• Welcome to SpeedSolving.com — the world’s largest puzzle community!

    You’re currently browsing as a guest, which means you have limited access to discussions, resources, member profiles, and community features.

    Join 50,000+ cubers and puzzle enthusiasts from around the world to ask questions, share solves, improve faster, and be part of the community.

    Registration is free, fast, and easy — create your account today.

    Already a member? Log in here to hide this message and start participating.

Older cubers discussions

Just did a 5:09 3BLD. Pretty decent. Preceded by a fairly significant DNF spell... but felt good. Had the FU/DB swap and a parity using M2. So... although there is a comp this weekend, there’s no blind events. I’m actually more interested in the NEXT event two weeks later.

I felt like that was a decently difficult memo and took a bit longer than I would have liked. The execution moved along well enuff.
 
I'm happy to hear this. After I saw your post and that One Wheel liked it, I was afraid I was just missing out on some new method of communication among cubers, so I was feeling old, even on this thread. :)

I figured it was either a young child, a phone in the pocket, or a stroke. 2/3 it's not a medical emergency, maybe not the safest "like", but hey, sometimes you gotta live on the edge. :-)

In unrelated news: I've not been practicing much the last few days, and not blind for several weeks. I made two 3BLD attempts yesterday, both 5:2x, both ended with the buffer solved and 3 other edges off. All corners were correct. I should go back through the scrambles to figure out whether it's a tracing or a memo error. Encouraging, though. I'm up to 68 attempts in cstimer, 2 successes. I'm getting closer.
 
So is there any hope for me? Can I ever achieve a sub 1 minute

Welcome to the thread!

I first learnt to solve the cube at over 40 and now 45-ish (well for another 2-3 weeks). The guys on this thread provided me with the inspiration / motivation to practice and get faster.

With practice you'll definitely get under a minute but by that time you probably want to be using intuitive F2L and 4-look last layer. You will get plenty of tips and good guidance on this thread. For now it's all about practicing what you know. :)

Now for a one-handed update from a windless beach in Rhodes - 15.92 single, 21.08 Ao5, 22.89 Ao12, 23.84 Ao50. Smashing it with PBs outside of competition. ;)
 
Now for a one-handed update from a windless beach in Rhodes - 15.92 single, 21.08 Ao5, 22.89 Ao12, 23.84 Ao50. Smashing it with PBs outside of competition. ;)

I kinda figured this was coming. My regular 3x3 and your OH were really really close but I'd gotten a little ahead of you... except the Ao50, I really admire your consistency (even if it's conspiring to keep you from that sub 10 single).
 
Amazing post, so much motivation for me there thank you for all of that it is hugely appreciated, MASSIVELY so!

So, after I replied to your earlier post I immediately researched the cross without the daisy and following the principles I found from this kind chap on Youtube. And now I can’t even remember how I did the daisy - in fact I didn’t have a technique for the daisy, I just used to do it instinctively (which is to say ham fistedly). So now doing the cross as my first step I at least have a method I now follow. I’ll do some timings in the morning when the beer has worn off :)

—hoping these are good principles to follow, I at least understand these even if they aren’t the best.

Thanks again for the reply, I’ll be re-reading it several times.

Have a great weekend, cheers

JPerm is one of the best out there right now for tutorials IMO, this one should give you a lot to go on and will probably be worth repeated viewing:

 
Went to the Rally in the Valley today and did very poorly. Only got one PB and that’s because I did OH for the first time. Hahahaha

3x3 went even worse than normal. Typical good times during warmup and choking during comp.

2x2 was the worst I’ve done since I learned how to do it. Adding insult to injury, all morning I never exceeded 7s , yet in the comp only got one sub-7. Honestly it was a mess.

4x4 had a cutoff of 1:15. My first solve felt pretty good, but came in at 1:21. My second was off to a rough start then i somehow twisted my white/yellow centers and they got all messed up. I was still finishing centers and saw 50s on the timer. Not a chance I was going to get that whole thing fixed and solved 25 seconds remaining, so I took the DNF. Didn’t get to do the average.

Sadly no 3BLD today, although I got a couple good distraction practice successes. That’s probably the highlight of the day.

