My Method of Memorization for Noobs like me.

[cmhardw]

Except for some special cases, every image is made up two pieces. So recalling 1 image tells me the next two pieces in my cycle, unless I am beginning or ending a cycle in which case I use an image to stand for 1 piece on the cube.

As for general tips on concentration, never ever practice in a relaxing environment except for when you want to go for superfast personal record solves. I highly advocate practicing in public, practicing with very loud music, practicing with your alarm clock going off, etc.. Practice with metronomeonline going the whole time (that thing can get *very* anonoying very quickly). Practice with the TV blaring. Practice while listening to comedy. This is especially hard because you can still comprehend the jokes, and when they're funny you still laugh. So it's much harder to stay focused when listening to comedy than it is when listening to general annoying sounds like an alarm clock.

After getting used to practicing like that, practicing with perfect silence feels like heaven. For BLD in general I always say that you can learn a lot from DNFs. Don't feel as if a DNF is wasted time or a wasted effort. You still stressed your brain very hard when trying to memorize and trying to solve. Just because the solve itself was a failure doesn't mean you still didn't get quite a bit of mental practicing and training in as well.

Hope that helps,
Chris

 

[joey]

I need to try and stop worrying about DNF's. I double check things, to try make sure I don't DNF, but obviously this wastes time. I need to learn that DNF's don't matter.

I havn't tried going fast as possible on memorisation on a full solve. I did corners only yesterday in 1:14, which I was ok with. Then edges only in 1:43, which is alright. I will have to try a full fast memo solve.

At the moment I have been practising in a relxaing environment(acoustic music), but I will have to try with Rage aginst the Machine blasting, or with Dave Chsppelle playing!

Thanks for the tips chris!
Joey

PS: a few things I've been thinking about
1) Premoves: Adding a U or so at the start of a BLD to maybe solve more edges. I'm not sure how difficult it would be to memorize pretending there is an extra U.
2) 3-cyle: Ok this is a bt of fun. Instead of doing corners then edges. Use a G-Perm to solve corners and edges at the same time. Someone should try that! Setup moves would be quite difficult though!

 

[dbeyer]

Oh, to break it down for myself.

I don't memorize images on the 3x3 in general. I am still quite visual. When I memorize images, it takes me 10 images to memorize the cube.

This is ignoring corners in both cases mind you (still visual even on big cubes )
4x4: 16-22 images, 8-11 locations
5x5: 20 center images (at worst), 12 wing images, and 6 central images

This is assuming that nothing is solved on wings or centrals and two cycles in each piece-type!
That's 38 images ... and oooh ... if I did memorize corners with images, that's only like 41 or 42 images on aveage ... beat you Chris

I'll be giving a 5x5 tutorial very soon! I've got a very large system that I want to work out for solving the wings and centrals while blindfolded.

 

[hait2]

Originally posted by cmhardw@May 27 2007, 04:25 AM
Except for some special cases, every image is made up two pieces. So recalling 1 image tells me the next two pieces in my cycle, unless I am beginning or ending a cycle in which case I use an image to stand for 1 piece on the cube.

As for general tips on concentration, never ever practice in a relaxing environment except for when you want to go for superfast personal record solves. I highly advocate practicing in public, practicing with very loud music, practicing with your alarm clock going off, etc.. Practice with metronomeonline going the whole time (that thing can get *very* anonoying very quickly). Practice with the TV blaring. Practice while listening to comedy. This is especially hard because you can still comprehend the jokes, and when they're funny you still laugh. So it's much harder to stay focused when listening to comedy than it is when listening to general annoying sounds like an alarm clock.

After getting used to practicing like that, practicing with perfect silence feels like heaven. For BLD in general I always say that you can learn a lot from DNFs. Don't feel as if a DNF is wasted time or a wasted effort. You still stressed your brain very hard when trying to memorize and trying to solve. Just because the solve itself was a failure doesn't mean you still didn't get quite a bit of mental practicing and training in as well.

Hope that helps,
Chris

Ah thanks this is excellent! I am really easily distracted in general (unless I'm reading) and when something distracts me, I sort of blank out for a second and just pay attention to the noise (was a big problem on my exams I must say )

I will try to practice while watching some movie/comedy, although I doubt I'll get far. Seems such obvious advice but I would've never tried it myself heh