Older cubers discussions

[newtonbase]

L' F R B' R2 U' L' D' R L' F U2 L2 U2 F D2 F2 D2 B U2 D2

I don't know my 3BLD PB but the 2:39 I got on this is certainly one of my best. It's a simple one so I'd like to see what some of you could get with it.

 

[h2f]

I didn't do my solves with that cube. I just kept it nearby for reference. With Speffz you could just liable the first sticker of each face so you think about it a bit more.

I'm not an expert. Just saying. If it helpes you, it's fine.

L' F R B' R2 U' L' D' R L' F U2 L2 U2 F D2 F2 D2 B U2 D2

I don't know my 3BLD PB but the 2:39 I got on this is certainly one of my best. It's a simple one so I'd like to see what some of you could get with it.

Good solves always makes one happy? Congrats...

I've started filming my solves of the other puzzles. Skewb ao5: 10.7. Not my best and I'm not best solver as you can see. I've just started 3rd ao100 since beginning of the january when I've learnt sarah's advanced....

 

[Shaky Hands]

I just started breaking down the 3:00 wall on 5x5 using reduction. I wonder if adopting Hoya could improve on that... I tried Hoya for 4x4 a while back, but I think I'm married to the Yao method.


For 5x5, if you're anything like me, edge pairing used to take forever. If you're not using the free-slicing method yet, I recommend you look that up. I also always solve white/yellow edges first. That might not be good advice, but it made a big difference for me. I can find white/yellow edges fastest, and it makes it easy to look ahead and keep track of the first 8 edges.

Learned this today for 5x5. Found it surprisingly easy to learn considering how I find it confusing on 4x4. Times should improve for me as a result although that hasn't happened immediately (not that I was expecting it to.)

Maybe I should check out prisma. I lost all my solves when I cleared out cstimer somehow. Also my phone app corrupted the db on there. *sigh*

I keep mine on a spreadsheet. I've got separate ones for 3x3, 4x4 and 5x5. I keep track of Ao5, Ao12, Ao25 and Ao100 in there. I also break it down for every 100 solves to see what my best of each of these was. I used to track Ao250 too but gave up on it as it was a bit too memory-hungry!

I find that by having a lot of things to measure improvement against, it's a good motivator for me.

 

[Jason Green]

I don't not want to get to tied into tracking my stats. I have pack rat tendencies and I can get too consumed with keeping everything perfect and worry about ever losing it. When my wife and I got married I had a file cabinet that I think had every paper bill I had received since college (old gas bills, phone bills, etc). To compensate for this tendency I try to keep very little, life is less stressful for me that way.

It is tempting though. [emoji12]

 

[ryuusei86]

Just wanted to check in and thank several of you for the 4x4 parity fix without cube rotations (works great, though of course on my first 4x4 solve afterwards I did not encounter parity). I'm still working on the Roux method too. I'm learning that almost-but-not-quite-solved 3x3s using this method are particularly obnoxious. Everything solved except the four edge pieces on top are in the wrong spots. Everything solved except four CENTERS (which I just discovered and is equivalent). I'll keep watching the videos.

Tomorrow I'm expecting a Cubicle shipment, which will beat the other three shipments from China even though I placed that order last. Maybe it serves me right. I think it will contain three budget 3x3s. Three other more expensive ones will come later. I eventually plan to rank them all in terms of how good (or gross) they feel to a beginner. That doesn't include the GuoGuan YueXiao and two or three others that I know I really must try.

I also want to add that I have carefully picked out Megaminx sticker colors at the Cubicle website.

I do not own a Megaminx.

I'll um ... see myself out now.

 

[MarcelP]

Today I did an early bird session 3x3 before work. Ao50 with 19.89. Bad lights do not help a lot when you want a good average.. But in there I had a nice streak:

21. 16.11 L2 R2 B' F' D L U2 D2 B U F' L2 F' R2 L2 B2 L U' R2 L D' U L2 F2 D
22. 16.87 B2 R2 B2 U2 R B2 R' U2 B U F2 B R' F' D' R2 B R' B2 R2 F2 L B2 D2 F'
23. 16.27 B R D2 L U2 F B R2 F' R' B' U2 F' B2 R2 L D' B' R2 L' D L U R2 L
24. 17.16 B' F U2 B2 D2 R' U2 D' R F2 B' L U2 R B D2 F2 B R' F U' R F2 D' U'
25. 15.61 U' D F2 R2 F U' F2 B2 U R2 F R2 D2 L2 B L U L2 F L2 R2 F R' L F'

I wish that would happen more often.

