Older cubers discussions

Well, I have been practicing, and learnt the 2 look OLL and I have more consistent times, still have to learn some good PLL algoritms that can be used in "most" situations...

I got a 30.3 seconds solve and I'm averaging 45-50 which is better than the 1:20 I was getting some days ago...

All in all, i'm slowly making some progress, and my finger tricks are not helping me a lot, I have like a lot of pauses on each alg...

One question for the experienced ones, when you do a U2, your fingers rest in the cube or do you lift your hand of the cube?

Thanks a lot!

Mauricio.
 
mrs1986 said:
Well, I have been practicing, and learnt the 2 look OLL and I have more consistent times, still have to learn some good PLL algoritms that can be used in "most" situations...

I got a 30.3 seconds solve and I'm averaging 45-50 which is better than the 1:20 I was getting some days ago...

All in all, i'm slowly making some progress, and my finger tricks are not helping me a lot, I have like a lot of pauses on each alg...

One question for the experienced ones, when you do a U2, your fingers rest in the cube or do you lift your hand of the cube?

Thanks a lot!

Mauricio.
Click to expand...
This video by Chris Olson should help.
 
SenorJuan said:
A PM exchange with Mike suggests I am using the wrong kind of coal in my computer's boiler, and the pressure is too low. (HeHe).
Click to expand...

Should anyone else have any browser issues...

Old *working* browsers - tested using browserling.com:
1) IE 9 (2011-03-14)
2) Chrome 4.0.249 (2010-01-25)
3) Firefox 6.0 (2011-08-16)
4) Safari 5.0.5 (2010-06-07)
5) Opera 11 (2010-12-16)

Old *non-working* browsers - tested using browserling.com:
1) IE 8 (2010-06-07) - fails to render
2) Chrome 3.0.195 (2009-10-12) - renders but interactions are ignored
3) Firefox 5.0.1 (2011-07-11) - fails to render
4) Safari 4.0 (2009-2010) - renders but interactions are ignored
5) Opera 10.60 (2010-07-01) - fails to render
 
muchacho said:
And @moralsh is doing well too,
http://cubecomps.com/live.php?cid=1753&compid=1
Click to expand...

I'm still not entirely myself (I need to catch up a lot of sleep) But It's time to comment a bit on this.

16th competition, 4th national championship and 8th I'm part of the organization. three hectic days with lots of fun and lots to do, that's more or les what I did:

2x2: didn't practice at all since last comp back in June, 8.xx and 9.xx averages. Meh.
3x3: Horrendous first round, I bought a Valks3 and had been doing times in the 15-21 range. then first round (19.99, 24, 24, 24 and 28) and next 5 cubes I did an hour or so after, sub 20 Ao5. Strange.

Second round was way better 19, 18, 23, 19 & 19 maiking it a 19.55 average which is quite nice, it could have been a bit faster, though. I recorded it so will probably upload it some time this week.

3x3OH: nice first round, 35, 30, 31, 1:05 and 36 which translated into a 34.46 PB Ao5, 1:05 was a messed up GPerm. Second round was worse but still sub 40

3x3FM: Did a 41 but messed up writing it down, decided to take care of organizing in the next 2 tries.

3x3MBF: Skipped it. I was in charge of making it work so I concentrated on organizing. Scrambled like 200 cubes during the weekend on multi alone.

4x4: Same story as 3x3. Horrendous first round (1:34 average) with a better second round (1:23) with 6 out of 10 parities IIRC.

5x5: Didn't practice, didn't make the cutoff

Skewb: Meh average and meh single.

Megaminx: Didn't make the cutoff by 1 second on the first solve and 9 on the second, but happy with beating my old single by 47 seconds (2:31 now). will practice more this event

5BLD: No one did it at the comp, me neither. Closest attempt was off by about 6 centres and 4 wings
4BLD: 11:09 PB and 4th place, so quite happy
3BLD: was not in the zone the whole weekend, but at least I made it to the finals. I Need to practice more.

that was about it. 4PBs with very little practice was more than I expected.
 
I'm not one of the experienced folks but I might have some useful input.

mrs1986 said:
All in all, i'm slowly making some progress, and my finger tricks are not helping me a lot, I have like a lot of pauses on each alg...
Click to expand...

Pauses during the alg? If so, work on committing the alg to "muscle memory". With enough practice your hands can learn to perform the moves without a round-trip to the brain for thinking. If you have to make that round-trip your hands end up waiting for an answer.

mrs1986 said:
One question for the experienced ones, when you do a U2, your fingers rest in the cube or do you lift your hand of the cube?
Click to expand...

