Old man (50+) starting to cube - (pønten's progression thread)

pønten

pønten

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Jan 31, 2022
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As I wrote in my introduction post about 3 weeks ago, I had ordered a cube (3x3x3). That was about 40 years after I last held a cube in my hands! I was told that the cube I ordered should take 2-4 days to be delivered, but I had to wait 20 days, and I only got it exactly one week ago.

I can only vaguely remember what might have been my best solving time back then when I was a kid, but I think it was somewhere between 1:40 and 1:50 (minutes). So obviously, my first goal would be to beat that.

Long story short: I reached my initial goal today with 1:39.74, clocked in just a few hours left of my first week with the cube. Method: Beginner Roux.

I might update this thread with new posts if/when I have something to say, but for the rest of this post I'm summing up the first week. Feel free to skip that rambling remainder of this post! :)

THE CUBE: Weilong WR M 2021 (3x3):
First thought: "Really, that small size?" I'm not sure if the standard size cube I had as a kid was bigger, or if it was just me who was smaller. I might look for a slightly bigger cube next time, having over average sized hands/fingers, but I guess I'm starting to get used to it.

Second thought: "What is this, a cube or a sort of rubber ball?" My cube 40 years ago, was stiff and rigid, but my new I could bend and twist in all directions. I have adjusted it, using both the screws and the spring adjustment, and it feels better now. It also helped a lot for the feeling of control with a few drops of lube (Traxxas).

So when getting used to both size and springy-ness, I was left with one problem: The yellow color is so light that I can't easily distinguish it from the white color unless under pretty strong light. At the start I had so many problems when trying to solve the cube, only to find out that some of what I believed to be white pieces at the bottom were actually yellow. Solving it with the light on my bedside was impossible. It might be my old eyes to blame for this, but I know that if I buy another cube later, I'm going to look for one with a strong yellow.

For now I made a modification. I didn't have any yellow stickers, but I had small round white stickers laying around. I have temporarily put the white stickers on the white cube pieces, which didn't really help a lot. But I also drew a tiny dot on the middle of each sticker. So now it is possible to solve the cube without mixing up yellow and white all the time, even in some normal dim light. I'm probably going to look for some yellow stickers later.

1st DAY (Wednesday 16th February):
I finally got the cube this evening, after 20 days of transportation and unknown stops. I felt a bit intimidated of the cube at first (small size, springy-ness, weak yellow color), and was not even able to solve the second block in a very long time (Roux method). So I skipped my plans to try to solve it that evening, and all I did was to take it apart, do some initial adjustments, and about an hour or so just doing "sexy moves", trying to get used to it. Not very "sexy", as the best I managed doing 60 "sexy moves" was 53 slow seconds.

2nd DAY (Thursday):
I had used the weeks waiting for my cube to arrive, to read up and watch videos on the Roux method. Lots of great help and instructions, but it was the 9 episodes teaching Beginner Roux by DeeDubb from 2014 on YouTube that really helped me the most. The beginner method uses Red in front, Yellow on top, always starting building Blue block, with the White-Blue edge first. Then Green block. Then placing the upper corners by doing Niklas (R U' L' U R' U' L U), normally one time, sometimes two times, or even more times (when I swap the wrong pieces). Then turning the corners with yellow up, using Sune (R U R' U R U2 R') normally 2 or 3 times. And then the last 6 edges. In total only 2 algorithms used.

So the second day I went through some videos again, and did my first solve. It took long time, lots of mistakes and needs to go back and do earlier steps again. After I managed to do it once, I decided to do my first timed solve, just to see how slow it would be. 32 minutes! That time includes going back to the videos and my notes, since I had forgotten quite a few things. Next solve took "only" 21 minutes, still needing to use videos/notes. 3rd time I solved it all by myself, in 8 minutes. Tired after work earlier that day, I only did 2-3 solves after that, the fastest in a bit over 5 minutes.

3rd DAY (Friday):
My birthday. Didn't do any timed solves. Just a few lazy solves.

4th-5th DAY (Saturday-Sunday):
Had some sessions with timed solving during the weekend. Managed to get the time down to 2:05.

