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[Member Intro] Old and slow

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.
 
Joined
Sep 10, 2019
Messages
1,542
Welcome! If you can't turn as fast as other cubers, make sure to check out other methods like Petrus, Roux and ZZ, that solve the cube in less moves.

If you decide to stick with CFOP, make sure to drill your PLLs and OLLs. Try to get all of your algorithms under 5 seconds, and practice your F2L solutions.
 

cuber314159

Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2016
Messages
2,975
Location
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Norther...
WCA
2016EVAN06
YouTube
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Welcome, I would definitely recommend you try and solve other coloured crosses, it may be a bit confusing at first but it's generally better to be able to solve the easiest cross and not have to go with the same colour every time.

Or you could do this:
Welcome! If you can't turn as fast as other cubers, make sure to check out other methods like Petrus, Roux and ZZ, that solve the cube in less moves.

If you decide to stick with CFOP, make sure to drill your PLLs and OLLs. Try to get all of your algorithms under 5 seconds, and practice your F2L solutions.
The problem with F2L algorithms is that it fails when it comes to lookahead, eventually you are going to want to be looking into the next pair while solving one.
 

BenChristman1

Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2019
Messages
3,505
Location
The Land of 11,842 Lakes
WCA
2019CHRI11
SS Competition Results
Welcome! Based on your splits I would work on your cross, your PLLs, but most importantly, your F2L. That seems to be the part of the solve that is holding you back the most. Something I'm working on with my F2L right now is looking for a new pair to solve as I'm solving the current pair. You do have to know your F2L "algs" very well, but after doing enough solves, you should have that down, and should be able to start tracing pieces. I would recommend starting by tracing one piece (either the corner or the edge, your choice), and following that one piece as you're solving the current pair. Then, for the next pair, you only have 1 piece to look for.
 

EngiNerdBrian

Premium Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2018
Messages
960
Location
Denver
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Welcome! Best of luck with your improvement as it sounds like you have a pretty good goal and path outlined to get there. As said before, really focus on F2L and definitely ask us lots of questions and for resources! Good F2L is the absolute key and the hardest thing to master for CFOP solvers in my opinion. I’d bet the majority of CFOPers would say the weakest part of their solve is F2L...you definitely aren’t alone there.

Your 30s goal does sound Very obtainable with some deliberate practice.

Regarding competitions, the free online weekly competition here has been a great motivational tool for me; there’s no scheduled time so you can sit down whenever it’s convent during the week and see how your practice is paying off. It’s worth checking out. its fun for me to see how far from “Not last” I can get!
 
Z

Zubin Park

Guest
I would recommend taking a look at my CFOP guide, which is linked in my signature!
 

zinzan8

Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2020
Messages
74
my jaw dropped for a second when i saw that HAHA

Lol, I didn’t even think about how that might read. [emoji2357]

anyway, thanks for the warm welcomes. I’m going to stick with CFOP for now, because I do think I can shave off several seconds in F2L, and then a few more in the other stages. I don’t mind being a little slow, but I hate having to stop and search as often as I do.

But I would like to try some of the other methods a bit later. Thanks for the tips, guys!
 
Joined
Mar 16, 2020
Messages
1,177
Location
a Pokedex or somewhere near you.
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.
Welcome to the forum! definitely take a look at other methods, there are many more options other than CFOP.
 

JohnnyReggae

Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2015
Messages
557
Location
Cape Town, South Africa
WCA
2015BOSW01
Welcome fellow oldie ;) Keep practicing and get those pll's and oll's down. F2L will come with more practice and repetition.

I'm 50 now and I average around 15 seconds, with a PB of 9.21 .... So it's possible for our slower fingers to get decent times. I know I can't compete with the youngsters at competitions but I still give it a go :)
 

Zarxrax

Member
Joined
Jan 7, 2009
Messages
1,282
Location
North Carolina
Congrats on making it as far as you have! I think you can definitely get down to 30 seconds eventually if you keep on it. Just a few months ago I came back to cubing after about a 7 year break, and I have shaved my 30 second times down to about 22 seconds. I'm really close to my goal of 20 seconds that I set for myself many years ago.