For a right hand U2: my left holds the weight of the cube between thumb on the F face and a finger or two on the B face. My right thumb braces on the F face without holding any weight. My right thumb is only there to make sure only the U layer moves, hold it like this with your right hand free like you were going to shake hands with the right. Your right hand should be loose and free this way to use the index and middle to do the turns. For left, just reverse the process of course. Choosing which to use depends on what comes before and after.
 
mrs1986 said:
Well, I have been practicing, and learnt the 2 look OLL and I have more consistent times, still have to learn some good PLL algoritms that can be used in "most" situations...

I got a 30.3 seconds solve and I'm averaging 45-50 which is better than the 1:20 I was getting some days ago...

All in all, i'm slowly making some progress, and my finger tricks are not helping me a lot, I have like a lot of pauses on each alg...

One question for the experienced ones, when you do a U2, your fingers rest in the cube or do you lift your hand of the cube?

Thanks a lot!

Mauricio.
Click to expand...

In addition to the video posted by Mark (newtonbase) you might find the following playlist useful:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRZHt_6umybxXK7SMTT4UvC9me0lpwStF

Although they are PLL videos you'll get to see how finger tricks can be combined.

h2f said:
@moralsh - Congrats.

My solves: 3x3
Click to expand...

Nice!

Remind me to update the over-40's rankings when your results are on the WCA website.
 
Last edited:
Here's a few more official oldie results from this past weekend, that aren't really worth posting, but I'll post and comment anyway.
http://cubecomps.com/live.php?cid=1795&compid=13

3x3 - Goal was PB single (19.33) or avg (22.95), but didn't really care. Both rounds started promising, but then got worse.
20.72, 25.99, 26.14, 24.16, 24.37 = 24.84
21.63, 22.29, 28.94, 30.79, 25.53 = 25.59

Square1 - first time at this so guaranteed a PB at least. Didn't really care about this either, but goal was sub-50 avg. Had 3 solves where a piece popped out (twice it went under the table), but overall not much worse than at home, and 50.18 avg, so that's good enough.
46.44, 1:19.80, 1:01.82, 53.44, 42.98 = 53.90
33.85, 1:12.51, 52.30, 43.74, 54.51 = 50.18

Clock -the reason I went to this comp was to get at least a sub-11 avg at clock. Had 4 bad solves in the 1st round. Two really easy scrambles, one that I DNFed because a pin wasn't all the way down when I started the second side so it messed up the back side, and a sloppy 11.74. And then the 2nd round was cancelled, so that was a big disappointment.
12.51, DNF, 10.62, 12.74, 11.74 = 12.33
 
pglewis said:
I'm not one of the experienced folks but I might have some useful input.



Pauses during the alg? If so, work on committing the alg to "muscle memory". With enough practice your hands can learn to perform the moves without a round-trip to the brain for thinking. If you have to make that round-trip your hands end up waiting for an answer.



For a right hand U2: my left holds the weight of the cube between thumb on the F face and a finger or two on the B face. My right thumb braces on the F face without holding any weight. My right thumb is only there to make sure only the U layer moves, hold it like this with your right hand free like you were going to shake hands with the right. Your right hand should be loose and free this way to use the index and middle to do the turns. For left, just reverse the process of course. Choosing which to use depends on what comes before and after.
Click to expand...

Great! Thanks a lot for the help!! I guess is just practice and practice!

Logiqx said:
In addition to the video posted by Mark (newtonbase) you might find the following playlist useful:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRZHt_6umybxXK7SMTT4UvC9me0lpwStF

Although they are PLL videos you'll get to see how finger tricks can be combined.



Nice!

Remind me to update the over-40's rankings when your results are on the WCA website.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for the playlist, I will give it a go!
 
muchacho said:
I've received the Qiyi Megaminx, it's good.

Third solve with it (first timed) was 7 minutes, not setting a WR anytime soon.
Click to expand...

I've been pleasantly surprised by how fast I've been able to improve at megaminx recently. I haven't learned OLL and PLL yet, but I was running around 7:00 just a couple weeks ago, and after possibly as many as 100 solves I'm more often under 5:00 than over. With a few improvements I'm sure I can cut off another 1:30 to get down to the 3:00 range. I really just need to learn CO and EP that doesn't unorient the corners to get below 4:00, I think.
 
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