6th-7th DAY (Monday-Tuesday):
Just a few timed solves, not many, and no new best-time, but managed to get my best Ao5 down to sub 2:30 minutes.

I used quite some time to work out a system to quickly see which upper-corner pieces to swap around, using the Niklas algorithm. Until now I had used lots of time to make sure which corners to swap, as I moved the upper layer around in different positions and visually compared the colors to the colored blocks I had build in the lower two layers. The system I made for myself, which seems to work quite well, is as follows:

Find the Blue-Red corner (ignoring the yellow upper color), and then find the second Blue corner. Then one of these 3 situations occur:
  1. If the second Blue corner is neighbor CLOCKWISE to the Blue-Red corner, then check the corner after the second Blue corner (clockwise). If it has Orange in it, then all corners are positioned in correct order (YAY!). If it has Red in it, the two corners with Green in it have to be swapped.
  2. If the second Blue corner is neighbor ANTI-clockwise to the Blue-Red corner, then again check the corner after the second Blue corner (now anti-clockwise). If it has Orange it it, then a double swapping of corners is needed (NAY! Need to do Niklas twice!). If it has Red in it, it is only the two corners with Blue in it that have to be swapped.
  3. If the second Blue corner however is diagonal from the Blue-Red corner, then check the corner between them, going clockwise from the Blue-Red corner to the second Blue Corner. The in-between corner has either Red or Orange color in it, and that is the color of the two corner-pieces that have to be swapped.
The system might sound complicated, but it has already helped me a lot. Still using probably a second to find out, which will go faster after some more training I suppose, but still much better than the 10-15 seconds I easily could use before I made the system, and often I also swapped the wrong pieces before I had the system.

8th DAY (Wednesday/Today):
Until now I had only learned/used the 2 algorithms needed for beginner Roux; Niklas for positioning the upper corners, and Sune several times to turn the corners. There are actually 42 algorithms in the full Roux method, one for each possible combination of positioning the corners and how to turn the corners to yellow side up. I decided, when still using Niklas to swap the corners, I want to start with learning the 7 different algorithms to turn the corners when they already are in the correct position, so I don't have to use Sune several times in a row.

So this morning, I started with learned Anti-Sune (AS1) and the H1. Anti-Sune was even easier than Sune (U' is easier than U for me), and H1 was also not hard. I can see some of the other algorithms are quite longer, and I suppose everything gets exponentially harder when I have to remember and distinguish between many different algorithms, so I will not try to learn them too fast.

Then I did a few solves this afternoon, lots of mistakes in the solving, so I used between 2:30-6 minutes, still not beating my 2:05 minutes from a few days ago. But then, suddenly a PB 25 seconds faster in the 7th try, far from perfect, but 1:39.74 was just barely better than my first goal, and I've now beaten the 40-years younger version of myself! :)

I suppose my next goal should be 1 minute. I expect that will take some time, and every new 10-seconds (1:30 first, then 1:20, etc) will be a sub-goal in itself.

And of course, Ao5 is important too. Current PB for Ao5 is barely sub 2:30. I have made about 100 timed solves the first week, lets say 120 if I also count the solves I didn't time.
 
pønten said:
As I wrote in my introduction post about 3 weeks ago, I had ordered a cube (3x3x3). That was about 40 years after I last held a cube in my hands! I was told that the cube I ordered should take 2-4 days to be delivered, but I had to wait 20 days, and I only got it exactly one week ago.

I can only vaguely remember what might have been my best solving time back then when I was a kid, but I think it was somewhere between 1:40 and 1:50 (minutes). So obviously, my first goal would be to beat that.

Long story short: I reached my initial goal today with 1:39.74, clocked in just a few hours left of my first week with the cube. Method: Beginner Roux.

I might update this thread with new posts if/when I have something to say, but for the rest of this post I'm summing up the first week. Feel free to skip that rambling remainder of this post! :)

THE CUBE: Weilong WR M 2021 (3x3):
First thought: "Really, that small size?" I'm not sure if the standard size cube I had as a kid was bigger, or if it was just me who was smaller. I might look for a slightly bigger cube next time, having over average sized hands/fingers, but I guess I'm starting to get used to it.