Pyra—well... was pyra. I don’t practice so just do that one to remind myself it’s all for fun and really... no one cares about my times except me. Having only done it a couple previous times in comp, I’d say overall it was about what I’d expect. There were 83 people competing in pyra and I finished 79. So... not dead last. o_O:D

OH—actually went decently. I don’t have OH optimized algs and can’t remember most of my OLLs and PLLs (they just happen by recognition and muscle memory) so I was basically doing a modified 4LLL... more like 6LLL. HAHAHAHA. Still managed a 1:04 single. Again, didn’t make the 45s cutoff so only got two attempts.

I’m looking forward to the Maryland 2018 comp... 3BLD early in the day and that’s my main focus for the weekend. Still haven’t added MBLD to my events, but since it’s on Sunday, I may as well... it would be my only event and I’m interested to give an official attempt at it.
 
JPerm is one of the best out there right now for tutorials IMO, this one should give you a lot to go on and will probably be worth repeated viewing:

Agreed about JPerm and his videos. I think he does a good job of explaining. Too many videos are just, “Soooooo do this. Yeah, do that. That’s what I do...” with no real explaining.

JPerm shows what is happening to the cube which helps me understand what’s being covered in his tutorial even more. I have learned a lot from his videos. Highly recommended.
 
Still surprising myself with multi. I just got 13/16 in 59:50.66 [41:07.10]. Yes, I stopped the clock with less than 10 seconds left. I knew one of the cubes was wrong, because my edge memorization conflicted with itself. That was cube 15; somehow my edge memory totally failed to match the scramble, although my corner memorization was completely correct. I have no idea how that happened. Anyway, I wasted at least an extra minute on that cube trying to figure it out, and yet still had enough time for everything. That cube was off by 7 edges. The other two that were wrong was cube 1 with two twisted corners because I forgot there was a corner twist there, and cube 4 with 3 edges wrong because I memorized the wrong letter for the last sticker. All things told, a surprisingly close attempt at 16!
 
Agreed about JPerm and his videos. I think he does a good job of explaining. Too many videos are just, “Soooooo do this. Yeah, do that. That’s what I do...” with no real explaining.
Yes, there's a lot of videos that fail to explain things properly. JPerm has many good videos, but I'm not a very big fan of his intuitive F2L tutorial. He goes through it way too quickly imo, especially for a beginner to follow.

@40yearstosolve, like someone here said earlier, it is very much worth it to start looking into F2L as soon as possible. For me, learning about intuitive F2L was the big aha-moment that got me properly interested in cubing. Until then I had been doing layer by layer, just like you are, and I had seen algorithm sheets for more advanced methods. Specifically a list that had something like 96 different algorithms for F2L. I felt I would never ever be able to learn something like that and hence thought I could never get fast. Then I watched one video on intuitive F2L, which showed that I don't need to know 96 or whatever cases, but only three. On top of that, I did not need to learn any algorithms to solve any of these three cases, they could all be solved intuitively. This was many years ago and I'm not 100% sure which video I watched, but I think it was this one:


Now when I watched it many years later, I see some things that I might have explained differently, but overall I think it is very good with slow and clear instructions. While I have developed quite a few tricks over the past couple of years to improve on F2L, they have all been developed from the basic principles taught in that video. Give it a shot and maybe it will also take your cubing to the next level. :) And of course feel free to ask if the video leaves something unclear.
 
Last edited:
I kinda figured this was coming. My regular 3x3 and your OH were really really close but I'd gotten a little ahead of you... except the Ao50, I really admire your consistency (even if it's conspiring to keep you from that sub 10 single).

Building on my times yesterday, I've just pulled off a 20.88 Ao5 and 22.56 Ao12.

Lack of wind is proving bad for my windsurfing training but good for OH practice!

Sub-20 full step solves are becoming more common and a sub-20 Ao5 seems like a possibility for the future.

Over to you. :)
 
Yes, there's a lot of videos that fail to explain things properly. JPerm has many good videos, but I'm not a very big fan of his intuitive F2L tutorial. He goes through it way too quickly imo, especially for a beginner to follow.

