Older cubers discussions

Using Hoya, you can start with any pair of opposite centres not including your cross colour, which gives a choice of four, usually offering an easy start.

It's funny how much resistance there is in this thread to getting modern :). The rest of the speedcubing world is on Yau or Hoya, at least the vast majority, and there are good reasons for that. Not that those centres guides are bad; they are nicely written and interesting to read, but they date back to the days when the world record was over a minute :).
 
mark49152 said:
Using Hoya, you can start with any pair of opposite centres not including your cross colour, which gives a choice of four, usually offering an easy start.

It's funny how much resistance there is in this thread to getting modern :). The rest of the speedcubing world is on Yau or Hoya, at least the vast majority, and there are good reasons for that. Not that those centres guides are bad; they are nicely written and interesting to read, but they date back to the days when the world record was over a minute :).
Click to expand...

I use also Hoya (and average 1.45). I do know a few very fast cubers who use reduction and are sub50. I also believe Ron van Bruchem uses reduction and his official avg is 50 secs. I also like the freedom to start with any centre other then top/bottom. It gives a lot of easy starts. I plan my first center in inspection wich takes mostly no more than 4 - 5 secs. Execution.. a whole different story.. I just can not turn as fast on a 4X4 as on a 3X3.
 
"Resistance to getting modern" is aimed at me, again, I guess. Senor Muchacho asked about help with centres, using reduction. I offered it. It's perfectly reasonable for him to spend a month trying different methods, getting a feel for the puzzle, making centres, making pairs 2 or 3 at a time, the 3x3 stage can be practiced independantly etc.
I'm offering my opinion because as a relative beginner on 4x4x4 myself, I'm using reduction (and I'm very close to getting my first sub 1:30 solve, just need to practice the starting, middle and end steps....). I've had a few tries at Yau4, I see where it's better, and where it's not. I also took a look at Hoya, this example solve by Mr.Ho made me shake my head in disbelief, he's obviously got a good cube to get that 3x3 stage speed.
http://cubesolv.es/solve/1771
 
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Well, if you had perfect lookahead, the methods would be Redux>Yau>Hoya in terms of efficiency but I find that lookahead for the edges set on redux is horrible so both Hoya and Yau are better there although yau F3E is nit as nice as hoya's though more efficient. So, in general, the more efficient you want to be, the harder your lookahead is so yau seems to be a happy medium.
 
Yes there are cubers using reduction today, and Meyer, K4, Sandwich and probably many other methods. I don't have any data to prove they are in a minority compared to Yau users, and I might be wrong; it's just my impression. Also it's only my impression that the advice from fast cubers to those learning 4x4 is almost always to look at Yau or Hoya. I haven't counted them either. Of course, someone can use whatever method they like, but given that there seems to be a wide consensus that Yau (and Hoya) are superior, advising someone to use reduction is kind of like advising someone to use Petrus on 3x3. Yeah you can give that advice if you believe it, but it's contentious advice that is fair game for being challenged, and I don't mean any offence by doing that, it's only part of the fun. Of course if it was expert advice from someone sub-40 with reduction I wouldn't be so tempted to call it out :)

Back on the topic of centres, I guess for Meyer you could use Yau half centres, since the solving order is the same and preserving the 1x3x4 block is pretty much the same as preserving the Yau cross. I have never tried Meyer though.
 
It would be illuminating if people's WCA profiles contained a competitor-supplied summary of their methods.
 
Came here to cry as I don't think anybody will care in any of the other threads.

Suffering the worst crisis in my two years of speedcubing. This is not just a pleateau, this is a full-fledged push back. Either in the Weekly Competition, in the Race to sub-20, in my own sessions... I am like at 21 sec average again, instead of 19.

Trying to go slow over F2L to improve lookahead but, for now, the only thing I get going slow is... slower solves. Best thing lately is some high 15.xx here and there, even 16.xx are scarce. 13.xx and 14.xx are nowhere to be seen since early November.

A word of compassion, a piece of advice (like "forget about cubing and go back to chess") or even an acid remark would be greatly appreciated :(
 
mafergut said:
Came here to cry as I don't think anybody will care in any of the other threads.

Suffering the worst crisis in my two years of speedcubing. This is not just a pleateau, this is a full-fledged push back. Either in the Weekly Competition, in the Race to sub-20, in my own sessions... I am like at 21 sec average again, instead of 19.

Trying to go slow over F2L to improve lookahead but, for now, the only thing I get going slow is... slower solves. Best thing lately is some high 15.xx here and there, even 16.xx are scarce. 13.xx and 14.xx are nowhere to be seen since early November.

A word of compassion, a piece of advice (like "forget about cubing and go back to chess") or even an acid remark would be greatly appreciated :(
Click to expand...
Are you practicing enough? I've had bumps like that since I've been cubing even though I am practicing a lot, but thankfully the slumps have not stayed too long yet.
 
SenorJuan said:
You could join the "race to 25s" thread?

Or try eating some lecithin, or other chemicals with long names:
Click to expand...