All it should take is just more practice. A lot of youngsters have the focus and time to sit there solving for an hour or more a day, so they can get really fast really quickly. Just keep doing as many solves as you can, and you will get to 30 seconds before you know it.
 

zinzan8

Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2020
Messages
74
Reality check. After about 120 solves on my Gan 356 i2, I have to say that I average about 54s. The cube is looser than I like, so that’s part of it, plus trying to learn some new algs, but the reality is that most of my solves are between 50-59s, with only about 15-20% in the 40’s. And I have the occasional finger flub that leads to 1m+ solves.

I’m actually faster on my $9 Moyu RS3 M 2020, in the 40’s more often than not.
 
Last edited:

Spacey10

Member
Joined
May 11, 2020
Messages
698
Location
Virginia
YouTube
Visit Channel
Reality check. After about 120 solves on my Gan 356 i2, I have to say that I average about 54s. The cube is looser than I like, so that’s part of it, plus trying to learn some new algs, but the reality is that Most of my solves are between 50-59s, with only about 15-20% in the 40’s. And I have the occasional finger flub that leads to 1m+ solves.

I’m actually faster on my $9 Moyu RS3 M 2020, in the 40’s more often than not.
The GAN I is mostly for stats, although most would agree that the RS3M is better.
 

zinzan8

Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2020
Messages
74
Latest update:

I'm now sub-43. Wasn't going to give an update until I was sub-40, but I have kinda plateaued for the past couple weeks at sub-43. But I'm not discouraged, as I haven't been purely drilling for speed. I've been playing with the cubeast website, and messing around with 2BLD and 3BLD, and have been playing with Roux just the past couple days. Oh, and I bought a Skewb, too. It's fun to cube in various ways.

That said, I do still have a goal of sub-30 on the 3x3. I've had a few sub-30s, but really don't get too excited about those, as I know there is a lot of luck involved. Clearly, my solves cluster around 35-47s.

The cubeast web app has revealed to me that I spend too much time in recognition. About 17s on average, which is time I'm not moving my cube. My TPS is well under 2, but that is skewed by my recognition delays. Watching the Red Bull Cubing World Cup this weekend, I know I'll never come close to those TPS stats on my best day, but I think my TPS on execution is good enough to reach my sub-30 goal. The cubeast app shows that my TPS is 3 or 4 on each step, except the cross.
 

PetrusQuber

Member
Joined
Jun 27, 2019
Messages
3,460
Location
my house, cubing.
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Latest update:

I'm now sub-43. Wasn't going to give an update until I was sub-40, but I have kinda plateaued for the past couple weeks at sub-43. But I'm not discouraged, as I haven't been purely drilling for speed. I've been playing with the cubeast website, and messing around with 2BLD and 3BLD, and have been playing with Roux just the past couple days. Oh, and I bought a Skewb, too. It's fun to cube in various ways.

That said, I do still have a goal of sub-30 on the 3x3. I've had a few sub-30s, but really don't get too excited about those, as I know there is a lot of luck involved. Clearly, my solves cluster around 35-47s.

The cubeast web app has revealed to me that I spend too much time in recognition. About 17s on average, which is time I'm not moving my cube. My TPS is well under 2, but that is skewed by my recognition delays. Watching the Red Bull Cubing World Cup this weekend, I know I'll never come close to those TPS stats on my best day, but I think my TPS on execution is good enough to reach my sub-30 goal. The cubeast app shows that my TPS is 3 or 4 on each step, except the cross.
Nice to see you update :)
 

zinzan8

Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2020
Messages
74
No problem.

BTW, a cool thing about playing around with other methods is that it can help with your main method. Or in my case, it has saved me a couple times.

I have found instances where I make some small mistake on a last layer algorithm, and find the cube just a little bit unsolved--but only knowing CFOP, the cleanup requires a pause to evaluate, and then some time to fix the problem. Now, I find that sometimes M-U moves alone can fix the problem, utilizing my Roux learnings. And I've used BLD buffer concepts to fix issues using T-perm, Y-perm, or J-perm.
 
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