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

[Selkie]

Well thanks to some excellent advise from this community since getting hooked on speed solving the beginning of last month I have got to the stage where I average about 41secs overall.

Don't get me wrong, I am more than happy with progress and trying to look at improving in areas as discussed in other threads. I have started trying some BLD cross only solves, and just started look ahead on F2L since I can now pretty much BLD a pair once I see the setup. I a happy with my algorithm learning even if some still need more practice to move to muscle memory though I have halted my OLL per day until I really can move the ones I know to long term memory. I am happy with my cube, eventually settling for a black DIY Lingyun after buying and trying as many as I dare under the wife's watchful eye :rolleyes:

I have also started drilling my PLLs and trying to opt for the best finger tricks for me but to me seem to be slow turning even on heavily drilled PLLs with minimal regrips.

Whilst I fully realise it has only been 6 weeks and despite ample practice each day, practice is the single most improving factor as mentioned many times in many threads.

However I am impatient, not impatient to get to sub-20 averages, but impatient in learning what speeds I will be able to attain in say 6 months. Now I realise it differs from person to person but I would be very interested in hearing the experiences of those who started speed solving at a grey-haired age who who still solve now they are a little longer in the tooth. I know I will never turn at speeds attained by many here but what could I expect if I reach potential? Have others found they have learned algorithms quicker when older or other experiences?

As for age, well I will be 42 years young soon. Not too old granted but surely old enough to make a difference to speed?

 

[RyanReese09]

To get high turn speed I recommend just doing triggers like R U R' U'

I've reached near 18tps (mid highish 17).

Make sure you don't do wrist turns and taht is impossible for high tps.

Honestly, if I remember, I'll make a video when I get home. Sub20 is achievable easily with 2 look OLL and full PLL (it's possible with 2 look PLL but you know full PLL)

I have a video on my youtube channel called something like "electric doodle example solve)

I go extremely slow turning for F2L (anyone can get that sort of speed) and then I do gogo LL and get a 16 second time. Add 2 seconds for making it 2 look. Still 18 seconds.

Go slow and lookahead. Easy sub30 doing this.

I know you weren't exactly asking for advice but I thought I'd share.

Many times in cubing you will reach a plateau and stay there for a bit until you get a drop. As you get faster the drops get longer (in most cases)

Just find algs that you personally find fast to perform. Try many out (though some are "universally fast" such as H, T PLL)


tl;dr

Spoiler

Go read the above post, don't be lazy

 

[Mike Hughey]

I got serious about speedcubing when I was 44. I was 45 when I went to my first competition (US Open 2007), where I averaged 39.80. I got sub-30 in competition about 6 months after that, and now I average about 23 seconds. I unfortunately haven't improved at all in about a year, despite having practiced 3x3x3 quite a bit; I have to admit I'm starting to get discouraged at ever getting sub-20.

For what it's worth, it seems like it's easier for us older folks to be competitive at BLD events; Mats Bergsten is quite competitive at BLD despite being over 60!

 

[Hodari]

As far as having slow tps goes, this might help a bit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q952_qbdorM

 

[Erik]

Ron van Bruchem

 

[Mike Hughey]

Ron van Bruchem

And also Ton Dennenbroek, who's older than me and yet sub-20.

 

[ElectricDoodie]

I have a video on my youtube channel called something like "electric doodle example solve)

 

[teller]

I'm 40 and average about 0:19...I have found that you don't really have to turn very fast to get sub-20. You'll discover that you're leaking time all over the place with pauses and delays in recognition. I'm more worried that my gray reflexes just aren't quick enough to get me down into the teens. Coffee helps.

Turning speed isn't the issue...if you keep with it, you find that you're moving plenty fast before long. A lot of that is just your muscles "knowing" where to cut the right corners, and "seeing" clumps of moves as "words" rather than individual characters.

 

[MichaelP.]

http://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/misc/age_vs_speed.html

 

[Juju]

I'm 25, which you'll find is significantly older than many of the faster cubers on this forum. I have learned full OLL and PLL, and I'm learning Roux as well. I'm finding much more pleasure in being able to solve smoothly rather than quickly. I don't have a very high TPS, but I'm averaging about 21 secs at the moment, with many of my solves sub 20.

I've been learning since October last year.

 

[Selkie]

I know you weren't exactly asking for advice but I thought I'd share

Heh, I will always welcome any advise and its just what I'm after. Thanks for taking the time to give it mate

For what it's worth, it seems like it's easier for us older folks to be competitive at BLD eventse

I have to confess BLD really interests me. I watched a badmephisto youtube video on it when looking at intuitive F2L last month. I would have started by now but didn't want to give myself too much to do in too little time. And hell, that 7x BLD was awe inspiring!

...

I did also look at the vids of the older solvers and it gives me great inspiration that I am not wasting my time aiming for sub-20 (Aiming high was always been my downfall). The WCA stats were very suprising, especially the plateau between 25 and 45.

I am in the race to 30 thread, I will video my ineptitude one week and open it up for some sound advise.

 

[Dene]

I'm like a grandpa or something and I average sub14 on a good day.