Luckily I have not gone back that much that the race to 25s would be a challenge but give me a couple of weeks :) Regarding those chemicals I thought that dopping was forbidded at WCA :p

EvilGnome6 said:
Forget 3x3. It's a stupid event. Big cubes is where it's at. ;)
Click to expand...

That's what I always thought of 2x2, skewb and pyra, thay they were stupid events. At least at big cubes I have a lot of room for improvement, as I'm not even sub-2min at 4x4 and I have never timed a 5x5 solve, so my first one would immediately be a PB... of maybe 10 minutes or worse. I can also nationalize in Brunei and try to dispute some NRs to the only other guy that cubes there.

Jason Green said:
Are you practicing enough? I've had bumps like that since I've been cubing even though I am practicing a lot, but thankfully the slumps have not stayed too long yet.
Click to expand...

I have been focusing in upping my 2x2 game with some Ortega practice, some new PBLs, etc. but apart from that I have been practising less and less lately and also focusing on untimed solves trying to build my lookahead but it's clearly not working.
 
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mafergut said:
Came here to cry as I don't think anybody will care in any of the other threads.

Suffering the worst crisis in my two years of speedcubing. This is not just a pleateau, this is a full-fledged push back. Either in the Weekly Competition, in the Race to sub-20, in my own sessions... I am like at 21 sec average again, instead of 19.

Trying to go slow over F2L to improve lookahead but, for now, the only thing I get going slow is... slower solves. Best thing lately is some high 15.xx here and there, even 16.xx are scarce. 13.xx and 14.xx are nowhere to be seen since early November.

A word of compassion, a piece of advice (like "forget about cubing and go back to chess") or even an acid remark would be greatly appreciated :(
Click to expand...

:) Head up, it will pass. Take a break and start practicing something else - blindes or big cubes or pyraminx, skewb. Whatever.
 
Yeah, rotating between different events seems to always help. ^^

I had something similar as well. I was coming closer and closer to the 20sec in August/September and then went back to 24sec averages until November. By now I surpassed all my previous pbs and am on my way to sub20. Then again I almost focus entirely on 3x3 by now.

So I think the "focus on other events and come back" advice works because it exploits motivation fpr specific events and motivation is essential to get faster.
 
:) You welcome.

I've started bulding my alg list for bld events. But I think I will do it slowly - next step when I'm familiar with what I've created so far.
 
I'm also pro changing events if you seem to be stuck, other thing that works for me is practicing with a slower cube, then getting back to your main. 4x and 5x are good to improve your look ahead and 2x to train TPS, I guess.

About fast cubers using reduction, We have Jorge Castillo Matas in Spain ( https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/p.php?i=2011MATA01 ) but almost everyone else uses Yau around here.

I'm practicing some 7x and I think I'm finally getting sub 10, I'd like to shave at least a couple of minutes more, so I'll keep doing that and 3BLD over Xmas.

Prague 15-17 July, anyone interested? ;)
 
moralsh said:
I'm also pro changing events if you seem to be stuck, other thing that works for me is practicing with a slower cube, then getting back to your main. 4x and 5x are good to improve your look ahead and 2x to train TPS, I guess.

About fast cubers using reduction, We have Jorge Castillo Matas in Spain ( https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/p.php?i=2011MATA01 ) but almost everyone else uses Yau around here.

I'm practicing some 7x and I think I'm finally getting sub 10, I'd like to shave at least a couple of minutes more, so I'll keep doing that and 3BLD over Xmas.

Prague 15-17 July, anyone interested? ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks, Raúl. It's curious that all of you recommend to change events and I was thinking that maybe the cause of my dip in 3x3 performance was the time I have been devoting to 2x2 lately that obviously detracts from 3x3 practice time. Others in the forum have advised me that, at our age, we cannot pretend to be fast at all events and, hence, I should focus on 3x3 and forget completely about 2x2, 4x4... but that's not fun at all as 3x3 then becomes more of a job than an enjoyment.

What I've observed is that lately my TPS is slower, maybe the forced slow turning during F2L to try and build my lookahead is contagious and I don't turn as fast as I used to during LL. Maybe it's just that the whole concept of lookahead needs to sink in until I can start to turn a bit faster. I have realized that my fast times up to now where the result of high TPS and "lucky pair spotting" (like when the pairs keep coming up for you to spot them and you think, wow! great lookahead this solve but the truth is that you didn't find them, they found you, if you know what I mean).

Regarding Yau, I started solving 4x4 with reduction and soon changed to Yau. I'm so slow yet with either of them that I cannot certainly tell but dedge pairing lookahead with pure reduction was a nightmare for me and with Yau it is much, much better. Maybe people with great lookahead can benefit from improved efficiency with reduction. Does anybody know what Feliks uses for 4x4 (I've heard that from 5x5 and up he uses reduction)?

And, lots of luck with your 7x7 and 3BLD practice over the holidays. I'm sure you will be able to shave those 2 minutes and more off your 7x7 times. Happy Chri...., I mean, happy cubing :)
 
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