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How did you start Speedcubing?

How did you start Speedcubing?


  • Total voters
    236

rubikmaster

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Just wanted to revive this thread to hear stories from some newer members,so I will tell my story now.So sit back,because this is gonna be a long one.
My name is Oskar Janeš.I am from Croatia,I am 14 years old and can solve the Rubik's cube in about 18-19 seconds on average and this is my story on how I got into cubing.It all started back in 2004 when I first touched the Rubik's cube.My dad won a trip to Gardaland(something like an Italian Disneyland) and we bought a Rubik's cube there.But it wasn't a normal one with standard colors.For each color there was a different character from Gardaland.My dad messed it up for me with a few turns and I solved it.He did the same thing again and I solved it.But the second time he messed it up a little harder and I couldn't solve it and I just completely messed up the cube.I remember we gave it to a few people on the bus when we were coming back and nobody could even solve one side.At that time my dad's brother,his wife and his kids were coming over pretty often,every month or two.And my dad's brother would always pick up my cube and try to solve it and in about a few minutes he could solve one side and at that time I was just so amazed by that and a few months ago(from now,not from that time) he told me that he actually knew a method and could solve it back in the 80's but he forgot it.anyway,back to the story.But he could solve only one side and then every time I was so afraid to touch but I started to solve the second side anyway but in the end I would just mess the cube up.At that time I was thinking that the cube should be solved side by side(and most non-cubers still think that).And a little later on when I was I think 9 or 10 I got back from school and my dad said to me that cube fell of the top of the closet and broke and that he threw it in the garbage.I never saw the cube but I think the core probably didn't break and maybe I could've assembled the cube so that it's solved but,oh well.I was a little sad for a few minutes after that happened.But after that I pretty much forgot about the cube.Then in 2010 my friend found some cheap Chinese Rubik's cube at his house that he bought for 10 kunas(approx. 2 dollars) a few years ago.Then,the next few weeks he was trying and trying to solve it all the time.He brought it to school once and during those few weeks I was at his house 1 or 2 times but I never actually played around with his cube.Then in June of 2010 he said his cheap Rubik's cube didn't work anymore and he couldn't turn it at all so he threw it out.And a few weeks later,when school already ended,he texted me on Facebook and he said he is getting a new cube on Saturday and he asked me if I can solve it and I said something like "Well,I don't know,I think I can..." but I think I probably just said that because I wanted him to come over.So on Saturday he bought the cube(he got the original Rubik's brand cube) and he came over the next day and both of us had now idea how to solve it,so we were looking through a lot of tutorials and just couldn't figure it out and a few days later I also got one and we were so obsessed with the cube.Later on,he actually managed to solve the first layer and didn't want to touch his cube after that.Then he went to the seaside on a vacation and a few days later he called me and screamed "I solved it,I solved it!" and I was happy for him and it was all great.But I was still worried what am I doing wrong but then a few days later I finally figured it out.It was already July by that time.I was having problems with solving the cross and the first layer corners because I was using Dan Brown's method and he didn't really explain the cross that well and how to align it with the centers on the side.But I still got it.The first few times I solved it in about a half an hour and soon I got it down to two and a half minutes.I lubed my cube with Nivea creme because I didn't have anything else(I know,I know:fp) but it actually worked pretty well.When my friend got back he was saying "OMG,OMG,I know how to solve it,dude.I will teach you!".But then I said to him that I already figured it out myself.I asked him what are his times and he said he is at around five minutes and then I gave him the advice of lubing it with Nivea creme and the first time I decided to lube it for him and soon after that he could also solve it in two and a half minutes,also.And soon after that I started wondering how to get faster,so I learned the method from Chris Dzoan's tutorial "How to solve a Rubik's cube in under a minute" and in a month I got my times down to one and a half minute and it took a few more months to get to one minute and twenty seconds and a few more months to get to one minute and fifteen seconds and for the next few weeks I just couldn't get any faster than that,so in April of 2011 I learned the Fridrich method and a week or two later got my first speedcube(Alpha-V).At first I was having a hard time with F2L and was two times slower than I was before for the first few days.But then,with a lot of practice,I soon got under a minute,and a few days later sub-55,a few days after that sub-45,and soon sub-40,sub-35 and after that the speed of me becoming faster just dramatically slowed down,but I eventually got sub-30,then sub-25,etc.So here I am now.I'm finally sub-20 which was my goal since I started cubing.I am very happy with my results now and it's not really my goal to be sub-15.Now,I just do it for fun,not for getting faster,I don't really care about my times anymore.Thank you for reading this and I hope you enjoyed it. :)

BTW,if you find a spelling error or just some mistake in this text please tell me so I can fix it. ;)
 
Last edited:

HeyCuber

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Jan 16, 2012
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Alright. It goes back to 2006 when almost everyone on my class had a cube after some guys learned how to solve it. I also had my old and stiff cube with me, but I wasn't interested in solving it.
Next year (2007) I got a cube for my birthday, what a coincidence. The storebought cube came with an instruction booklet and that's when I decided to learn how to solve it.
One of my classmates still cubed at school and he helped me and gave some tips. He even talked about OLL and PLL and tried to teach me some algorithms, but I wanted to stick to the beginner method I knew.

