In general is sub 30 possible?

[Schmidt]

I actually learned full OLL to bring me to sub-30.

Me too. My avg was ~35 when I read somewhere that full OLL would bring the times down by a few seconds.

And the thing about you not being sub20 yet: I think you wrote somewhere that you only did the solves for the Weekly Competition. If that is true how do you expect to improve?? You could drop the 7x7x7 BLD and do one hour of 3x3x3 practise instead(or is it too painfull to say no?)

@DaveyCow:
Just record some solves on your bad cam for yourself. You will be amazed how long a 45 sec. solve is But it will motivate you.

 

[Mike Hughey]

or is it too painfull to say no?

Yes, it is.

But it is true that I don't practice enough. Most weeks I probably do less than 100 regular solves. But occasionally I do put more effort in. It's just that 3x3x3 takes so much more effort than most of the other events to get noticeably better at. (Which probably just shows that most people aren't very good at most of the other events, so it's easier to look like you're improving on them.)

 

[dr01d3k4]

I do agree that it is possible for most people to reach sub-30 with a lot of practice. In under half a year, I've gone from 2 minutes down to 40-50 seconds, but I practice all day at school. I started learning F2L in January when my times were around a minute, and now my best is 43.0 (though a couple of days ago, my friend timed ~37 seconds with his watch). What slows me down the most is F2L lookahead - I do pause whilst doing it which slows me down (and I also rotate the cube looking for pieces a lot), but after 2 days of trying slow turning and lookahead (and lots of practice at school) I am slightly improving at seeing pairs quicker.

 

[skeletonboy]

Different people have different brains. Therefore, different people have their own rates for learning. A person in my class may not be stupid in art/crafting, but may be the slowest to finish a math question.

As the other person said, it took him 3 years total to reach sub 30. Have you been cubing for 3 years? I'm not saying 3 years the limt, but it can take that long.

BUT, just as long as it could take, it could take a very short amount of time like Feliks Zemdegs. He subbed-20 in I think 2 months? That's crazy.
For me, it took 1 week to get to 1:30 min. It took 2 more weeks to get to 1:20. Then it took a month to get to 60 secs. And I'd say 2 months to get sub 40. Then, from sub 40, it took me 2 months to get sub-30. I'd say a total of around half a year from noting interest in cubing to sub-30.

We all vary, we are all different in many ways.

 

[blakedacuber]

Also I am in the slowest( for the time it takes me to recognise something and for me to actually react to it) 11percent of males my age and background(race etc). how do i know ? I took a "DATS" test dunno what it stands for but in my school you take it 4 times once in 1st year once in 3rd year once in 4th year and once in 6th year(last year of school) and every time I got the exact same result. and I'm sub 17 pretty much.

 

[jonlin]

I'd say it's very much possible. My personal best is 26.65 and I use the beginner method. You just need to get a good cube and work on your fingertricks, at least that's what I have done. I want to learn Fridrich but it's so many algorithms and I don't feel motivated enough to learn all of them.

You kidding? You don't need algorithms, just basic cases.
Intuitive F2l is just applying all those basic cases.

 

[Selkie]

Great thread, just read the history .. and a great question. Personally I think it is possible for most to hit sub 30, exceptional reasons withstanding.

Before I hit sub 30 the task seemed daunting, in my opinion is was the decision to concentrate on the weak areas that improved those chances by so much. It is so much harder to repeat things that you enjoy than keep repeating stuff you arent so good at and dont enjoy.

Don't get me wrong, I am not critisisng the way you cube in any way, but somtimes breaking out of habit works .. try slower turning, try faster turning, anything that stops you subconsciously solving. Sub conscience is the way you know how to solve, but you need to move to the conscious in some was. This was the biggest factor in moving off my plateaus, however odd it sounds.

Im an old man in relative cubing terms at 43 and I started speedsolving a little over a year ago, I have hit many plateaus where I think I have hit my limit but to date I have found a way to improve with practice. I average ~18 sec. It is possible, dont give up

 

[balloon6610]

Sub-30 can be done easily if you practice a lot it seem a road block but trust you will get a nice reward. For me i am sub-30 With Full PLL, 2LOLL and intuitive F2L and lot of practice don't give up !

 

[maderito]

So whaddya think? Is sub 30 possible for every member of the human race? Or does it take some special ability or spacial awareness?

I know I feel like sub 30 is impossible for me... Or am I just being pessimistic?

What are your thougts?

There is a popular notion, the 10,000 hour theory popularized by the writer Malcolm Gladwell, that given interest, opportunity and enough practice at a particular task or skill, one can master it. I don't think it would take 10,000 hours of cubing to get to sub-30, but it certainly would take a lot more focus, commitment and sustained effort than most are willing to commit.

