Older cubers discussions

LOL.. true..

But you have to remember if a turn is even or odd. In OP you do not have to rememeber that, only if the total amount of turns is even/odd. Seems like a hassle for me... But I will try when I start doing BLD again.

You will see that you focus on it automatically. And it's easier to remember it if you use a letter pair in your memo. After all number of turns is important only when you do targets on M-slice. In other cases it doesnt matter.
 
Marcel, you really don't have to, just memorize in pairs and memorize the other one if you are in the later part of the pair (DB by UF or BD by FU) it's really easy to get used to. Always leave the execution phase as simple as you can. IMHO it is easier than OP edges
 
UKC is getting close and there will be a few of the oldies in attendance!

  • Ben Coppin (bubbagrub)
  • Guy Plowman
  • Mark Adams (newtonbase)
  • Mark Rivers (mark49152)
  • Michael George (Logiqx)
  • Richard Leiser (RicardoRix)
  • ? (SenorJuan)
I've been cubing a lot less these past few weeks due to imminent job change + house purchase. It's not the preparation that I had in mind for UKC but they're more important than my comp times!

I might only do the Sunday so that I have less things to practice, focusing on my main events and going windsurfing on Saturday.

It'll be nice to meet a few more people from this thread. :)
 
I'm looking forward to it even though preparation has been poor. I'll be there all day Saturday and Sunday but I don't have permission to stay over. I may change my profile pic so I can be recognised though there's no mistaking I'm an older cuber.
 
You really shouldn't be showing us something this good days before a competition. I have a strict rule not to learn anything new this close and you've made me break it!
OK - I have some more but will hold them back until next week ;). I spent several hours trawling every M2 thread and resource I could find, and working through various lists of edge comms looking for ones that integrate well with M2, and created a list of selected M2 extensions that in my opinion are the best in terms of turn/time savings and ease of learning/using. When I get time I will write it up and post it.

Marcel, you really don't have to, just memorize in pairs and memorize the other one if you are in the later part of the pair (DB by UF or BD by FU) it's really easy to get used to. Always leave the execution phase as simple as you can. IMHO it is easier than OP edges
Raul is spot on. It is much easier to account for odd/even during memo, when you are thinking about and counting letters anyway. For example, suppose you have a letter sequence AB CD (using Speffz). C is the UF sticker, on the M slice, but it's first in a pair so memo it as C. Now suppose the last two targets are swapped. C would now be second in a pair, so you swap it during memo with W. You would memo AB DW instead.

This is important for two reasons. First, as Raul said, you simplify execution because for each letter you always execute exactly the same thing. Whether C is first or second in a pair, you always execute U2 M' U2 M'. You can forget about odd and even during execution. Think about it like programming. During memo you are constructing a sequence of instructions that you are going to blindly follow later without thinking, just like a dumb CPU.

The second reason is transition to comms and other advanced tricks. Comms is simply about executing two letters at once. You memo exactly the same sequence of letters, the only difference is in execution. That's why I like M2 - because you have lots of flexibility over which letters you do two at once, and you can always fall back on one-at-a-time basic M2 for the rest. If you swap M2 letters during memo it makes your choice of comms independent of odd/even position. For example, the trick I posted earlier is a comm for SL. I can use that both in the sequence AB SL, and also AS LB. It doesn't matter whether or not it spans a pair.

I may change my profile pic so I can be recognised
Look for the table where the grey-haired people are cubing. The other tables are parents :)
 
I am hearing nothing but excuses... LOL, that's not the spirit of cubing...

Hehe. I still feel faster than I was before my first comp but I wanted to practice hard for this one. A sub-18 average would be nice but I'll settle for sub-19. ;)

Look for the table where the grey-haired people are cubing. The other tables are parents :)

LOL. Good tip...

Edit: 72 people make the second round of 3x3. Psych sheet shows the top 72 have achieved sub-19 averages.
 
I was embarrassed by my OH performance at my last comp. I guess you have to keep practicing to stay sharp, let alone improve.
This is a pretty good average for me. I got lucky with some easy crosses. My PLL is still pretty bad.
New mini Weilong feels really nice after breaking in.
Probably should've stuck with the old angle, both are pretty bad...
 
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I'm amazed by how many have entered the UK Champs OH contest . No doubt many will be 2 minute solvers, just doing the event because they know how to do it two-handed. But there's plenty of sub-40 second solvers registered, and that shows that you must've practiced a decent amount.
On this topic, I was looking at the solve reconstruction database of Mr.Brest yesterday, there's surprisingly few OH solves on there.