Second thought: "What is this, a cube or a sort of rubber ball?" My cube 40 years ago, was stiff and rigid, but my new I could bend and twist in all directions. I have adjusted it, using both the screws and the spring adjustment, and it feels better now. It also helped a lot for the feeling of control with a few drops of lube (Traxxas).

So when getting used to both size and springy-ness, I was left with one problem: The yellow color is so light that I can't easily distinguish it from the white color unless under pretty strong light. At the start I had so many problems when trying to solve the cube, only to find out that some of what I believed to be white pieces at the bottom were actually yellow. Solving it with the light on my bedside was impossible. It might be my old eyes to blame for this, but I know that if I buy another cube later, I'm going to look for one with a strong yellow.

For now I made a modification. I didn't have any yellow stickers, but I had small round white stickers laying around. I have temporarily put the white stickers on the white cube pieces, which didn't really help a lot. But I also drew a tiny dot on the middle of each sticker. So now it is possible to solve the cube without mixing up yellow and white all the time, even in some normal dim light. I'm probably going to look for some yellow stickers later.

1st DAY (Wednesday 16th February):
I finally got the cube this evening, after 20 days of transportation and unknown stops. I felt a bit intimidated of the cube at first (small size, springy-ness, weak yellow color), and was not even able to solve the second block in a very long time (Roux method). So I skipped my plans to try to solve it that evening, and all I did was to take it apart, do some initial adjustments, and about an hour or so just doing "sexy moves", trying to get used to it. Not very "sexy", as the best I managed doing 60 "sexy moves" was 53 slow seconds.

2nd DAY (Thursday):
I had used the weeks waiting for my cube to arrive, to read up and watch videos on the Roux method. Lots of great help and instructions, but it was the 9 episodes teaching Beginner Roux by DeeDubb from 2014 on YouTube that really helped me the most. The beginner method uses Red in front, Yellow on top, always starting building Blue block, with the White-Blue edge first. Then Green block. Then placing the upper corners by doing Niklas (R U' L' U R' U' L U), normally one time, sometimes two times, or even more times (when I swap the wrong pieces). Then turning the corners with yellow up, using Sune (R U R' U R U2 R') normally 2 or 3 times. And then the last 6 edges. In total only 2 algorithms used.

So the second day I went through some videos again, and did my first solve. It took long time, lots of mistakes and needs to go back and do earlier steps again. After I managed to do it once, I decided to do my first timed solve, just to see how slow it would be. 32 minutes! That time includes going back to the videos and my notes, since I had forgotten quite a few things. Next solve took "only" 21 minutes, still needing to use videos/notes. 3rd time I solved it all by myself, in 8 minutes. Tired after work earlier that day, I only did 2-3 solves after that, the fastest in a bit over 5 minutes.

3rd DAY (Friday):
My birthday. Didn't do any timed solves. Just a few lazy solves.

4th-5th DAY (Saturday-Sunday):
Had some sessions with timed solving during the weekend. Managed to get the time down to 2:05.

6th-7th DAY (Monday-Tuesday):
Just a few timed solves, not many, and no new best-time, but managed to get my best Ao5 down to sub 2:30 minutes.

I used quite some time to work out a system to quickly see which upper-corner pieces to swap around, using the Niklas algorithm. Until now I had used lots of time to make sure which corners to swap, as I moved the upper layer around in different positions and visually compared the colors to the colored blocks I had build in the lower two layers. The system I made for myself, which seems to work quite well, is as follows:

