Older cubers discussions

[Dan the Beginner]

I'm not quite half your age, but twice the age of many cubers on here. I've also developed a light turning style to try to save my fingers. I love the Guhong Pro, but mine is maglev so slightly heavier than yours. My 4x4 tires my fingers pretty quickly, in part due to the jarring feel of the middle layer magnets, and the new Tornado v4 Pioneer has similar magnets on a 3x3 so definitely don't go for that one. My other favorite puzzles are my Gan 562 and my Dayan Pro megaminx, so perhaps a Gan 3x3 could work for you.

I have a couple of non-hardware ideas. For competitions, I take a few seconds before starting inspection to close my eyes, calm my breathing, and try to relax and loosen any tension. It helps me keep that light touch in spite of nerves/excitement. During practice, making sure I use plenty of inspection time is usually enough. I've had sessions where I skimp on inspection time and found my turning getting harsher. My other suggestion would be untimed solves where you go for efficient or creative solutions (maybe count your moves if you want to track some kind of statistic).

Thank you so much. All very nice ideas and information.

I love the Guhong Pro Maglev out of all my cubes. Their concentric magnet design seems to have minimised the quirks in normal Maglev behaviour. It actually is more stable and better controlled than the spring version, contrary to what's the case with all the other maglev cubes. The extra few grams are definitely worth it and I still use it. In the context of finger injury/stress, learning to use the loose spring version is still a good solution.

The idea of going for efficient solve is appreciated. I am doing more slow solves to better understand how the cube moves, trying to use the brain more than getting the highest TPS.

 

[xyzzy]

My 4x4 tires my fingers pretty quickly, in part due to the jarring feel of the middle layer magnets

Highly recommend the Aosu v7 triple track to fix this. It uses wing-midge magnets instead of wing-wing magnets, and (mostly) avoids the repulsion problem.

Meanwhile, the TV4 Pioneer indeed has repelling magnets for some godforsaken reason, but imo they feel subtle compared to the repulsion in 4x4 inner layer magnets.

 

[Dan the Beginner]

For anyone interested, here are what I found about the QiYi XT3, and some comparisons with the Guhong spring version. This XT3 is suitable as a lightweight cube to avoid too much stress in the fingers. It is 65g, lighter than the lightest Guhong Pro M. It can also be adjusted in its axis distance as well as the elasticity, another advantage. The build quality is better, with no marks on the surface of the pieces. The magnet strength cannot be adjusted, like in the Guhong, but it's weaker or barely adequate IMO. In turning, it feels a bit like a Gan, very hollow. It is more controllable than the Guhong (very loose). You have to push it further when turning. The Guhong needs less effort to turn, easier to flick. The XT3 should improve after breaking in. The Guhong has a shiny surface, which I like better, better than even UV (slippery in very dry hands and making you want to grip the cube harder, stressing the fingers holding it). So, it depends on your preferences which one is better as a lightweight cube. Both are very nice, and are bargains, but different.

Question, has anyone tried using car rubbing compound to speed up the break-in and has advice?

 

[Puzzle Maniac]

Not an older cuber but just did an 8:05.50 4x4 TeamBLD with Double Parity, with my mum.
She also recently got a 3:34.61 PB 4x4 single.

 

[cpss]

I do exactly the same: my audio has 4-4-4 rhythm. When I miss 1 or 2, looking for solved/flipped pieces to confirm.

Hello there !
By 4 - 4 - 4 rhythm you mean memo 12 letters.? With or without vowels?
Can you explain?
I do audio in letter pairs for edges, but as a portuguese native it is a bit hard.
Thanks !

 

[abunickabhi]

Hello there !
By 4 - 4 - 4 rhythm you mean memo 12 letters.? With or without vowels?
Can you explain?
I do audio in letter pairs for edges, but as a portuguese native it is a bit hard.
Thanks !

Hi I have already answered your same query on the Blindsolving category.