I'm at 45-50 seconds now and can clearly see the path to sub-30, but I'm still not sure if I'm up to the effort. Something keeps pushing me along, so I suspect I'll get there.

I often ask myself -- How many people in the world have ever solved the 3x3 in less than 30 seconds? I doubt that it's a very large number. Perhaps 10,000.

 

[Mike Hughey]

I often ask myself -- How many people in the world have ever solved the 3x3 in less than 30 seconds? I doubt that it's a very large number. Perhaps 10,000.

I suspect the number is much higher than that. In any event, we have clear evidence of at least 8924 people. (That's how many are recorded in the WCA database right now as having solved it in less than 30 seconds for an official WCA solve.) I would guess there are probably that many people or more in China alone who have never been to a competition but have solved it in less than 30 seconds at home. (And when I say more, I realize it could be LOTS more.) I would think a safe minimum on the number is probably at least 30,000 people. And actually, if I had to guess, I'd guess around 100,000. But I have absolutely no data to back it up - it's a pure guess. It could be as low as about 30,000; it could be as high as a million or more.

 

[skeletonboy]

I often ask myself -- How many people in the world have ever solved the 3x3 in less than 30 seconds? I doubt that it's a very large number. Perhaps 10,000.

I'm quite sure the number is higher than that. Just count the number of people on youtube or social networks who post their sub-30 averages. I would guess, right now, around a 100 thousand (No, the above post did not affect my guess). Don't doubt it is a large number, it most likely is, though I have no sufficient evidence yet, but really?

 

[DaveyCow]

There are awesome ideas and thoughts here! I think after things have been "exhausted" that the ideas and thought can be collected into a single "help" thing or something? This "knowlegebase" could be very useful to future cubers.

In any case, you guys are wonderful and I love all your ideas and suggestions! I find myself a cuber-anew

 

[jskyler91]

I'm quite sure the number is higher than that. Just count the number of people on youtube or social networks who post their sub-30 averages. I would guess, right now, around a 100 thousand (No, the above post did not affect my guess). Don't doubt it is a large number, it most likely is, though I have no sufficient evidence yet, but really?

This seems a crazy high number seing as how there are only 17,000 people on the WCA database and a great deal of them are sup 30 seconds. Even if there were twice as many people in the world who were sub 30 as there are in the competition database, this would still not be over 20,000. You would be surprised how few people actually do this sport. Sure a lot of people learn how to solve it, but very few actually take it far enough to be sub 30. I would say less than 10 percent of all people who can solve a cube ever even get sub 1 minute and maybe 50 percent of them actually get sub 30. Just supposition of course, but 100 thousand sounds way to large to me, especially since people have only been doing speedcubing seriously for 31 years.

 

[aronpm]

You would be surprised how few people actually do this sport. Sure a lot of people learn how to solve it, but very few actually take it far enough to be sub 30. I would say less than 10 percent of all people who can solve a cube ever even get sub 1 minute and maybe 50 percent of them actually get sub 30. Just supposition of course, but 100 thousand sounds way to large to me, especially since people have only been doing speedcubing seriously for 31 years.

You would be surprised at the number of cubers in China. Also nice ridiculous percentages there.

 

[jskyler91]

You would be surprised at the number of cubers in China. Also nice ridiculous percentages there.

You think they are higher? I know hundreds of people who can solve the rubik's cube and less than 5 percent of them are abel to do it in less than 30 seconds. I teach a class on how to solve the rubik's cube as well and of the 45 or so students each semester who come into my advanced class only 2 have ever been able to solve it in less than 30 seconds starting off. Very few people actually take the time to do this event seriously. Of those who do, I would say at least half of them go to at least 1 competition and if there are only 17, 000 people on the WCA database, then there are roughly 34,000 "speedcubers" in the world. Lets say, to be generous there are 40,000 speedcubers in the world, if the WCA database is any indication of what percentage of speedcubers are sub 30 then somewhere around half of that 40,000 speedcubers are sub 30, so 20,000 max and I think the actual numbers are more like 40%. I haven't taken the time to do this research thoroughly, but I don't think my numbers are that far off. In fact I think they are a little over.

I would be interested to see the real percentages if anyone wanted to do a study of the WCA database.

 

[aronpm]

You think they are higher? I know hundreds of people who can solve the rubik's cube and less than 5 percent of them are abel to do it in less than 30 seconds. I teach a class on how to solve the rubik's cube as well and of the 45 or so students each semester who come into my advanced class only 2 have ever been able to solve it in less than 30 seconds starting off. Very few people actually take the time to do this event seriously. Of those who do, I would say at least half of them go to at least 1 competition and if there are only 17, 000 people on the WCA database, then there are roughly 34,000 "speedcubers" in the world. Lets say, to be generous there are 40,000 speedcubers in the world, if the WCA database is any indication of what percentage of speedcubers are sub 30 then somewhere around half of that 40,000 speedcubers are sub 30, so 20,000 max and I think the actual numbers are more like 40%. I haven't taken the time to do this research thoroughly, but I don't think my numbers are that far off. In fact I think they are a little over.