Regarding the 'table full of grey-haired folk', you need to extend that to 'shiny-headed' folk....though I may wear a hat.
I wonder if the 2035 champs will have loads of mobility scooters parked outside....
 
I've registered for a comp for 2 weeks. There will be only FMC, OH, 3bld and 3x3. In OH there's a limit of 40 seconds. I've started to practice. I'm sub 50 at the moment.
 
I was embarrassed by my OH performance at my last comp. I guess you have to keep practicing to stay sharp, let alone improve.
This is a pretty good average for me. I got lucky with some easy crosses. My PLL is still pretty bad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXqp2Ssc5-M
New mini Weilong feels really nice after breaking in.
Probably should've stuck with the old angle, both are pretty bad...

Nothing to be embarrased about. Your OH is pretty decent. Much better than mine for sure. I have yet to get a sub-30 single :( but my OLL is almost always 2L because I have amnesia for most of my 2H 1L OLLs.
 
I was embarrassed by my OH performance at my last comp. I guess you have to keep practicing to stay sharp, let alone improve.
This is a pretty good average for me. I got lucky with some easy crosses. My PLL is still pretty bad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXqp2Ssc5-M
New mini Weilong feels really nice after breaking in.
Probably should've stuck with the old angle, both are pretty bad...

Nice video. I like the smoothness of your turning.

I want to change my turning style for U turns as I push rather than flick. I'm not going to do anything to my style prior to the competition though. ;)

Thanks for the reminder about staying sharp. I will try to do some OH every day leading up to the comp...
 
I am hearing nothing but excuses... LOL, that's not the spirit of cubing...

I reserve the right to make as many excuses as I feel like. They shield me from the reality of my inability to solve quickly.

Today's excuse - 3 hours broken sleep last night due to jet lag.

In other news. I had ordered a black Yuxin 4x4 but when my stickerless 5x5 turned out to be amazing I ordered the stickerless 4x4 too. I got both 4x4s today and they are rubbish. Outer layers are too floppy and inners are too tight. Luckily my new Aosu stickers arrived so I can use that at the weekend as long as I can find a competent person to put them on for me. I may pay for some child labour on Saturday.
 
Edit: 72 people make the second round of 3x3. Psych sheet shows the top 72 have achieved sub-19 averages.
Yeah because of the size of the comp, 72 is only 37% of those currently registered for first round. That's way smaller than the 75% at my last three comps. I don't expect to be top 37%.

197 registered is a huge comp. Last year's UK Champs was only 77! UK cubing is taking off!

Regarding goals, I haven't practised anything other than blind. Haven't even touched a 2x2 or 4x4 since last comp. Reason is that I'm happy with my results and they're fairly representative of my progress, allowing a margin for comp nerves. Based on my recent slow progress, no amount of practice in the month between comps is going to produce enough improvement for me to feel I should get better results. Maybe when I'm sub-17 at home I'll start feeling like I should fix my 19.89 comp average :).

In blind, my goals are successes and PBs :D
 
I was embarrassed by my OH performance at my last comp. I guess you have to keep practicing to stay sharp, let alone improve.
This is a pretty good average for me. I got lucky with some easy crosses. My PLL is still pretty bad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXqp2Ssc5-M
New mini Weilong feels really nice after breaking in.
Probably should've stuck with the old angle, both are pretty bad...
Great. it looks so easy.

patataj patataj patataj
 
I realize this has probably been discussed a lot on here, so sorry for repeating. I'm sure you all understand since us old folks can't remember much (except a few hundred cube algs).

What do you recommend for first learning 2x2? I prefer to learn something I can get good with. Like I think it's pointless to learn beginner 3x3 because CFOP seems easy enough IMO. So with that in mind?

Also while I'm at it how about 4x4? I've done that a time or two but never for speed.

Just really looking for brief suggestions to look into, so you don't overwhelm my simple mind. ;)
 
What do you recommend for first learning 2x2? I prefer to learn something I can get good with. Like I think it's pointless to learn beginner 3x3 because CFOP seems easy enough IMO. So with that in mind?

Go with Ortega. It's relatively easy because you can reuse a lot of CFOP algs and you can get really fast with it.

Also while I'm at it how about 4x4? I've done that a time or two but never for speed.

Just go for Yau and 3-2-3. It's not really any harder than reduction, it just orders the steps a bit differently.
 
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