors. In terms of method, this is down to personal choice; however I'd be happy to add this to the data gathering process, and graph all results, using a different symbol for different methods. This will be very black-and-white, i.e. CFOP, Roux, other (where any CFOP derivative methods, such as freefop, OLS, etc., fall under the CFOP heading. It will be an 'other (please specify)' option, so if there are a large number of posts under this heading, I can add another option in future.

 

[Logiqx]

I always intended to add a definition of 'global' average in the original thread post. My personal definition would be something along the lines of "if you sat down and did 5, 12, or 100 solves, what could you reasonably expect the average of this session never to exceed." For example if I did an Ao12 now, I'd expect sub-18.5. It might be sub-18, or even sub-17, but I would never expect an Ao5, 12, or even 100 to exceed 19 seconds. If I got 19.5 for an Ao100, I'd probably cry. As a result, I'd say my global average is around 19 seconds.

I quite like your definition. I was originally thinking something like "if you recorded all of your solves during a week what would you reasonably expect as an average, counting ALL of the solves?". In your definition it may be worth removing Ao5 and Ao12 to avoid people mis-reading; "if you sat down and did 100 solves, what could you reasonably expect the average of this session never to exceed."

Good idea re: standard format and ignoring people who haven't read the original post.

With regards gender and method, I think it may be interesting to see the profiles. Maybe there is a correlation between some of them as well... maybe Roux solvers are young or maybe the age profile of the different genders is slightly different. Who knows... since data is being collated it doesn't hurt to add them as questions and see if anything "interesting" shows up.

 

[sk8erman41]

I like the idea of this thread and the age/graph thread. Sometimes as an older cuber reading the forums can be a little discouraging because you see all these younger members getting fast very quickly.

I am 30, have a wife, a baby on the way, work full time, and am in graduate school full time. Some days I cube more than others, but absolutly solve everyday. I would say I average around 5-6 hours a week. My wife also absolutly hates it when I cube around her. When we watch tv I do get away with cube maintenance (lubing, restickering, etc.) My times are getting more and more consistent and with targeted practice are slowly going down. I am in the race to sub-25 thread and am very close, but I would say my global average according to pips definition is about 26 seconds.

I've been solving for many years, but only got into speedsolving just over a year ago. I think that my problems with speed are for many reasons. 1) I like many different events and spread my time all over the place from 3x3 (my longest held fav) to 4x4 to 5x5 to 2x2 to BLD and rarely skewb, square-1, mega, and pyra. Also because of the limited amount of time spent cubing, I also lack the dicipline to do targeted practice and enjoy just solving the most, but I also understand that it is impeding my progress. I have been "stuck" for awhile sub-30 but am slowly moving to faster speeds. I know that if I used targeted practice more I will continue to improve. As difficult as it is for me to get faster speeds, I know that my true potential is far from being reached. I am shooting for global sub-20 and then I think I will be happy but am enjoying the journey.

I was thinking about putting this in Noah's "the mountain" vid thread but I think here might be even more appropriate. Areas I would like to "target practice." Please add to this list. I was thinking these would be specific things that you could dedicate say 20 minutes to before a solve session and would improve over time with focus.
-bld cross
-timed sighted cross only solves
-cross + 1F2L
-F2L only (learn algs for difficult cases)
-OLL cases (I currently know about 40)
-PLL drills
-Alternate angle algs
-slow solves
-same scramble over and over to work on effeciency
-metronome solving
-watching faster solvers
-TPS drills (sexy move?)
-turning accuracy using tight/bad cube

 

[TMOY]

Any chance that someone can name some older sub 15 cubers? I'm 29 and am on the brink of sub 15. I know that there are lots of areas of my cubing that I can work on but just don't have the inclination.

Ron is 46 and sub-15.

Personally, I'm 43 and my best official average is 19.xx. Sub-15 would definitely be possible if I practised enough for that, but I tend not to care much about 3^3 speedsolve and to prefer other events.

 

[Chree]

Ron is 46 and sub-15.

Also, Stefan is 35 and sub 15.

Please add to this list. I was thinking these would be specific things that you could dedicate say 20 minutes to before a solve session and would improve over time with focus.
-bld cross
-timed sighted cross only solves
-cross + 1F2L
-F2L only (learn algs for difficult cases)
-OLL cases (I currently know about 40)
-PLL drills
-Alternate angle algs
-slow solves
-same scramble over and over to work on effeciency
-metronome solving
-watching faster solvers
-TPS drills (sexy move?)
-turning accuracy using tight/bad cube

I don't recommend practicing on a bad cube. The only thing it does is inflame cubing thumb and cubing wrist. Ailments long since forgotten thanks to modern speed cubes. Instead I find it better to just drill algs... slow at first, then ever increasing speeds to see where your limit is and what triggers you need to work on.

For the list:
-4 Look F2L... See the case, close your eyes, solve the case. 4 times
-3x3 scrambles on big cubes. Helps with 3x3 stage on big cubes, you start to develop preferred algs and fingertricks. Encourages slow turning, aids lookahead.
-Practicing CN. As a White Cross solver, 2 things that help my recognition are: 1) drilling OLL and PLL algs on non-yellow sides, and 2) practicing on different color schemes. My girlfriend uses a completely different color scheme than the standard (very girly), so her cube is great for CN practice. I have yet to actively put CN into my solves, but occasionally I'll see a beautiful green cross I just can't pass up.