How do you maximize your practice time?

[Toquinha1977]

Hey, guys. Greetings and handshakes all around. Allow me to introduce myself.

This is me. (clickable link because I can't seem to get the embedded youtube video to work).
Anywho, it's been about a year since my first competition and I feel like I'm not progressing fast enough. The Vancouver Open 2008 put me at around a 30 second average, and even though I'm about 3 more algs shy of mastering OLL, my time has not improved that much on 3x3x3 (mind you, I've shaved a whole minute and a half off my 5x5x5 times...switching to a V-Cube 5 helped).

So, with 5 months until my next competition, my goal is to consistently get to a sub-20 average. And I already know I have to practice, but like the subject header says...how do you maximize your practice time?

Lately, I've been focusing on the F2L and so far I've been getting it at 20 seconds and trying to make a conscious effort to go execute moves without stopping. My next trick is the metronome trick (luckily there is one right next to me).

What do you guys do?

 

[ThePizzaGuy92]

Hello Vincent.

theres a sticky in the video section that will show you how to embed videos

and for f2l, keep moving consistantly, even if you have to start doing it very slow to catch on, it'll become very natural over time to look ahead and find your next pieces before you need them.

 

[Cride5]

Hi Toquinha, welcome to the forums

What do you guys do?

Any times where I'd otherwise be waiting for stuff I fill with cubing time, waiting for the bus, TV adds, queue at the post office, shopping with my GF, even on the loo

Since I don't know any cubers outside of the forums, I sometimes compete against random things, like the kettle boiling, computer booting etc.

How many solves can you do before your computer boots? I can only manage two! Either says a lot about your cubing or a lot about your computer

 

[byu]

Welcome! You're doing the right thing. Just keep practicing with metronome.

 

[ThatGuy]

I have been slowing down my F2L and looking ahead as well as minimizing the cube rotations. The sad part is I get faster times when I go slow (I'm really really stupid).

 

[Toquinha1977]

So, I busted out the metronome and started solving at 60, with a double turn (U2, R2, etc.) counting as one turn. I did this for about TWO HOURS. Indeed, if I go slower, I can complete my F2L in under 20 seconds more consistently.

 

[nitrocan]

You don't need to practice so hard. 2 hours a day would be too much for me.

Sometimes things just "click" and you go "Aah, so I can do this too?"

Try learning F2L tricks like the usage of empty slots if you haven't.

 

[IamWEB]

I just got the great idea of making a cubing schedule type of thing for practice =D

For you, I would do this:

Warm-Up Solves, warm your hands.
Average of 5
Metronome practice
Slow-Solve Average of 5
Metronome Practice
Learn an OLL
Average of 5
PLL Trainer
***small break if you want***
Go over the same OLL again
Metronome F2L 2-3 times
Average of 5 or 12

Voila.

 

[Toquinha1977]

You don't need to practice so hard. 2 hours a day would be too much for me.

Sometimes things just "click" and you go "Aah, so I can do this too?"

Try learning F2L tricks like the usage of empty slots if you haven't.

I knew of someone who did 8 hours, which I thought was excessive myself because I have other interests outside of speedcubing (besides, I have one at my desk that I play with at work...probably a little too much). But, since I'm on public transit a lot, I bust out the cube then.