Find the Blue-Red corner (ignoring the yellow upper color), and then find the second Blue corner. Then one of these 3 situations occur:
  1. If the second Blue corner is neighbor CLOCKWISE to the Blue-Red corner, then check the corner after the second Blue corner (clockwise). If it has Orange in it, then all corners are positioned in correct order (YAY!). If it has Red in it, the two corners with Green in it have to be swapped.
  2. If the second Blue corner is neighbor ANTI-clockwise to the Blue-Red corner, then again check the corner after the second Blue corner (now anti-clockwise). If it has Orange it it, then a double swapping of corners is needed (NAY! Need to do Niklas twice!). If it has Red in it, it is only the two corners with Blue in it that have to be swapped.
  3. If the second Blue corner however is diagonal from the Blue-Red corner, then check the corner between them, going clockwise from the Blue-Red corner to the second Blue Corner. The in-between corner has either Red or Orange color in it, and that is the color of the two corner-pieces that have to be swapped.
The system might sound complicated, but it has already helped me a lot. Still using probably a second to find out, which will go faster after some more training I suppose, but still much better than the 10-15 seconds I easily could use before I made the system, and often I also swapped the wrong pieces before I had the system.

8th DAY (Wednesday/Today):
Until now I had only learned/used the 2 algorithms needed for beginner Roux; Niklas for positioning the upper corners, and Sune several times to turn the corners. There are actually 42 algorithms in the full Roux method, one for each possible combination of positioning the corners and how to turn the corners to yellow side up. I decided, when still using Niklas to swap the corners, I want to start with learning the 7 different algorithms to turn the corners when they already are in the correct position, so I don't have to use Sune several times in a row.

So this morning, I started with learned Anti-Sune (AS1) and the H1. Anti-Sune was even easier than Sune (U' is easier than U for me), and H1 was also not hard. I can see some of the other algorithms are quite longer, and I suppose everything gets exponentially harder when I have to remember and distinguish between many different algorithms, so I will not try to learn them too fast.

Then I did a few solves this afternoon, lots of mistakes in the solving, so I used between 2:30-6 minutes, still not beating my 2:05 minutes from a few days ago. But then, suddenly a PB 25 seconds faster in the 7th try, far from perfect, but 1:39.74 was just barely better than my first goal, and I've now beaten the 40-years younger version of myself! :)

I suppose my next goal should be 1 minute. I expect that will take some time, and every new 10-seconds (1:30 first, then 1:20, etc) will be a sub-goal in itself.

And of course, Ao5 is important too. Current PB for Ao5 is barely sub 2:30. I have made about 100 timed solves the first week, lets say 120 if I also count the solves I didn't time.
Click to expand...
Congratulations! You are doing fine, Pønten.

I started only last April, when I was 75 and I had never solved the cube before then. I put dark mustard like yellow stickers on my cubes. I think it must be the cataract. 😅 I started with the Beginners CFOP method and then gave up when faced with all the algorithms of 4LLL, and switched to a simple Roux like method.

I managed to get occasional sub 1 min solves after 6 months, but then I had a left thumb injury and stopped for 3 months. Watch out and rest if there is swelling or pain. Don't push it, like I did, which made it worse. I'm fine now and starting again, going slowly with baby steps.
 
Welcome, and great introduction! I'm myself am considered an "older" Cuber with the age of 36. I'm using Roux mainly and main the WRM2021 MAGLEV. The cube is awesome for Roux die to light slice turns. I hope you'll enjoy your journey.

I also found out, that solving different puzzles makes me happier than just being quicker at 3x3 (which I still try to get faster of course), resulting in me having almost all WCA events already. Just waiting for 6x6 and 7x7.
 
Hi ,great work Pønten, that's excellent progression. I'm 40 years old and been cubing for 5 months, I have a WRM 2021 Maglev it's one of my favorite cubes. I have trouble seeing the difference between the yellow and white tiles in low light on all my cubes (I am mildly colorblind), white light opposed to warm yellow light helps a lot. I use a white LED lamp at my desk. Good to see some "older cubers" are around. Let's smash this so-called "Age Barrier". I'm using CFOP and avg 32 seconds with an @home PB of 23.37 Best of luck
 
Swamp347 said:
I’m not sure if the WR M 2021 has this, but some cubes have Black tiles that you can buy.
Click to expand...
That's a great idea! If nothing else, at least something to have in mind if buying another cube later. I think I read somewhere that it was normal with Black instead of White in Japan (?)
 
Dan the Beginner said:
Congratulations! You are doing fine, Pønten.

I started only last April, when I was 75 and I had never solved the cube before then. I put dark mustard like yellow stickers on my cubes. I think it must be the cataract. 😅 I started with the Beginners CFOP method and then gave up when faced with all the algorithms of 4LLL, and switched to a simple Roux like method.