Next year (2008), after elementary school we ended up going to different schools. That's when I had a 3-year break from cubing. Just before Christmas (2011) I was bored and picked up the cube to see If I could still solve it.
I had got slower but I could still do it. After a few solves I was again familiar with the beginner method. And that's when I finally started using a timer. (www.cubetimer.com)
Very fast I averaged about 1:15 and I wanted to reach sub-1 minute. Eventually my personal record was 45 seconds, but I still averaged something like 1:05. The hunt for a faster technique had started.

I still had my old classmate's notes and I tried to understand them, but they were pretty weird, something close to 2-look OLL and 2-look PLL. I got to talk with my old classmate on Skype and asked him if he still cubed.
He did, but he didn't understand his own notes anymore. He had since learned CFOP so he laughed at my beginner method. That's when I started looking for information about CFOP. I had to stop timing for a while.
After some time I was watching tutorials and trying hard to figure out F2L. I was very slow at my own but eventually I found algorithms for F2L and decided to move on to OLL and PLL. (www.badmephisto.com)

Again, after some time I decided to stop using F2L algorithms and I learned F2L intuitively with a help of some video tutorials. Soon enough I had learned some OLL and PLL algorithms and I could also do F2L without any help.
I tried timing but I was way slower than I was when I used the beginner method, because I was slow with OLL and I needed to look at my PLL notes while timing. It took me some time to learn full PLL.

The story ends here. I have since got a Dayan Zhanchi and a Stackmat timer and at the moment I average ~38 seconds and my personal record is 28.03 seconds. I'm also colour neutral.
So what I'm doing now? I'm on my way to full OLL and I know around 1/3 of the algorithms at the moment. I'm also practicing my F2L look-ahead and cross and I'm interested in learning different sub-steps.
Actually, I just started practicing extended cross.

That's about it. It's a bit long and probably confusing too, since it's morning here and I'll have to hurry to school.
Thanks for reading if you actually did that and sorry for my English.
 

bunny

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Feb 17, 2012
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I see a lot of people don't know female speedcubers? I'm a girl and I'm not super fast but I'm going to spend a while learning Fridrich to become faster. I started two years ago when my mom bought a bunch of Rubik's cubes for people, and I asked her if I could have one. A guy at my school and I started a club at school. I moved away that summer though, and I was much busier, so I stopped for a year. I rediscovered it last weekend though and I ordered a Dayan Zhanchi online.
 

PandaCuber

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I see a lot of people don't know female speedcubers? I'm a girl and I'm not super fast but I'm going to spend a while learning Fridrich to become faster. I started two years ago when my mom bought a bunch of Rubik's cubes for people, and I asked her if I could have one. A guy at my school and I started a club at school. I moved away that summer though, and I was much busier, so I stopped for a year. I rediscovered it last weekend though and I ordered a Dayan Zhanchi online.

There are actually plenty of female speedcubers!
 

conn9

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As much as you guys will hate me saying this, it all started with Dan Brown, in Summer 2010. I watched the vid, bought a cube, got my friend into it, and we went fromt here. I did the usual: "I'm not improving, I'll try a different method. Wait, now I'm slower. Oh wait, no I'm not. Now I'm improving. Wow, now I'm sub 20." I'm improving at a snail's pace now though.
 

hyunchoi98

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I don't really remember exactly, but i did have an edison cube (i think that was what it was)that i got for free when some company was doing a promotion.
(Yeah, i know "EDISON CUBES FOR FREEEE??!!!!?!?!! ELEVEN" this is korea so they are ABUNDANT.)
Fast forward a couple years (2008), i saw a friend at school solve it within a minute (with a rubik's brand, which was apparently "the best" in korea)
I decided to dig my cube out and try to solve it. I did get confused 'cause on one side there were logos of a construction company but i managed with Dan Brown's tutorial.
I was like "와 내가 큐브를 풀었다!!!! 엄마!!! 나 큐브 풀었어!!!!!!"
TRANSLATION: "OMFG I SOLVED THE CUBE!!! MOM!!! I SOLVED THE CUBE!!!"

and yes i did put vaseline in my cube... because dan brown said so...
also korea wouldn't have silicone spray that i could find anyway

The beginner's method that Korean's use has different LL than the one i learned from dan brown so many kids got confused when i said I DON'T SOLVE IT LIKE THAT!!!

