Older cubers discussions

[dirkgroot]

Hi all, another Dutch "old" guy here . I'm Dirk, and I'm 44 years old. More than 30 years ago, I taught myself to solve the cube using something similar to the beginner method, with the help of a book (the internet was still in its infancy back then). I'm sure my parents still have that book somewhere in their bookcase. A couple of weeks ago I found out about CFOP, bought a GAN speedcube, and started learning that.

Now, I average about 1:10 with a PB of 45.68. My current goal is to be able to consistently solve the cube in under 1 minute.

 

[Garf]

Hi all, another Dutch "old" guy here . I'm Dirk, and I'm 44 years old. More than 30 years ago, I taught myself to solve the cube using something similar to the beginner method, with the help of a book (the internet was still in its infancy back then). I'm sure my parents still have that book somewhere in their bookcase. A couple of weeks ago I found out about CFOP, bought a GAN speedcube, and started learning that.

Now, I average about 1:10 with a PB of 45.68. My current goal is to be able to consistently solve the cube in under 1 minute.

Welcome! Try focusing on fingertricks, intuitive F2L fluency, and good habits for solving F2L. Also make sure not to learn Full Oll or Pll yet, as that might overwhelm you. It sure did for me!

 

[Squamashii]

Nice. I recently taught myself F2L intuitively, but I am really slow. Solving a cube where I start with F2L, I average about 2 minutes. With a record of 1:17.94 I am still faster at one of my other methods. I broke a minute this week with it (51.15)! (I’m 32)

 

[dirkgroot]

Welcome! Try focusing on fingertricks, intuitive F2L fluency, and good habits for solving F2L. Also make sure not to learn Full Oll or Pll yet, as that might overwhelm you. It sure did for me!

I'm roughly following the steps from this thread. I'm at step 2 now, so I'm doing 4LLL, but I've also already put some effort in learning intuitive F2L (I still need a lot of practice to get fast with it).

What good F2L habits are you thinking of? My current habits:

• Keep cross at the bottom;
• Minimize kube rotations, so don't rotate the cube in order to be able to solve a pair in the right front corner, but solve pairs in other corners as well if possible;
• "Standardize your solve" as per BadMephisto's advice, so I always start F2L with the green side in front;

 

[Imsoosm]

so I always start F2L with the green side in front;

It's actually not always good to do this, for example, you have a free pair in the back, but if you started from green at front, you need to do a rotation and then insert it. Just look for a good first pair and then starting from there.

 

[Garf]

I'm roughly following the steps from this thread. I'm at step 2 now, so I'm doing 4LLL, but I've also already put some effort in learning intuitive F2L (I still need a lot of practice to get fast with it).

What good F2L habits are you thinking of? My current habits:

• Keep cross at the bottom;
• Minimize kube rotations, so don't rotate the cube in order to be able to solve a pair in the right front corner, but solve pairs in other corners as well if possible;
• "Standardize your solve" as per BadMephisto's advice, so I always start F2L with the green side in front;

Yeah, when you do this, it's called a "set color order" Basically, you force yourself to choose one side and start from there. There are situations where this may be useful, but you don't want to do this for 3x3. You need to be able to solve from any side.

 

[SenorJuan]

I personally think that sticking to a fixed starting-face colour is the best option for us oldies. The tiny ( one or two moves ) reduction in solution length resulting from 'colour neutral' solving is just not worth it. Learning an advanced method like CFOP is challenging enough, without having to learn it 6 times. Putting effort into improving the 'F2L' stage can easily reduce movecount by 5 moves.

But starting the 'F2L' stage with a consistent colour on front is not beneficial, even if the intention is to simplify the learning process, and expand the skillset later.
Knowing how to solve to at least 2 of the 4 slots should be a standard part of your repertoire. Just about all algorithms/move-sequences can be 'rotated' , so for example the Back-Left slot can be solved instead of the Front-Right slot.

 

[Ander]

Personally, the hardest challenge I face is finding the pieces I need to pair up in the F2L phase.
What I lack is cube situational awareness, so to speak: I have to do plenty of rotations and that wastes a lot of time.
Algs I can learn, and with time I can do them moderately fast, or at least fast enough for now.
I am trying to improve it by solving slow to force myself to see during the solve, but so far results are not great.
I will just keep at it

 

[UncleFrank]

Hi all, another Dutch "old" guy here . I'm Dirk, and I'm 44 years old. More than 30 years ago, I taught myself to solve the cube using something similar to the beginner method, with the help of a book (the internet was still in its infancy back then). I'm sure my parents still have that book somewhere in their bookcase. A couple of weeks ago I found out about CFOP, bought a GAN speedcube, and started learning that.

Now, I average about 1:10 with a PB of 45.68. My current goal is to be able to consistently solve the cube in under 1 minute.

Welcome to the crowd.
Keep up with how other seniors 40+ are doing in competitions -

Senior Rankings

Senior Rankings

logiqx.github.io

Senior Rankings

Senior Rankings

logiqx.github.io

and if you've ever been to a competition, sign up on that site, too.

 

[dirkgroot]

Yeah, when you do this, it's called a "set color order" Basically, you force yourself to choose one side and start from there. There are situations where this may be useful, but you don't want to do this for 3x3. You need to be able to solve from any side.

Interestingly, always starting with green in the front has helped me internalizing how the green, red, blue and orange faces are positioned relative to each other. The last few days, I found myself breaking the "always start with green in front" habit without thinking about it and intuitively knowing in which corner a pair needed to go relative to the color in front (although I also screw up some times).