I managed to get occasional sub 1 min solves after 6 months, but then I had a left thumb injury and stopped for 3 months. Watch out and rest if there is swelling or pain. Don't push it, like I did, which made it worse. I'm fine now and starting again, going slowly with baby steps.
Click to expand...
75 - that's amazing. I'm still just a young lad then 🙃

Dark mustard sounds like an excellent contrast to white indeed.

Yes, good advice taking it easy and be careful with injuries. Luckily part of the joy I have with cubing (as with many other activities) is to study it and finding out new things, which I can do when resting my fingers. After pain and injuries in my knees for several years each time I tried to take up running, I finally gave in and started practicing fast walking (race walk style) last year with good luck. It is especially important to listen to your body and adapt when it grows older. One of the reasons I like the cube, in addition to the fun by itself, is to keep my fingers, as well as my brain, in a better shape. But I see how overdoing the cubing can be bad for old fingers instead of good.

The best of luck with your 75 years old baby steps back into sub 1 min! ;)
 
Flowkap said:
Welcome, and great introduction! I'm myself am considered an "older" Cuber with the age of 36. I'm using Roux mainly and main the WRM2021 MAGLEV. The cube is awesome for Roux die to light slice turns. I hope you'll enjoy your journey.

I also found out, that solving different puzzles makes me happier than just being quicker at 3x3 (which I still try to get faster of course), resulting in me having almost all WCA events already. Just waiting for 6x6 and 7x7.
Click to expand...
After the reply from 75 years old Dan, I found out that I was just a young lad myself, so I wonder how we should categorize 36 then ;)

Maglev seems like something I like to try at some point. I considered it, but decided for a more "traditional" cube as my first. And yes, while I want to concentrate on the 3x3 at the moment, I do see myself trying other puzzles in the future, especially if/when my progress at 3x3 should slow down a lot.
 
Malakai81 said:
Hi ,great work Pønten, that's excellent progression. I'm 40 years old and been cubing for 5 months, I have a WRM 2021 Maglev it's one of my favorite cubes. I have trouble seeing the difference between the yellow and white tiles in low light on all my cubes (I am mildly colorblind), white light opposed to warm yellow light helps a lot. I use a white LED lamp at my desk. Good to see some "older cubers" are around. Let's smash this so-called "Age Barrier". I'm using CFOP and avg 32 seconds with an @home PB of 23.37 Best of luck
Click to expand...

"A man has no age!" (inspired from Game of Thrones: "A girl has no name!")
 
qwr said:
Black is an excellent color for contrast over yellow. Many square-1 solvers replace yellow with black because of how they show up together on top and bottom faces for recognition.
Click to expand...

Thanks to you and all others who mentioned "Black", I got a new idea. Earlier I had drawn a tiny black dot on a white sticker, and put the sticker on the white pieces, as I didn't want to draw directly on the pieces. But now you all made me take the idea further. I painted new stickers all black with a marker pen, and replaced the old markers, as shown in the pictures under. I think that will work even better, because even with the small dot, I sometimes chose yellow. I hope my brain now can think "Black" instead of "Tiny dot".

EDIT: Actually the small dot was even much tinier than in the picture. I had just enlarged the dots, when I decided to make it all black.

before.jpg
after.jpg
 
Hello, welcome! It's unfortunate that yellow/white are not easily distinguishable; it is a problem many people have voiced before. But I'm glad you found some solutions. Changing white to black is indeed a wonderful solution.
 
pønten said:
Thanks to you and all others who mentioned "Black", I got a new idea. Earlier I had drawn a tiny black dot on a white sticker, and put the sticker on the white pieces, as I didn't want to draw directly on the pieces. But now you all made me take the idea further. I painted new stickers all black with a marker pen, and replaced the old markers, as shown in the pictures under. I think that will work even better, because even with the small dot, I sometimes chose yellow. I hope my brain now can think "Black" instead of "Tiny dot".

EDIT: Actually the small dot was even much tinier than in the picture. I had just enlarged the dots, when I decided to make it all black.