 

[Fred]

Phil Lewis just made a page for senior kinch ranks. @Mike Hughey is a big star here, ranking 5th in 40+, 1st in 50+, and an overwhelming 1st in 60+ with an incredible kinch score of 93.60. @MatsBergsten is 4th in 60+ and a 1st by a lot in 70+.

 

[Mike Hughey]

Wow, thanks for making me aware of that, and lots of thanks to Phil for making that page!!!!!

 

[pglewis]

Wow, thanks for making me aware of that, and lots of thanks to Phil for making that page!!!!!

I just now realized I don't think you're on the Senior Cubers Worldwide FB group?

I probably should have posted the link here as well but so much of the traffic has moved to the FB group that I didn't even think of it. I've put together a couple of small tools to provide extra insight into the senior rankings data. Besides the Senior Kinch Ranks there is also a recent records page to quickly find recent top senior results. I'm also vaguely planning some sort of "Personal Overview" page, where you can view your event rankings on one page. https://pglewis.github.io/wca-recent-senior-records/

I'm using official WCA results from known senior competitors, thanks to the data collected and maintained by Michael George for the Senior Rankings: https://wca-seniors.org/ The Senior Kinch Ranks would be impossible without all of Michael's continued work.

 

[Mike Hughey]

I am sorry; I have intentionally avoided Facebook (in general - not because of your group specifically!); I hope you understand.

Thank you, Phil, and thanks also to Michael, for all your work!!

 

[pglewis]

I am sorry; I have intentionally avoided Facebook (in general - not because of your group specifically!); I hope you understand.

Thank you, Phil, and thanks also to Michael, for all your work!!

I understand completely!

The seniors group has grown so much and is really active right now, I'm showing 85 top ten results from the past 30 days (WR, by age category). It's so good to see your complete and utter dominance of the 60+ rankings get the recognition it deserves!

 

[pglewis]

@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.

Serious necroposting here, but this has been an ongoing common request especially with the growth and activity of the Over 40 group these days. I'm in the process of mocking up what a Senior Profile page would look like, my first quick draft is something like:

- Name, country, and flag

- 40+ event rankings: 40+ kinch ranking
---- Event single: PR result, WR, CR, NR
---- Event avg: PR result, WR, CR, NR, event kinch scores

- 50+ event rankings: 50+ kinch ranking
---- 50+ events

I figured I would throw the general idea out there for feedback before burning any calories making a visual mockup.

Keep in mind that the senior rankings only tracks the latest individual PR by age category, no result history, so we can't fully replicate the offical WCA profile.

And of course, the usual shout-out that the only reason we can even consider this new page is because of the work @Logiqx has done creating and maintaining the senior rankings data.

 

[pglewis]

Here's my first swing at mocking up the Senior Profile page. I intend to cross-link anything and everything that makes sense, like overall Kinch scores linking to the relevant ranking list (and the correct page to show the competitor's position). Obviously this is just placeholder data and I haven't hooked it up in a real implementation yet, so I am sure there are a few things I haven't fully considered.

Width is going to be an issue since I don't really want to drop any columns for narrow width devices. I don't know if there's any way to get around using a horizontally scrolling table for narrow phone widths. The offical WCA profile does this so I guess it wouldn't be so bad.

Feedback is welcome, designing layouts is not my forte.

 

[Constant Cuber]

View attachment 40836

Thanks pglewis, this looks great! My only recommendation would be to open this new window with the competitors current active age. For example if the competitor is 50+ then open that tab first.

 

[pglewis]

Thanks pglewis, this looks great! My only recommendation would be to open this new window with the competitors current active age. For example if the competitor is 50+ then open that tab first.

I never would have thought of it but I got an identical request from the FB group. It's on my bullet list.

Also, the overall Kinch rankings would also be up top with the overall scores. That was just an oversight, the ranking is of far more interest than the score but we have enough room to show both.

 

[efattah]

I'm 50 and got a 12.56 Ao5 (corners first) a few days ago. Still haven't been to a comp but based on the 50+ rankings looks like I should try to!