I kept practicing and i got better than the friend who got me into cubing lol
 

funymunky

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Feb 19, 2012
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I was just browsing on ThinkGeek when I saw a Rubik's cube. I thought, "Hm, I've always wanted to try one." I asked for one for Christmas, and kind of forgot about it what with all of my other presents. Just recently started learning how to do it, and became sort of addicted. I do it at school whenever I have free time.
 

applemobile

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Jan 8, 2012
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exeter uk
I received a sevier head trauma in a motor boating accident. When I woke up I had the ability to solve the cube intuitiveky. Not quickly, but I could do it. I have moved on from there. Some people say I must have learnt how to do it before the accident and forgotten I had learnt, but no one has ever seen me with a cube and I never owned one. I have visited many doctors and psychiatrists who are interested in what has happened to me, most of their research shows that I am infact a compulsive lier.
 

JCVP11

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Jan 26, 2012
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I initially started in June 2010. My dad had got a cheap cube from a store nearby. I had learnt how to solve it from Dan Brown's Tutorial on Youtube. From there on I started to cube more and more and i bought me a 4x4 and 3x3 original and learnt how to lube it.
I now have the Dayan Guhong and Average sub 24 with it, :). My goal is to get to sub 14 or 15 and take part in a wca competition for the first time soon
 

Madde532

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Feb 17, 2012
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Hello! nice to see another girl here on speedsolving, i don't know how many girls there are here, mabye more then i think.
 

Yuxuibbs

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I was on youtube watching random videos then saw MMAP's gigaminx solve, watched a couple more cubing videos, got my parents to buy a 3x3, and started solving.


Hello! nice to see another girl here on speedsolving, i don't know how many girls there are here, mabye more then i think.

There are lots of girls (like me) who cube but not as many as boys. I think the speedsolving community is about 8 or 9 % girls? (wild guess based on some threads)
 

brandbest1

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I'm actually not sure how I started (it seems all fuzzy). In the summer of 2010, I was doing some work, and I was recalling what happened last year in school. Then, I remembered in Art class, someone could solve the cube. Since I had a computer in front of me, I looked up dan brown's tutorial, and i've been cubing ever since.
MeMyselfandPi was my inspiration (the 1x1 tutorial).

I received a sevier head trauma in a motor boating accident. When I woke up I had the ability to solve the cube intuitiveky. Not quickly, but I could do it. I have moved on from there. Some people say I must have learnt how to do it before the accident and forgotten I had learnt, but no one has ever seen me with a cube and I never owned one. I have visited many doctors and psychiatrists who are interested in what has happened to me, most of their research shows that I am infact a compulsive lier.

You're reminding me of some science show I watched on the science channel, where a guy got a severe head injury, and now he can play the piano.
 

BrainOfSweden

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Apr 4, 2011
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About a year ago, shortly before my join date, I was having my internship in a bigger city than the one I lived in. During lunch break, I would sometimes take a walk through town and do a little window and or real shopping. One day one of my favourtie stores had a bunch of Rubik's Cubes on display. I thought that it would be fun to learn solving it, and I had about 2 hors of commuting time every day, so it would be perfect. So I bought it and that's how it started.
 

nickcolley

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Jul 2, 2011
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Oh okay. I saw a lot of people in earlier posts on this thread saying they'd like to see more female speedcubers, that's all. ^^

Those posts were from 2006. So I imagine there weren't.

Edit: Ontopic:

My friend Peter brought his in and solved it using the tutorial that comes with the cube, I went and bought one and that's pretty much it.
 

KJ

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Dec 11, 2011
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A very long time ago, when I was 6 or something, my mom bought me a Rubik's cube for doing well on a gymnastics meet. I was really depressed before that because I had seen some people at school had one and I wanted one. My birthday passed, and somehow my parents didn't get the hint(or ignored) I really wanted one. So my mom eventually got me one, and then I was frustrated because I couldn't solve it.:mad: So I set off for a solution. There was a book that came with the hard to turn cube, but it used some weird notation(which actually wasn't weird, I just couldn't understand it). There was some you tube videos, but like the book, I couldn't understand them. So I cast away my old cube in to the depths of my closet, never to be seen for a year or so.

Now, when I was visiting my grandparents house, they had a cube as well as a very nice graphical book on how to solve it.(It was called Solving the Cube)I learned, and I averaged 5 min. or so. When my times came down to a minute and a half, I learned keyhole F2L. Then I learned F2L, then both 2 look PLL and OLL. That is where I am now, and I am in the process of learning 1 look PLL.

About this thread, I was actually gonna stat a thread about this, but good thing I didn't!
 
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