And a nice full step:

32. 13.22 D2 U2 L F B2 L2 F' B2 L2 R' B' D B D' B' R' U' F' R2 L' U R2 D L2 D2

 

[Selkie]

You solve green cross right? ......... Now you can go further as in Yao with 3-2-2 (or whatever).

I solve blue. Love the sound of this and the fact that after the 4 centers you have fewer hidden pieces. Bit close to comp in April to try this now but I will definitely have a go post comp, Thanks Marcel :tu

I just started breaking down the 3:00 wall on 5x5 using reduction. I wonder if adopting Hoya could improve on that... I tried Hoya for 4x4 a while back, but I think I'm married to the Yao method.


For 5x5, if you're anything like me, edge pairing used to take forever. If you're not using the free-slicing method yet, I recommend you look that up. I also always solve white/yellow edges first. That might not be good advice, but it made a big difference for me. I can find white/yellow edges fastest, and it makes it easy to look ahead and keep track of the first 8 edges..

Yes I doubt I will change 4x4 from Yau. At 46 and having used Yau for 4/5 years I think I may never get back to current times.

... and also solving the white edges first and leaving them tucked down as a cross, if possible...

Very similar to me, I start with the four blue edges first but this is not a hard rule so if I spot two connected dredges and can see the third I might do this then go back to blue. It may sound strange but I also started counting solved edges in my head so I knew when I was getting close to 8. For some reason worked for me and may be worth a try

I dont think writing letters on stickers is a good idea because it doesnt force mind to learn letter scheme. I've never done it. Maskow said in his tutorial he never did it. Etc. Noah Arthurs never mentioned that tricked but he told about something better - assamble the cube take a piece (edge or corner) and name letters of edge or corner you took. But maybe I'm wrond and its good idea...

I think this is where I have been going wrong. I labelled up a cube a few years ago for attempts and again about a month ago. I agree have one not labelled gets your brain into the correct pattern and makes your thought process more like when you will solve without them on. That said, I could be talking rubbish. Not like I have a success since 4 years ago!

The times of my first 10000 solves in Prisma Puzzle Timer in a graph:

Maybe I should check out prisma. I lost all my solves when I cleared out cstimer somehow. Also my phone app corrupted the db on there. *sigh*

There used to be a version of qqtimer (web timer) that I use that used to save history, Think it was by Kungfoomanchu (the guy behind BigCubes) but it long longer exists. Would love another timer to save history but for me would have to be web again.

I've started filming my solves of the other puzzles. Skewb ao5: 10.7. Not my best and I'm not best solver as you can see. [/url]

Wow, great stuff. Started learning Sarah's beginner method last week but have not finished. Need to press on as I have registered Skewb in comp in a month Really nice times there

Tomorrow I'm expecting a Cubicle shipment, which will beat the other three shipments from China even though I placed that order last.

Cannot wait for my large ($200) Cubicle shipmemt. They havent even shipped it yet as it includes one of their Premium 3x3s. Really looking forward to trying that as I used to buy premium 3x3s from Lubix. A Lubix Zhanchi was my main for over 3 years.

But in there I had a nice streak:

Nice to see you back in regular practice after attaining sub 20 Marcel and can see some great improvement. Love your turning style when I watch your videos and see great improvement to your lookahead. have you ever set a 'life goal' for 3x3, or was it sub 20?

 

[h2f]

@Marcel - very nice. On cam this fullstep?

@John, Thank you. My stackmated ao100 is around 14 at the moment but I've finished learning sarah's adv this week - I sucked in few cases. BTW stackmated solves with skewb seem to me easier than with computer timer. At tomorrow's comp cutoff is 16 - I hope I can do this if I get quite easy scramble with 2gen second layer.

 

[mafergut]

Very similar to me, I start with the four blue edges first but this is not a hard rule so if I spot two connected dredges [...]

Wow, great stuff. Started learning Sarah's beginner method last week but have not finished. Need to press on as I have registered Skewb in comp in a month Really nice times there

Cannot wait for my large ($200) Cubicle shipmemt. They havent even shipped it yet as it includes one of their Premium 3x3s. Really looking forward to trying that as I used to buy premium 3x3s from Lubix. A Lubix Zhanchi was my main for over 3 years.

Nice to see you back in regular practice after attaining sub 20 Marcel and can see some great improvement. Love your turning style when I watch your videos and see great improvement to your lookahead. have you ever set a 'life goal' for 3x3, or was it sub 20?

Good to know that somebody with much more experience than me at big cubes is doing things more or less the same with 5x5. I will keep pushing for better times.

