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How fast are the over 40's in competitions?

AbsoRuud

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mark49152

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Whoever edited this post, his DOB is on Wikipedia. He's kind of a celebrity. I'm sure his DOB isn't private by any stretch of the imagination. :)
Yeah that was me. I deleted it as soon as I saw it, since there's so much sensitivity about DOB privacy these days. You're right that it does appear to be in the public domain anyway, so that was probably unnecessary.
 

AbsoRuud

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Yeah that was me. I deleted it as soon as I saw it, since there's so much sensitivity about DOB privacy these days. You're right that it does appear to be in the public domain anyway, so that was probably unnecessary.
No problem. I completely support the privacy rules and your acting on them. Just thought I'd point it out that there was no need to worry. (I am aware of privacy rules. :))
 

pglewis

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Does anyone know if and when you just start getting slower as you get older?

I am 41 and can’t imagine that my times will just continue to decrease. Surely age just catches up at some point.

Those Ron stats are incredible, is he as fast today as he ever was?

Inspirational and cause for hope *does another session of 100 solves*

I'm highly curious about this myself, understandably :). I'm not experiencing a downturn yet at 51 but I've only been speedsolving a few years and I'm not even reliably sub 20. I've been playing guitar for over 35 years, however, and I can confidently say my technique and ability are better than ever.

On 3x3, I personally suspect arthritis or something similar is the biggest threat physically and lack of practice is probably the biggest threat mentally. I currently feel like I could get down to at least ~15 average and maintain that pace for another decade+ if I stay on this side of the dirt, nothing physical develops that affects me turning the puzzle, and I continue to practice as much.
 

mark49152

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On 3x3, I personally suspect arthritis or something similar is the biggest threat physically and lack of practice is probably the biggest threat mentally.
I might be oversimplifying, but I guess there are two issues. One would be age related problems that degrade performance, like arthritis. Fingers crossed that doesn't happen.

The second would be the age related slowdown in improvement due to being mentally and physically less fresh. That doesn't mean no improvement is possible, just that it takes an awful lot more effort than when you're young. Also, as you improve it takes exponentially more effort to improve further, so effectively your limit of ability is lower.

When I was in my late 30s I decided to take up piano, again, having played it until my teens. I tracked down my favourite pieces from those days, and was literally shocked at how much more effort it took to play them well. What had been possible with a couple of hours of casual practice now took many days of hard work!
 

pglewis

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As someone I consider a guru and a great mbld inspiration (I will get back to mbld some day) it's great to hear your experiences on this, Mark.

When I was in my late 30s I decided to take up piano, again, having played it until my teens. I tracked down my favourite pieces from those days, and was literally shocked at how much more effort it took to play them well. What had been possible with a couple of hours of casual practice now took many days of hard work!

About ten years ago I spent 9 months in Australia; didn't take a guitar with me and didn't play at all for that period minus 5 mins in a music store... and I was really surprised at how little I'd lost when I returned. The callouses were gone, of course, and I was sore for a few days but that fixed itself in about two weeks. I won't pretend I was back at peak form but within a few weeks I was probably back to 80%, on a scale I totally just made up this moment. That experience is kinda the opposite end of the spectrum, with two and a half decades of developed muscle memory and a comparatively short hiatus.

That was also the same time I decided to take up finger picking. I had always loved the "Travis picking" style in particular but I had exclusively been a flatpicker and previous attempts to take up the new technique were daunting and felt like being a beginner all over again. I decided to be stubborn about it after the hiatus, however, and I've slowly managed to develop a level of competency with it. With a foundation now, some pieces that would have required months of sweat just 5 years ago are much easier now. But reaching that level of competency upon which to build... yeah, I think I would have progressed significantly faster in my late teens/early 20s.
 

Logiqx

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FYI - I've added links to Speedsolving profiles from the competitor lists.

Also, I don't think I've mentioned that I can add people to the list early and the code will only include their results once they turn 40.

Send me a private PM with you WCA ID and DOB if you'd like to be added to the list.
 

Logiqx

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I've added a page to the senior rankings, listing future competitions with senior competitors registered. Hopefully it will prove useful to people attending competitions and especially newcomers who might not know any of our little community. If you meet anybody who isn't on the list then it's also a great opportunity to share the group details! The registrations pages will be refreshed several times a week.

https://logiqx.github.io/wca-ipy/Future_Competitions.html
 

openseas

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For some reason when I select anything other than 3x3 single it switches back to 3x3 single immediately. Looking at it in Chrome on iPhone.

It's not necessarily 3x3, whatever link you started - I copied the link of set as 3x3x3 OneHanded, it goes back to OH when I first select a new event but it becomes ok after the 2nd selection.
 

One Wheel

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It's not necessarily 3x3, whatever link you started - I copied the link of set as 3x3x3 OneHanded, it goes back to OH when I first select a new event but it becomes ok after the 2nd selection.
It doesn’t seem to matter how many times I select other options, it very briefly (<0.5s)
shows the results for whichever selection I made and immediately switches back to the default.
 

openseas

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It doesn’t seem to matter how many times I select other options, it very briefly (<0.5s)
shows the results for whichever selection I made and immediately switches back to the default.

I tested with multiple devices and browsers and it happens only iPhone Chrome. But as I wrote, the symptoms are not identical (similar though) - mine stays with the new selection (after the 2nd click).
 

One Wheel

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I tested with multiple devices and browsers and it happens only iPhone Chrome. But as I wrote, the symptoms are not identical (similar though) - mine stays with the new selection (after the 2nd click).
Ah. No big deal. I’ll find out how far I need to progress over the next few years when I get to my computer.

Any chance of including other events? I’m not old enough to be in the over-40 group yet, but since the WCA has removed Feet rankings I would very much like to see Feet, as well as other events like Magic or old-style MBLD.
 

Logiqx

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For some reason when I select anything other than 3x3 single it switches back to 3x3 single immediately. Looking at it in Chrome on iPhone.

Ah sorry about that... it's a little annoying since I don't have access to an iPhone to try to diagnose the cause of this issue.

Two possible workarounds:

1) Use Safari
2) Manually construct the appropriate URL - e.g. https://logiqx.github.io/wca-ipy-www/Senior_Rankings.html#pyram-average-50

Note: The event name is the same as that of the WCA website - e.g. https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/rankings/pyram/average

Any chance of including other events? I’m not old enough to be in the over-40 group yet, but since the WCA has removed Feet rankings I would very much like to see Feet, as well as other events like Magic or old-style MBLD.

Unfortunately that's not straightforward due to them being removed from the WCA rankings.
 
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