View attachment 18725View attachment 18726
Click to expand...
IS THAT A WRM 2021???
 
Awesome intro, sounds like you're off to a great start! I'm currently in the " somewhat older" cuber category. I started cubing when I was around 16 years old, now at 33, I've been involved in this hobby for over half of my life. When I started, speed was my main focus, like so many others. However, over the past five or so years, speed has kind of left my cubing interests. I've gathered a collection of over 100 different puzzles and collecting and figuring out how to solve different puzzles has become my main interest. If you have interest in learning or figuring out some new unique puzzles in the future, I'd definitely suggest that you stick with the basic puzzles for a few years. Learn as much as you can about how they move and understanding what the algorithms you're performing are actually doing, not just the end result of them. Understanding the base puzzles of any set of puzzle variety can be a huge benefit in figuring out their more complicated siblings.

If you are interested in some unique puzzles and want to see things explained very well by a cuber that's been in the business for quite some time, I'd recommend you check out SuperAntonioVivaldi on YouTube. The man is a puzzle genius and has a great way of relating new puzzles back to one's that may have similar solve strategies. Not sure how old he is, but speed is not his main focus. He's been incredible in helping me build my puzzle strategy repertoire.

As far as the color issues go. Quite a few of the quality speed cubes are still offered in black plastic https://www.thecubicle.com/collections/3x3-speed-cubes/products/gan356-xs?variant=30834906169417 for example. With that setup you can choose your own sticker colors allowing you to customize the color contrasts to better fit your eyes. In fact, for quite some time, stickerless cubes weren't even allowed in WCA competitions.

Happy cubing!
 
unirox13 said:
Awesome intro, sounds like you're off to a great start! I'm currently in the " somewhat older" cuber category. I started cubing when I was around 16 years old, now at 33, I've been involved in this hobby for over half of my life. When I started, speed was my main focus, like so many others. However, over the past five or so years, speed has kind of left my cubing interests. I've gathered a collection of over 100 different puzzles and collecting and figuring out how to solve different puzzles has become my main interest. If you have interest in learning or figuring out some new unique puzzles in the future, I'd definitely suggest that you stick with the basic puzzles for a few years. Learn as much as you can about how they move and understanding what the algorithms you're performing are actually doing, not just the end result of them. Understanding the base puzzles of any set of puzzle variety can be a huge benefit in figuring out their more complicated siblings.

If you are interested in some unique puzzles and want to see things explained very well by a cuber that's been in the business for quite some time, I'd recommend you check out SuperAntonioVivaldi on YouTube. The man is a puzzle genius and has a great way of relating new puzzles back to one's that may have similar solve strategies. Not sure how old he is, but speed is not his main focus. He's been incredible in helping me build my puzzle strategy repertoire.

As far as the color issues go. Quite a few of the quality speed cubes are still offered in black plastic https://www.thecubicle.com/collections/3x3-speed-cubes/products/gan356-xs?variant=30834906169417 for example. With that setup you can choose your own sticker colors allowing you to customize the color contrasts to better fit your eyes. In fact, for quite some time, stickerless cubes weren't even allowed in WCA competitions.

Happy cubing!
Click to expand...
Thanks for tips and info! I would like to understand the algorithms, but I think that needs quite a bit of experience. Currently I've quite enough with single moves, and can't plan more than 2 or 3 moves before I start a solve. But when I'm learning a new algorithm, I do like to try it on a clean cube, so I can see exactly what has happened, not only the main pieces that I'm moving/turning, but also the other pieces (of course I don't remember that afterwards, yet). Also, the first evening when I got the cube, and I spent most of the evening only doing "sexy moves", it was mainly to get a feel for the cube, how fast I could move before I messed up, etc. But it was also kind of mesmerizing to follow the corner-pieces when I did those moves, and see how they moved back and forth between a few positions, while flipping color on their way.

Pling! SuperAntonioVivaldi is now on my sub-list.

When I bought this first cube, I had absolutely no experience to use in my decision. All I could do was to read reviews. Next time I should know a bit more what I'm looking for, however I do like VRM :)
 
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