I would be interested to see the real percentages if anyone wanted to do a study of the WCA database.

You think there are only 40k speedsolvers? There are over 150k members on MF8, and over 40k members on MF8 who have posted...

 

[jskyler91]

You think there are only 40k speedsolvers? There are over 150k members on MF8, and over 40k members on MF8 who have posted...

I am simply referring to cubers who are sub 30 seconds. Just because there are 150,000 members on a forum doesn't mean they are all speedcubers, some are just puzzle enthusiasts, some are just people who want to learn to solve the cube, and others are just people who think the forum is interesting so they make an account. As you said, of the 150,000, only 40 thousand have posted and I bet a good chunk of those people who posted never made it below 1 minute, let alone 30 seconds. Just look at our forum, we have tons of people who just post once asking for a turorial on how to solve or who are at like 5 minutes. These people are not "Speedcubers" by my definition, they are just cubers. I think you need to be less than 1 minute to really be called a speedcuber. Again, I am just guessing here and I could totally be wrong, but I bet there are far less sub 30er's than you might think.

 

[Mike Hughey]

You think there are only 40k speedsolvers? There are over 150k members on MF8, and over 40k members on MF8 who have posted...

Yes, this is the reason why I'm guessing my 10,000 people in China sub-30 is probably way low. There's a really good chance that if 40k members have posted on MF8, as crazy as China is for the cube, there's a good chance that more than that are sub-30. I really wouldn't be surprised to discover there's over 100,000 people in China alone who are sub-30. Most people outside China don't realize how much the cube caught on there. But if you've seen some of the stuff on TV over there, you'll realize that it's really lots bigger there than it is here.

And there are other countries where it's rather popular too. Southeast Asia / Oceania have quite a few countries that are really into the cube, far outstripping the popularity in the West.

Again, jskyler91, the issue is the difference between the intensity of cubers in China and the cubers here. So many of the cubers in China are really serious about the cube. And most of them can't (or don't) get to competitions.

 

[jskyler91]

Yes, this is the reason why I'm guessing my 10,000 people in China sub-30 is probably way low. There's a really good chance that if 40k members have posted on MF8, as crazy as China is for the cube, there's a good chance that more than that are sub-30. I really wouldn't be surprised to discover there's over 100,000 people in China alone who are sub-30. Most people outside China don't realize how much the cube caught on there. But if you've seen some of the stuff on TV over there, you'll realize that it's really lots bigger there than it is here.

And there are other countries where it's rather popular too. Southeast Asia / Oceania have quite a few countries that are really into the cube, far outstripping the popularity in the West.

I am not disagreeing with that, but I think there is a difference between it being popular and lots of people knowing how to solve it and it being popular and lots of people being sub 30. I doubt any general populous would put in the time required to be sub 30 no matter how popular it is. Maybe I am overestimating the difficulty of sub 30, but this normally takes many months to overcome for the average cuber. I know it took me at least 4 month to get consistently sub 30.

Edit: wait, just to clarify, are we talking about singles or averages here? Because I am referring to people who have become sube 30 on average, not just people who have had a sub 30 second solve in their lives. If we are talking about singles then sure the number will be higher, I would still say less than 100,000, but definately higher than 20,000, but if we are saying averages than I will stick to my very suppositional guns.

 

[Mike Hughey]

I am not disagreeing with that, but I think there is a difference between it being popular and lots of people knowing how to solve it and it being popular and lots of people being sub 30. I doubt any general populous would put in the time required to be sub 30 no matter how popular it is. Maybe I am overestimating the difficulty of sub 30, but this normally takes many months to overcome for the average cuber. I know it took me at least 4 month to get consistently sub 30.

Again, our difference is precisely here. I'm saying the cubers in China seem to be very serious about it, implying (although admittedly I don't know this) that there are many thousands of them who have had sub-30 solves (and even averaged sub-30) without ever going to a competition. I could be wrong, but I suspect a large percentage of those 40,000 people on MF8 who are regular posters are sub-30 (and I actually mean sub-30 average). So in other words, I think there are many more over there than there are here on Speedsolving.com.

Edit: wait, just to clarify, are we talking about singles or averages here? Because I am referring to people who have become sube 30 on average, not just people who have had a sub 30 second solve in their lives. If we are talking about singles then sure the number will be higher, I would still say less than 100,000, but definately higher than 20,000, but if we are saying averages than I will stick to my very suppositional guns.

The original question was this, so we are talking singles:

I often ask myself -- How many people in the world have ever solved the 3x3 in less than 30 seconds? I doubt that it's a very large number. Perhaps 10,000.