 

[MatsBergsten]

I never would have thought of it but I got an identical request from the FB group. It's on my bullet list.

Also, the overall Kinch rankings would also be up top with the overall scores. That was just an oversight, the ranking is of far more interest than the score but we have enough room to show both.

I like your work much .
But I wonder why my kinch score for 3-4-5 blind (60+) seems to be based on averages and not single results?!

(and I share Mikes reservation against facebook in general)

 

[pglewis]

I like your work much .
But I wonder why my kinch score for 3-4-5 blind (60+) seems to be based on averages and not single results?!

(and I share Mikes reservation against facebook in general)

I will expand the FAQ section to cover this but event scores use average for all events except blindfold and fmc. Those events use whichever result gives you a higher score.

In this specific case it's entirely arbitrary because you own both single and avg WR60 for 3-4-5 blind, whichever is chosen nets you 100

The original thread has more information and reasoning on the scoring:

Thread 'All-Round Rankings (KinchRanks)'

May 25, 2015

I devised KinchRanks in May 2015 as a new system to rank all-round ability. Read all about it in the post below, or go to the website where I'm hosting the info and rankings,

https://wca.cuber.pro/kinch/persons

Homepage content:

Spoiler: Calculation

1. For each event, you get a score of WR/PB x 100 (this will be in the range 0-100)
2. The average across your 18 scores is the final KinchRank score.

The "events" used are:
Averages for 3x3x3, 4x4x4, 5x5x5, 2x2x2, OH, Feet, Megaminx, Pyraminx, Square-1, Clock, Skewb, 6x6x6, 7x7x7.
Singles for 4bld, 5bld, Multibld
Averages or Singles for 3bld and FM...

• kinch2002
• Replies: 100
• Forum: General Speedcubing Discussion

• 

 

[MatsBergsten]

I will expand the FAQ section to cover this but event scores use average for all events except blindfold and fmc. Those events use whichever result gives you a higher score.

In this specific case it's entirely arbitrary because you own both single and avg WR60 for 3-4-5 blind, whichever is chosen nets you 100

The original thread has more information and reasoning on the scoring:

Thread 'All-Round Rankings (KinchRanks)'

May 25, 2015

I devised KinchRanks in May 2015 as a new system to rank all-round ability. Read all about it in the post below, or go to the website where I'm hosting the info and rankings,

https://wca.cuber.pro/kinch/persons

Homepage content:

Spoiler: Calculation

1. For each event, you get a score of WR/PB x 100 (this will be in the range 0-100)
2. The average across your 18 scores is the final KinchRank score.

The "events" used are:
Averages for 3x3x3, 4x4x4, 5x5x5, 2x2x2, OH, Feet, Megaminx, Pyraminx, Square-1, Clock, Skewb, 6x6x6, 7x7x7.
Singles for 4bld, 5bld, Multibld
Averages or Singles for 3bld and FM...

• kinch2002
• Replies: 100
• Forum: General Speedcubing Discussion

• 

I think that is very reasonable thinking for FMC where the preferred way of competing is mean of three.
But (as far as I know) in blind we never compete in mean of three, it is best of three (or best of two). So if
there are two different persons who hold the WR in 5-bld best of 3 and 5-bld average, then both of them get 100 points in 5-bld?

Is this the way both for the "normal" kinch score (I find only the kinch scores and not the "rules" for it in the link above)
and your older cubers kinch scores?

(ok, now i found the "spoiler" button , I'll read that)

 

[MatsBergsten]

Again: I do really like this, to be able to compare myself to other 60- or 70-years old persons.
And I do not think you should alter this if you don't want to.

Still: it says: singles for 4-bld, 5-bld and multi.
single or avg for 3-bld and FMC.

Maybe the exception for 3-bld is reasonable (for FMC, definitely as you may compete in both).

Still, I for one could want an exception for 6x6 and 7x7, I do not think I will ever be to a competition
where I am allowed to do more than one 7x7 solve.