 

[newtonbase]

First post for this thread in 3 years! I was looking to start the exact same one as I'm interested in how people progress who haven't started cubing until their 40s. I turn 42 this year and started 11 weeks ago. I have a PB of 39s but tend to average just under a minute. My improvement has slowed dramatically. Often I spend longer finding an F2L pair than FAZ takes for a whole solve. While there are advantages to age such as being able to afford all the cubes I want I really don't feel that I could ever get respectable times.

 

[~Adam~]

First post for this thread in 3 years! I was looking to start the exact same one as I'm interested in how people progress who haven't started cubing until their 40s. I turn 42 this year and started 11 weeks ago. I have a PB of 39s but tend to average just under a minute. My improvement has slowed dramatically. Often I spend longer finding an F2L pair than FAZ takes for a whole solve. While there are advantages to age such as being able to afford all the cubes I want I really don't feel that I could ever get respectable times.

What would you consider to be 'respectable' times? If you put the time and effort in sub 20 should be doable. Getting down to the mid teens will take a lot of work and the numbers show that sub 10 solvers have started only as late as their teens so far.

 

[newtonbase]

I'd be very happy with sub 30 average.

 

[DaveyCow]

I love hearing from older cubers as I am one myself I'm 38 and been cubing almost 3 years. I average about 33 but sub30 singles are creeping in more and more. I am also with you in that I'm impatient to learning what I can learn! coz learning is fun During the school term (I work at a university), I don't get nearly as much time to practice as I'd like so I think that what might be holding me back from sub30 averages (my current goal). As far as learning algs, I'm not good at it, but at the same time *sometimes* I find learning algs fun. I learn them very slowly though, in that when I finally do get the alg, recog/recall is very slow (I'm sure as is for most, but I feel slower for me). I know full OLL and PLL - I never meant to learn full OLL, but every now and then over the course of 6-8 months, I thought it would be fun to learn a new alg, so an OLL is what I learned. But overall I feel like I learn VERYYYY slowly. When I think about it, I guess I am a tad impatient to be sub30. It's things like this that make me wish there was an age-category in comps Anyway, glad we're in the same club!

I got serious about speedcubing when I was 44. I was 45 when I went to my first competition (US Open 2007), where I averaged 39.80. I got sub-30 in competition about 6 months after that, and now I average about 23 seconds. I unfortunately haven't improved at all in about a year, despite having practiced 3x3x3 quite a bit; I have to admit I'm starting to get discouraged at ever getting sub-20.

For what it's worth, it seems like it's easier for us older folks to be competitive at BLD events; Mats Bergsten is quite competitive at BLD despite being over 60!

Hug Mike! Inspiring words Ofc Ron is definitely an inspiration too

As far as having slow tps goes, this might help a bit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q952_qbdorM

Once again, insanely inspirational! Drives-home the point that slowing down and looking ahead (hence smoother solves) is *the* key!!

 

[Logiqx]

I'd be very happy with sub 30 average.

You'll find that's not as hard as it might seem right now. IMO the thing that holds me back (knocking on for 42 years old) is simply lack of time for practice. You also need to practice effectively... self-analysis is a great way to improve at almost everything.

In the 2 years that I've been cubing there have been weeks on end that have passed without me picking up a cube. There have even been months on end where I didn't cube as I was doing other things with my time. As a consequence I've never set my sights on being "fast" and spent more time walking around thinking through methods, probabilities, software models, etc.

When I started out, I just wanted to be able to solve it in under 3 minutes but my I've broken a few arbitrary barriers with regards averages over time (e.g. 2:00, 1:30, 1:00, 0:50, 0:40, 0:30).

I'm not so interested in my single times or even my Ao5 results but my Ao50+ is currently around 25s (well... it was last night after my first proper session in a week) and I had a nice run of 22s solves which was nice but not unusual.

If you want to see what is possible then you can look at the progress of MarcelP who has been doing well with regular practice.

If I can get my times without much practice, I'm sure anyone our age can get a sub-30 global average with practice and sub-20 is achieveable by many people.

It's just a matter of finding the time for cubing...

 

[Twoflower]

I'm 37 and started cubing a few years ago.

After a year I did a05 about 25 sec. at a competition. Then I switched to ZZ and had a pause for 2 years. I just started cubing again, now with Roux. Just did a terrible ao5 32 sec. at a competition.

I hope to be sub 20 with Roux within the next year.

When I started I easilly learned full OLL and PLL, but now I find it to be a bit harder learning new algorithms.

I'll never break any records, but I'll have a lot of fun - also with BLD and Multi-blind.

 

[MarcelP]

I am 44 and started out less than two years ago. I average now sub 23 at home (have some Ao12's on video sub 22 ). I have recently had a growth spurth because I was averaging 26-27 for more than 6 months. Although sub 20 feels doable I think it might take me more than a year to get there now.

 

[stoic]

IMO the thing that holds me back (knocking on for 42 years old) is simply lack of time for practice.

Me too. I'm 41 and I average 27-28 at home. It's rare for me to hit a sub-20 time. I try and cube every day but the time I have free to spend cubing can be measured in minutes rather than hours.
I've probably spent way too much time learning LL algs rather than really targeting my practice (eg I still can't do the cross blindfolded) but I'm still learning and I'm proud of what I've achieved. I'm still seeing small improvements in my times, but I don't expect I'll ever be that much faster than I am now and I'm cool with that.