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My Battle With Pyraminx || We All Have That ONE Event We Struggle With... ||

VIBE_ZT

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We all have that event that we cannot seem to get good at.

We all have that one puzzle that feels so foreign in our hands, no matter how many times we have turned it.

We all have one.


For me, that event is Pyraminx.

Now, I am not amazing at any event by any means. I'm not one of those people that expects success with minimal effort, believe me. However, I know what effort and hard/smart work does. I have watched myself get sub-5 on Skewb, sub-20 on 3x3, sub-20 on Square-1, and finally get a sub-3:00 mean on 3BLD. All these were very tough goals for me, and barriers I simply could not seem to break. But, I broke through them. And I consider my improvement to be adequate, considering the event! But....I broke through a lot of barriers in literally every other event.... besides Pyraminx.






I started Pyraminx right around when I started cubing seriously - around 2017. It was one of my favorite events, besides of course 3x3.

I got sub-15, then sub-10. And that's where the improvement stopped for a while.

After trying maybe 4 differents methods and combinations of them, I settled on 1-Flip. I quite enjoyed it for a few years. It got me down to about 6 seconds.


but..... that was it.





I watched Drew Brads solve, deconstructed everything from his algs to his fingertricks to his unique turning. I practiced it. And grinded solves. And sat there, meticulously experimenting with tops and centers and intuitive solving.

And no matter what I did, I stayed at 6 seconds.


So I switched to L4E. Because Drew Brads and his top-first methods were clearly not cutting it anymore, in a community where the world-class solvers mostly used V-first.


I gave myself time. I gave myself reassurance. I knew that I wouldn't get good with it for a while, since I had just switched to a completely different method. So I did the same thing I had done for 1-Flip. Analyzed Tymon, DG, and Dominik Gorny's solves, tried them myself, saw what I could do myself.


And still. Stuck.



6 seconds isn't bad. It's not bad by any means. I mean.... most people are at that point.


But I'm stubborn. I wanna be good at it lol.



So I'm honestly unsure where to go from here. All these years of doing it and it still doesn't work well when it's in my hands. All these years, and I still cannot really figure out how a Pyraminx moves. All these years, and I'm still stuck at the biggest cubing plateau I've ever experienced. I honestly just think that I should leave it as "that's just the way it is, you'll never get better at Pyraminx." But god, I can't bring myself to accept that lol.








Do you have an event in which greatness evades you to this day? Tell the forum about it!
 

Owen Morrison

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5x5, I have never gotten super serious about it, but I decided to get into one time, I averaged right around 2:05. I did 500 solves, and I didn't get a single bit faster, I would share the time graph but I don't have it any more. I kinda gave up after this to work on getting sub 35 on 4x4 and sub 9 on 3x3.
 

Sub1Hour

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I'm currently at a wall doing 6x6. 6x6 would be my main event if I didn't do squan. I've been grinding at least 50 solves a month. It does not sound like a lot but I have school, work, and sports as higher priorities. I've hit a wall at around 2:40. This has never happened to me before. I went from averaging 50 to 18 on square 1 in only 3 months so I figured that I could just keep on going and I would push through it. Hopefully, I break the barrier that I have been stuck at for the last 4 months
 

alexiscubing

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Probably 5x5 as I average around 55 on 4x4, you would think I would be sub 2 on 5x5, but no. I average high 2's/low 3's and I take so long to scramble that I have just decided to get better at other events. With pyraminx, I started with an 8 average and grinded. 2000 Solves and 1 year later, I am sub 4 and I now have 2 official podiums. I use LBL and I just rely on high TPS. Would you say that you have high TPS?
 

VIBE_ZT

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Probably 5x5 as I average around 55 on 4x4, you would think I would be sub 2 on 5x5, but no. I average high 2's/low 3's and I take so long to scramble that I have just decided to get better at other events. With pyraminx, I started with an 8 average and grinded. 2000 Solves and 1 year later, I am sub 4 and I now have 2 official podiums. I use LBL and I just rely on high TPS. Would you say that you have high TPS?
My TPS is very bad, simply due to the fact that Pyraminx does and has always felt awkward in my hands.
 

Owen Morrison

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Probably 4x4 for me. I average 13-14 on 3x3 and about sub 2 on 5x5, but I’m at about at 1:10-1:15 on 4x4. I use Yau, but it needs work, especially on cross edges.
That was really tough for me, I was stuck right around 1:15. I switched to Hoya, and then back to Yau and now it is one of my favorite and best events. I average 38-40 now. I would recomend trying out different methods to get a better understanding of the cube.
 

alexiscubing

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That was really tough for me, I was stuck right around 1:15. I switched to Hoya, and then back to Yau and now it is one of my favorite and best events. I average 38-40 now. I would recomend trying out different methods to get a better understanding of the cube.
Hoya 5 is amazing but Hoya 4 is kinda stupid
this was said by the top Hoya 5x5 solver in australia (not me my friend)
 

Cuberstache

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I mean, I'm awful at skewb and always have been, just compare my skewb rankings to my other WCA rankings. On the other hand, I've put almost no effort into improving at skewb, so I wouldn't say that I've hit a wall like you have, I just don't want to improve at the event, so I don't.
 

Melvintnh327

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I'm stuck at the 2 minute barrier in 4x4. First of all, my 4x4 is very locky and I have trouble with turning it. Secondly, I was using the Reduction method which might be slow on 4x4, so I'm deciding to switch to the Yau method but I'm not really sure.
 
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