Just to clarify: I am/was just starting out with green in the front. When I do a cube rotation, I don't revert to green in the front afterwards, and try to solve the rest of the pairs without cube rotations, until I can't, or don't know how to.

Personally, the hardest challenge I face is finding the pieces I need to pair up in the F2L phase.
What I lack is cube situational awareness, so to speak: I have to do plenty of rotations and that wastes a lot of time.
Algs I can learn, and with time I can do them moderately fast, or at least fast enough for now.
I am trying to improve it by solving slow to force myself to see during the solve, but so far results are not great.
I will just keep at it

I found that just tilting the cube a little bit can reveal just the information you need, especially when one or more pairs are solved. When I see a red sticker on the back of the R side, while I know the red/green side has already been solved, I can be sure that that's a red/blue cubie.

I personally think that sticking to a fixed starting-face colour is the best option for us oldies. The tiny ( one or two moves ) reduction in solution length resulting from 'colour neutral' solving is just not worth it. Learning an advanced method like CFOP is challenging enough, without having to learn it 6 times. Putting effort into improving the 'F2L' stage can easily reduce movecount by 5 moves.

Interesting. I guess that would make it a little bit easier to find the first F2L pair to be solved, because you're looking for specific color combinations. Currently, I just look for pairs and start to solve the first one I find, regardless of how easy or hard it is to solve.

 

[Imsoosm]

I found that just tilting the cube a little bit can reveal just the information you need

This is a very good idea, some top cubers do this as well. Also memorizing color schemes is important, know that (from left to right) blue is followed by red, which is followed by green, then orange. Memorizing that helps a lot during F2L.

 

[Logiqx]

Hi.
I sent the registration a month and a half ago and I still haven't added. Should I do something more?

Regards

I've never been that slow to add people. What is your WCA ID?

 

[Cuberto333]

Hi all, another Dutch "old" guy here . I'm Dirk, and I'm 44 years old. More than 30 years ago, I taught myself to solve the cube using something similar to the beginner method, with the help of a book (the internet was still in its infancy back then). I'm sure my parents still have that book somewhere in their bookcase. A couple of weeks ago I found out about CFOP, bought a GAN speedcube, and started learning that.

Now, I average about 1:10 with a PB of 45.68. My current goal is to be able to consistently solve the cube in under 1 minute.

Ha! I'm older than all of you, lol! But seriously, I can't get sub 60. Started cubing last july. I'm 61, btw.

 

[UncleFrank]

@Logiqx
Suggestion for the Senior Rankings site:
Give all the seniors their own senior profile page on the Senior Rankings site, similar to a wca profile page but showing only their senior records and senior results. Then when you click on a name in the senior rankings list, it goes to their senior profile page instead of their wca profile page. Then add a link to their wca profile from their senior profile.

 

[Lyzardmaster]

A total newbie, a 63 year old senior newbie here.
I got my first Rubic's cube back in 1982, played with it for a week and lost interest.
After almost 40 years in 2020, Rubic's cube got my attention again, for what reason I don't know, and bought another one (Rubic's v2) for the hell of it.
In August of 2021, I started trying to learn CFOP from J-perm on youtube.
I wonder if cubing could save me from blurring.....

 

[LBr]

It just occurred to me that in less than 3 years tingman will be old enough to make the list and from what I can see he will do quite well. However over the coming decades we will have former wr holders joining and it will get infinitely harder to perform. It’s interesting to think that, as cubing matures so will the competitor base at least to some degree

 

[OldSwiss]

With 46 'im far away from the oldest here but still much older than most cubers.

I've started half a year ago and in the moment I average around 30 seconds for 3x3, 10 Seconds for 2x2 with Ortega, 2 Minutes for 4x4 and 5 Minutes for 5x5.
My best singles until now were a couple of 20:xx and 21:xx with my smartcube.

I've never been to a competition but as soon there is one in my area I will try it.

My biggest problem is to find the F2L pieces and I guess that's also the biggest potential for imprevements.
In the cubeast app I can see the solving times vs. recocnition times and sometimes there is more recognition time than the solve itself.
Probably that is also a sign of age

Currently I'm trying to learn one handed. Here I also think my fingers would be more flexible and quite faster if I were younger.
My main problem there is to get back the Algs from muscle memory to my brain but I think thats not fully age related.


One advantage of being an older cuber is that I can afford all the hardware I want and don't have to ask my parents

Also with way to many cubes, cubing is the cheapest hobby I've ever had.
I also do triathlon and there you pay thousands of bucks for bikes, running shoes and the competition fees can go up to 1000.- for an Ironman start.

 

[One Wheel]

Also with way to many cubes, cubing is the cheapest hobby I've ever had.
I also do triathlon and there you pay thousands of bucks for bikes, running shoes and the competition fees can go up to 1000.- for an Ironman start.

It is funny how scale works like that. I would never pay more than $50 for a 3x3, or just about any puzzle. I think in close to 10 years I might have spent $1,000 on cubing. I have almost $1,200 set aside right now to buy a new bike, and need to save up another $1,700 just to get the frameset I want and another $2,000ish for wheels and groupset. $100 for a race entry fee last month was an easy decision. I'm glad cubing is relatively cheap, and I hope it stays that way.

 

[Dutch Speed]

Another dutch older guy here. 47 and still rocking. Started only 1.5 month ago with cubing and I love it and the community is amazing till now

 

[OtterCuber]

Another dutch older guy here. 47 and still rocking. Started only 1.5 month ago with cubing and I love it and the community is amazing till now

Welcome. Join some Discord channels so you enjoy the community more.