zinzan8
Member
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2020
- Messages
- 74
INTRO
I am 54 years old, and learned to cube when I was a kid (from a book, I think). Every few years, I'd pick up a cube and realize I no longer remembered how to solve the last layer, and I'd teach myself again. About a year ago, I made an effort to solve the cube at least once a day for brain exercise, and so I would never have to relearn the cube.
TEACHING MY SON
About a year and a half ago, I decided to teach my son (9 at the time) the beginner's method (the only method I knew). I was really proud that I was able to teach him, but he quickly started beating my times--his fingers are just faster than mine. He could solve in about 70 seconds, while I usually took about 75 seconds.
CFOP
I started looking online for ways to speed up my time, and begin dabbling with CFOP. Now my son was CRUSHING my times, lol. He was down to about a minute (still beginners method), and I was now taking more than 90 seconds. F2L was quite a challenge for me initially.
IMPROVEMENT
Over the past several months, I've improved, slowly but surely. My cross is decent (3-5 seconds, but I still have to look), and my PLLs are solid (maybe 6-8 seconds?). My OLL is maybe 8 seconds, but is still 2-look. But my F2L is still about 29 seconds. :-( Which is way better than it was a few months ago. I've memorized F2L algorithms (though probably not the optimal ones), and recognition is not too bad, but I find it takes me too long to just spot the pairs. I'm not fully "seeing" the cube without A LOT of cube rotations, and I have a strong tendency to solve the front-right pair, so those are additional rotations as well.
BEATING MY SON
So now I do beat my son, who hasn't really improved from his one minute average time, while I'm in the +40-50s range. He's okay with that, no real interest in learning CFOP. But I do have him solve the cube every few days just so he never forgets it like I did so many times.
GOALS
So, even though I'm slower than I'd like, I'm not fooling myself into thinking I'll ever be really fast. But I'd like to get faster. I'd be happy with regular 30s solves. With that in mind, I would like to work on F2L (efficient spotting/look ahead), white cross without looking (after inspection), and 1-look OLL. Beyond that, I guess I'll try to rotate less often and learn faster algorithms.
TOYS
And I have to admit that I've discovered the world of non-Rubiks cubes, and have picked up a few. Wow, now I'm terribly spoiled and snobby, particularly when I pick up a Rubiks or Hasbro branded cube that is just awful.
My most recent toy is the GAN 356i v2. I *JUST* got it (yesterday), and really like it so far, though I haven't figured out the algorithm trainer yet (the app refers to cube on right vs cube on left, but I only see one image). It's a cool (if not overpriced) toy, but I'm really enjoying just having the ability to run scrambles and solves and get the splits. I'm not planning to go online and look for competition any time soon.
I also picked up the Gear Cube. It's also really fun to see in action, and feels really solid in the hand. Not a terribly challenging puzzle, but it looks impressive and no one needs to know how easy it is. My kids love it.
I am 54 years old, and learned to cube when I was a kid (from a book, I think). Every few years, I'd pick up a cube and realize I no longer remembered how to solve the last layer, and I'd teach myself again. About a year ago, I made an effort to solve the cube at least once a day for brain exercise, and so I would never have to relearn the cube.
TEACHING MY SON
About a year and a half ago, I decided to teach my son (9 at the time) the beginner's method (the only method I knew). I was really proud that I was able to teach him, but he quickly started beating my times--his fingers are just faster than mine. He could solve in about 70 seconds, while I usually took about 75 seconds.
CFOP
I started looking online for ways to speed up my time, and begin dabbling with CFOP. Now my son was CRUSHING my times, lol. He was down to about a minute (still beginners method), and I was now taking more than 90 seconds. F2L was quite a challenge for me initially.
IMPROVEMENT
Over the past several months, I've improved, slowly but surely. My cross is decent (3-5 seconds, but I still have to look), and my PLLs are solid (maybe 6-8 seconds?). My OLL is maybe 8 seconds, but is still 2-look. But my F2L is still about 29 seconds. :-( Which is way better than it was a few months ago. I've memorized F2L algorithms (though probably not the optimal ones), and recognition is not too bad, but I find it takes me too long to just spot the pairs. I'm not fully "seeing" the cube without A LOT of cube rotations, and I have a strong tendency to solve the front-right pair, so those are additional rotations as well.
BEATING MY SON
So now I do beat my son, who hasn't really improved from his one minute average time, while I'm in the +40-50s range. He's okay with that, no real interest in learning CFOP. But I do have him solve the cube every few days just so he never forgets it like I did so many times.
GOALS
So, even though I'm slower than I'd like, I'm not fooling myself into thinking I'll ever be really fast. But I'd like to get faster. I'd be happy with regular 30s solves. With that in mind, I would like to work on F2L (efficient spotting/look ahead), white cross without looking (after inspection), and 1-look OLL. Beyond that, I guess I'll try to rotate less often and learn faster algorithms.
TOYS
And I have to admit that I've discovered the world of non-Rubiks cubes, and have picked up a few. Wow, now I'm terribly spoiled and snobby, particularly when I pick up a Rubiks or Hasbro branded cube that is just awful.
My most recent toy is the GAN 356i v2. I *JUST* got it (yesterday), and really like it so far, though I haven't figured out the algorithm trainer yet (the app refers to cube on right vs cube on left, but I only see one image). It's a cool (if not overpriced) toy, but I'm really enjoying just having the ability to run scrambles and solves and get the splits. I'm not planning to go online and look for competition any time soon.
I also picked up the Gear Cube. It's also really fun to see in action, and feels really solid in the hand. Not a terribly challenging puzzle, but it looks impressive and no one needs to know how easy it is. My kids love it.