Older cubers discussions

Hello, all. 37 y/o cuber here. Started about 2 weeks ago. I didn't run a timer until I could solve it without looking at an alg list and was running ao5 around 2:34 and was just starting F2L at that time. I'm now solid with all my 2 Look OLL and I'm starting to get down to ao5 around 1:14. Pfew! I still have a long ways to go, but I'm having a blast!

That's a very nice start! I think at 2 weeks in I was still using lbl and running about 30 minutes. In almost two years since I'm down to about 35 seconds, but most people seem to make better progress than I do.
 
It's been a while since I last posted here. I've had a busy time lately "IRL" but cubing-wise I've mostly been practicing 7x7 and 3BLD.

7x7: The Qiyi 7x7 has given me a PB single and average in relatively short order. I'm finding that my L2C is worse than I realised it to be and should probably try to dedicate some specific practice to that particular part of the solve. 6x6 can be forgiving of a sloppy L2C in ways that 7x7 just isn't. Quick shout-out @bubbagrub - I have a well broken-in stickerless Moyu 7x7 GT going spare now if you're after one to replace your "trendy" V-Cube. Or @newtonbase or anyone else I'm likely to run into soon.

3BLD: This is coming along well for me. Success rate is going up. I have a fully memorised set of letter pairs for A[x], B[x], C[x] and D[x] and am building up others when doing other solves. The number of times I forget to reorientate the cube back to its starting position is reducing too. I think going into the last comp I reckoned I had about 10% chance of a success. Would like to get that to 40% by the next comp. Nothing happens overnight though and it's about time I stepped up my game with BLD and it's been good to put in some dedicated practice on it. @pglewis & @mark49152 - thanks for sharing links to those word lists. There are some pairs that I know I struggle on and need to improve. Those resources will no doubt help.

Next up for me will be relearning SQ1 with an aim to record a single at the next comp. The lack of SQ1 at the previous UK comp has meant I've lost the knowledge I'd gained of it in December, but maybe I can tap into some remnants of it lurking deep in the recess of my brain.

Some great PB's going around. Always encouraging to see the improvements people are making and the videos that are shared. I do get around to seeing them all at some point.

@kbrune - hope you manage to overcome your headaches and @pipkiksass - sorry to hear you've been in hospital, here's hoping you make a full and speedy recovery and I'm glad your wife brought your cubes to you. Thoughts are with you both.

All this talk of BLD had persuaded me to rekindle the project that never got off the ground over Christmas due to the redundancy. Restarted on my letter pair list and will do some sighted solves today.

Had much luck Chris?

However, the cross on the bottom is still a huge fail. I miss it a good third of the times.

... yet you succeed 2 times out of 3 and that will become 3 times out of 4 then 4 times out of 5 and so on. You'll get there, I'm sure. I switched to cross-on-bottom at the same point that I switched from LBL to F2L which I think made the changeover harder for me, but I was glad when I'd fully embedded the knowledge. Good luck.

Hello, all. 37 y/o cuber here. Started about 2 weeks ago. I didn't run a timer until I could solve it without looking at an alg list and was running ao5 around 2:34 and was just starting F2L at that time. I'm now solid with all my 2 Look OLL and I'm starting to get down to ao5 around 1:14. Pfew! I still have a long ways to go, but I'm having a blast!

Hi and welcome. The early times of cubing are the times when you'll have the biggest relative improvements, so enjoy it. I'm sure you'll improve a lot with the amount of info there is on these forums as well as youtube. Do you have any competitions in your area?
 
Hi and welcome. The early times of cubing are the times when you'll have the biggest relative improvements, so enjoy it. I'm sure you'll improve a lot with the amount of info there is on these forums as well as youtube. Do you have any competitions in your area?

Thanks for the welcome! So many great videos and tips!

We have a competition locally on campus, one block from my office, at the end of Feb. Looking forward to it!
 
Thanks for the welcome! So many great videos and tips!

We have a competition locally on campus, one block from my office, at the end of Feb. Looking forward to it!

Definitely worth going. Enter all the events you can solve that you think you can make the hard cutoff for. And beyond that, meet some people and don't worry about your times. As others will say, a first comp is just about setting an initial marker to improve against. Have fun and good luck.
 
I haven't had a 3x3 PB since April last year so I've been practicing regularly for a couple of weeks.

Tonight's train was slow so I got some extra solve time and look what happened during that time!

14.20 average of 5. Yay!

It's somewhere in this lot... ignore the inspection time as it includes scrambling and giving fellow passengers a break from the noise.

#lookahead #finally

Edit: All full step solves but easy pairs.

3. 15.809 (Inspection: 43.676) Date: 2017-01-25 18:24:35
U F2 B L' U' R U2 F' D' R2 U2 D' F2 U2 F2 L2 F2 L2 R2 F U' F' L B2 F'

4. 15.482 (Inspection: 1:02.177) Date: 2017-01-25 18:23:51
R2 B' R2 L' B' L2 B2 U' L U B' U' B2 D2 F R' L' U2 B' U' B L R F L

5. 13.569 (Inspection: 1:01.218) Date: 2017-01-25 18:22:46
F' R' L2 F' D2 L B' L2 B U2 L R D U F R2 D' B' F' D B2 F2 R F' B

6. 15.505 (Inspection: 54.971) Date: 2017-01-25 18:21:01
D2 B2 D' U' F' R U2 L' B' R B' L R U' R2 D' B' R2 F R' B2 L' R B2 D2

7. 16.617 (Inspection: 49.412) Date: 2017-01-25 18:19:21
L2 R F' U2 F2 L D' R2 D2 B D2 B' D' F2 L2 F2 R2 F2 B' D2 F U2 D' R2 D

8. 11.999 (Inspection: 39.421) Date: 2017-01-25 18:18:27
D2 L' R U R' F L2 F' B' L' U B D' U' F D F L R2 D2 R U2 R L2 U

9. 13.549 (Inspection: 1:06.499) Date: 2017-01-25 18:17:49
B' L R2 U F2 U2 L2 D L B2 U R L D2 F U' R B2 D' L2 R U' B R2 U'

10. 15.929 (Inspection: 35.391) Date: 2017-01-25 18:16:45
U' L2 F D' F2 U' D R2 U' F2 B2 D' L2 F2 B' U D F L B' F2 L2 B2 U B'


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Had much luck Chris?