I didn't think I was going to like skewb but I was wrong. Same with Pyra. Both require a very different turning style to NxN cubes and I like that for a change once in a while. I'm practising so many new events, though, that I have not been able to improve much at any of them.

I also can't wait to receive my order with SS Gigaminx, Yuexiao and Tornado.

I don't know about Marcel, but my "life goal" for 3x3 is sub-15 and I'm starting to doubt I'll ever achieve it but I'm not gonna stop trying. I have another goal too: to go to a comp some day and get an official average different from DNF

 

[MarcelP]

Nice to see you back in regular practice after attaining sub 20 Marcel and can see some great improvement. Love your turning style when I watch your videos and see great improvement to your lookahead. have you ever set a 'life goal' for 3x3, or was it sub 20?

Thanks! No not really. But I have a colleage Guus Razoux (https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/p.php?i=1982RAZO01) who was at the first world competition in 1982 and was 2nd. If I ever become as fast as him I am happy

@Marcel - very nice. On cam this fullstep?

Unfortunatly not Maybe in my evening session.

 

[muchacho]

I don't know about Marcel, but my "life goal" for 3x3 is sub-15

Mine is being sub-13 (Guilles Roux's official PB average), but I am surely too ambitious, sub-15 would be also fine

I've counted the number of sub-20 solves I've got on 3x3:
50 19.x
19 18.x
6 17.x
1 16.x

 

[Logiqx]

I don't know about Marcel, but my "life goal" for 3x3 is sub-15 and I'm starting to doubt I'll ever achieve it but I'm not gonna stop trying. I have another goal too: to go to a comp some day and get an official average different from DNF

That's kinda what I have in mind as well. I've had a few "life goals" for 3x3 - 2:00, 1:00, 0:30 and 0:20 being the notable successes to date.

sub-0:15 is a nice round number for global average / official average but if I ever get there, I'm sure I'll be trying to shave a bit more off my times!

Progress over the past couple of months has felt pretty good thanks to my practice time whilst commuting. It's the only good thing about the long train journeys to / from work!

Right now I'm focused on breaking sub-18. Hopefully I'll get there before my next competition...

 

[Selkie]

Great to see so many with clear goals, it is one of the keys to improvement. Mine, since started speed cubing 6 years ago was to be sub 15 globally as in Ao100's sub 15 and though at times I have felt it just wasn't attainable for me I am going through a phase where I feel it just might be.

I have a more recent one these days since I have been seeing improvement and that is to get an average on film faster than Ron van Bruchem's fastest in comp. That is going to be some tall order but within a second of it. Ron has always been my biggest inspiration but we will have to wait and see whether I can make it.

Speaking of averages as mentioned before I have been trying to push TPS all out. I have having to do it in short burns as I cannot even maintain an AO50 but have another sub 14 Ao5 on film which I will post later:-

Average of 5: 13.90
1. (13.03) R2 L' U' F U2 D2 L' B2 L B D2 B2 U' F2 L2 D' F2 U R2 D F2
2. (14.59) U R2 B2 F2 D R2 B2 R2 D2 F2 U2 L' D B' R2 U F' L D F L
3. 14.32 D2 B2 D2 L2 D2 B D2 B' F R2 F L B L2 U2 R B' D' U' L' U2
4. 14.03 R2 U2 B2 R2 B' F2 L2 R2 U2 L2 F R D' R2 U2 L' F L2 U2 L2 B2
5. 13.34 L2 B' D L' U R2 L2 B U' F R' U2 L F2 B2 R2 F2 L U2 D2 R

All fullstep and pleased with the consistency with a standard deviation of only 0.50


Edit: Video as promised:-

 

[Selkie]

Progress over the past couple of months has felt pretty good thanks to my practice time whilst commuting. It's the only good thing about the long train journeys to / from work!

I tried this yesterday following your advice. Had a two hour meeting in London with a three hour train journey each way. Spent the journey up doing some exploratory untimed solves and learned a couple of WV cases. Time well spent. The Gans 356 v1 is certainly quiet enough to not draw too much attention but it seemed to anyway. Probably looked quite surreal a man fully suited cubing

 

[mafergut]

That's kinda what I have in mind as well. I've had a few "life goals" for 3x3 - 2:00, 1:00, 0:30 and 0:20 being the notable successes to date.

sub-0:15 is a nice round number for global average / official average but if I ever get there, I'm sure I'll be trying to shave a bit more off my times!

Progress over the past couple of months has felt pretty good thanks to my practice time whilst commuting. It's the only good thing about the long train journeys to / from work!

Right now I'm focused on breaking sub-18. Hopefully I'll get there before my next competition...