Yeah, I'd nearly forgotten about that post... I wasn't sure if @Selkie hasn't done blind before or is picking it back up after hiatus or something.

@Logiqx: nice, at this rate sup 15s are just going to prompt a head-desk before long.

@Bemis: Welcome! I'm not far ahead of you, especially at the rate you're improving. Last summer I was struggling to get under 1 min consistently and now I shrug at anything over :35 and have recently taken on blindfold solving. These folks are a bad influence :D.
 
Welcome @Bemis, very nice average @Logiqx.

I had an eventful day (in hospital) - my temperature hit an all time high and loads of other crazy shizzle, so I'm on a drip and tramadol, which is nice!

Marty has stickerless WuQues back in stock, so I ordered one. Also thought I'd try his .5k lube, and treated myself to a spare stickerless Valk, which I'm going to M.

In other news, I'm borderline neutropenic, so I've been moved to a private room. Yay, more cubing. However it turns out executing OLL/PLL algs with a canulla sticking out of your right hand is VERY tricky!!!


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Welcome @Bemis, very nice average @Logiqx.

I had an eventful day (in hospital) - my temperature hit an all time high and loads of other crazy shizzle, so I'm on a drip and tramadol, which is nice!

Marty has stickerless WuQues back in stock, so I ordered one. Also thought I'd try his .5k lube, and treated myself to a spare stickerless Valk, which I'm going to M.

In other news, I'm borderline neutropenic, so I've been moved to a private room. Yay, more cubing. However it turns out executing OLL/PLL algs with a canulla sticking out of your right hand is VERY tricky!!!

Yes, I noticed. I have stickerless QiYi 4+5+6+7 on the way!

It is the perfect time for you to start doing OH... lefty of course.
 
Hey guys, 31 y/o cuber here... started a little over a year ago. I'm going to my first competition in early March. I was wondering if anyone had advice for a first timer, particularly as it pertains to being one of the older participants there?

Really excited for this thing... going to be competing in 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, and possibly pyraminx. Pyraminx cutoff is really generous at about 35 seconds, but I still don't know all the last 2-3 edge cycle algs and stuff. Still trying to get consistently below the hard cutoff for 4x4. I'm also having a great time eliciting eye rolls from my wife when I refer to my practice time as "training" :cool:.

Anyway, this seems like a nice thread... can't believe I haven't stopped by yet!
 
@dskids - welcome

Treat your first comp as a learning experience. I'm sure it will be the first of many comps!

It's great to see so many people in one place who enjoy the same hobby. I think you'll feel very welcome despite being somewhat older than the average competitor. Think of yourself as a 16 year old with 15 years of extra experience. :)

You're not the only one with another half who isn't entirely behind cubing. Haha
 
Hello, all. 37 y/o cuber here. Started about 2 weeks ago. I didn't run a timer until I could solve it without looking at an alg list and was running ao5 around 2:34 and was just starting F2L at that time. I'm now solid with all my 2 Look OLL and I'm starting to get down to ao5 around 1:14. Pfew! I still have a long ways to go, but I'm having a blast!

Hey guys, 31 y/o cuber here... started a little over a year ago. I'm going to my first competition in early March. I was wondering if anyone had advice for a first timer, particularly as it pertains to being one of the older participants there?

I'm also having a great time eliciting eye rolls from my wife when I refer to my practice time as "training" :cool:.

Welcome guys!

@dskids
I'm sure my wife will eventually lose the ability to move her eyes considering how often they roll around when I talk cubing lol what are your times like?

Very true @pglewis. Bad influences on every page!
 
Welcome @Bemis and @dskids

2 attempts at MBLD today. 1/3 on each. Failures were missed 1 edge cycle, undid 1 setup the wrong way, memo'd very last letter as B not C and then an M' instead of an M2 so nothing awful. I also switched my rooms around as the order was right to left but I prefer to lay out my cubes left to right.
I've also decided to relearn U2 for 4BLD but with Ubl as my buffer but I need to come up my own algs as I can only find them for Ubr. Unless anyone has anything?
 
I've also decided to relearn U2 for 4BLD but with Ubl as my buffer but I need to come up my own algs as I can only find them for Ubr. Unless anyone has anything?
Why? Just curious.

For algs you could mirror the Ubr ones. I'm not sure which ones you're having trouble with, but all the U2 algs I can think of are easy to understand and therefore mirror.
 
@newtonbase

I've been meaning to learn 4bld. I've watched Noah's tutorial a while back but don't remember any of it. Is Ubl the north/west center on U?
Yes, that's it. I recommend you have a look at Corey Sakowski's YouTube series too. It's very good.
Why? Just curious.

For algs you could mirror the Ubr ones. I'm not sure which ones you're having trouble with, but all the U2 algs I can think of are easy to understand and therefore mirror.
I find Ubl more comfortable for comms and U2 is meant to be just a back up for that. It's only really the D face algs I need to replicate as the U face ones tend to be easier with comms. I'll sort them on my lunch break tomorrow. I found a couple of useful bits on some old notes I'd made from one of Ollie's videos.
 
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