I would be happy to get there (sub-15) even if just for a short time and that's it, no plans of sub-12 or anything like that. The reason I doubt it is because it might take so long that old age will kick in and compensate the added skill with slower mind and body. If it's just sub-16 I will have to live with that But I have been stuck around barely sub-20 for so long already that I have even started to doubt that I will ever improve any more.

 

[Shaky Hands]

Progress over the past couple of months has felt pretty good thanks to my practice time whilst commuting. It's the only good thing about the long train journeys to / from work!

I cube a bit while commuting too. But my commute is a 75 minute walk each way, so solves frequently get interrupted to cross the road!

Great to see so many with clear goals, it is one of the keys to improvement. Mine, since started speed cubing 6 years ago was to be sub 15 globally as in Ao100's sub 15 and though at times I have felt it just wasn't attainable for me I am going through a phase where I feel it just might be.

I'm aiming for sub-25, sub-90 and sub-150 for 3x3, 4x4 and 5x5 respectively by the end of the year. Will be interesting to revisit in 10 months' time and see how I did. Also hoping to get to sub-30 on 3x3 with dual-CN.

Average of 5: 13.90
1. (13.03) R2 L' U' F U2 D2 L' B2 L B D2 B2 U' F2 L2 D' F2 U R2 D F2
2. (14.59) U R2 B2 F2 D R2 B2 R2 D2 F2 U2 L' D B' R2 U F' L D F L
3. 14.32 D2 B2 D2 L2 D2 B D2 B' F R2 F L B L2 U2 R B' D' U' L' U2
4. 14.03 R2 U2 B2 R2 B' F2 L2 R2 U2 L2 F R D' R2 U2 L' F L2 U2 L2 B2
5. 13.34 L2 B' D L' U R2 L2 B U' F R' U2 L F2 B2 R2 F2 L U2 D2 R

All fullstep and pleased with the consistency with a standard deviation of only 0.50

Edit: Video as promised:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGIE4CQ4NYU

This is great stuff. Congratulations.

The more I look at other people's solves I think my weakest step is just doing the Cross. Despite knowing very little of Full OLL and doing F2L without more than a handful of algorithms, my Cross is really awkward and I need to make it far more efficient.

 

[muchacho]

Nice solves Selkie!


Sub-5 ao12 Mega race:
Single: 4:25 (and also a 4:50)
Ao5: 5:08
Ao12: 5:29

I'm feeling less pessimistic today

 

[Logiqx]

I cube a bit while commuting too. But my commute is a 75 minute walk each way, so solves frequently get interrupted to cross the road!

I'm aiming for sub-25, sub-90 and sub-150 for 3x3, 4x4 and 5x5 respectively by the end of the year. Will be interesting to revisit in 10 months' time and see how I did. Also hoping to get to sub-30 on 3x3 with dual-CN.

I guess at this time of year you're more "Cold Hands" than "Shaky Hands".

You might find my thread interesting which compares times in different events:

https://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?47405-Relative-Solve-Times-for-2x2x2-7x7x7

All-rounders seem to take around 4 times longer to solve the 4x4 compared to 3x3. Roughly speaking 5x5 times are about double the 4x4 times.

There are exceptions of course and Mike (DeCock) is one of them with an official 4x4 average which is just 3.3 times his 3x3 average.

Edit: Video as promised:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGIE4CQ4NYU

Nice and there is still room for improvement.

 

[mafergut]

Nice solves Selkie!


Sub-5 ao12 Mega race:
Single: 4:25 (and also a 4:50)
Ao5: 5:08
Ao12: 5:29

I'm feeling less pessimistic today

Nice solves indeed!!! Those would be a bit better than my best 5 times in a very good Ao100 or maybe Ao250 but all condensed in an Ao5. Great job!

In the Mega race you have good reason to be optimistic. You are right now almost on par with my times. By next Tuesday you will have won already.

You might find my thread interesting which compares times in different events:

https://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?47405-Relative-Solve-Times-for-2x2x2-7x7x7

All-rounders seem to take around 4 times longer to solve the 4x4 compared to 3x3. Roughly speaking 5x5 times are about double the 4x4 times.

I hope I can reach my potential of 1:20 at 4x4 and 2:40 at 5x5. So far from those times right now...

 

[Selkie]

All-rounders seem to take around 4 times longer to solve the 4x4 compared to 3x3. Roughly speaking 5x5 times are about double the 4x4 times.

Nice analysis and I guess I am about right for all rounder. 3x3 average ~16s. That x 4 = 1m 4s. I actually average just sub 1:10 for 4x4. My 5x5 is about 2:20.