@40yearstosolve, like someone here said earlier, it is very much worth it to start looking into F2L as soon as possible. For me, learning about intuitive F2L was the big aha-moment that got me properly interested in cubing. Until then I had been doing layer by layer, just like you are, and I had seen algorithm sheets for more advanced methods. Specifically a list that had something like 96 different algorithms for F2L. I felt I would never ever be able to learn something like that and hence thought I could never get fast. Then I watched one video on intuitive F2L, which showed that I don't need to know 96 or whatever cases, but only three. On top of that, I did not need to learn any algorithms to solve any of these three cases, they could all be solved intuitively. This was many years ago and I'm not 100% sure which video I watched, but I think it was this one:


Now when I watched it many years later, I see some things that I might have explained differently, but overall I think it is very good with slow and clear instructions. While I have developed quite a few tricks over the past couple of years to improve on F2L, they have all been developed from the basic principles taught in that video. Give it a shot and maybe it will also take your cubing to the next level. :) And of course feel free to ask if the video leaves something unclear.
I think this is the video I first learned intuitive f2l from as well.

I like JPerm videos too, but agree that he sometimes covers things quickly. I usually watch his videos a few times to get everything.
 
Quick report about my Project 588. After 2 months I did 184 of 588 5bld solves. Accuracy has grown from 8% (11/135) to 14 in this month (7/49). Memo time in this week is down to 7:40 but execution is up to ~ 7:20 due to pauses when figuring out memo. Without pauses its around 5 minutes now.
I’m thinking I may have to undertake a project 200 for 3BLD or something similar.

Well done to you. Encouraging to see you’re improvement. Do you have a desired outcome goal, or just to see where you get after 588 solves?
 
Well done to you. Encouraging to see you’re improvement. Do you have a desired outcome goal, or just to see where you get after 588 solves?

There are two goals:
- to get qualification for Polish Nationals (it's enough to solve 5bld during competion);
- to make a solve during PN (maybe it's enough to get medal). There's 45 minutes limit and I want to make 3 attempts. I'm very close to this now.

But I have a goal for every month. In this month is to be with memo time under 8 minutes; and to get accuracy over 10%. In global terms I've started to think I'll be able to solve under 10 minutes.

I’m thinking I may have to undertake a project 200 for 3BLD or something similar.

When I've started 3bld I tired to do 5 solves per day. It gave me a bronze medal with 2:2x solve after 10 months of practicing. Of course 5 solves were only beginnig - when you get familiar with 3bld you will find it quite easy.
 
When I've started 3bld I tired to do 5 solves per day. It gave me a bronze medal with 2:2x solve after 10 months of practicing. Of course 5 solves were only beginnig - when you get familiar with 3bld you will find it quite easy.

I could mangage 5 blind solves a day. I’ll take a sub-4 to qualify to U.S. Nationals, but I’d need a low 1:xx to “medal” or place at nearly any comp. I’d say there may be about a dozen or so blind solvers that attend comps in my area. That’s not too many, but they are mostly sub-2 for 3BLD.

I have a LONG way to go to even get sub-4 in competition, but I’m making progress. A couple weeks ago I finally started working on M2 edges and figured out how to get splits using csTimer. So, I can track my memo time and execution to find improvements and save time.
 
Western championship is almost over - both Jeff and I did badly, triple dnf'd even before the official comp started (staff competition, a day before), pretty much irrelevant after that. But had a good time with Keaton and east coast folks and all west coast BLDers. Jeff and Daniel did two man 3BLD relay, UWR? like 37s, all top BLDers did 8 man relay - it was so hard to get a success, lol.

The only thing I was able to get was MBLD official 6 points, 7/8, finally qualified for Nats. I haven't done much of MBLD but since my 3BLD time was good enough for 10 cubes, tried to focus on accuracy, didn't care about time but always had couple of execution errors here and there. The one DNF from a corner comm - executed reverse way. Felt something weird but couldn't do much. After that, switched everything to OP. I didn't even use any of twist/flip alg, just afraid of any more errors. Anyway, it was one year kinda anniversary of the start of the very first home MBLD attempt (lower part of the picture).

Now, I can pursue 10+ cubes, less worrying about accuracy.


35425249_231496867440168_6601120238643707904_o.jpg
 
Building on my times yesterday, I've just pulled off a 20.88 Ao5 and 22.56 Ao12.

Lack of wind is proving bad for my windsurfing training but good for OH practice!

Sub-20 full step solves are becoming more common and a sub-20 Ao5 seems like a possibility for the future.

Over to you. :)
20.583 Ao5, but next day with no wind I'll be toasted.

13016 18-jun-2018 13:53:21 00:24.271 R2 D' B2 D' B2 L2 B2 R2 U B2 U2 L D2 L D U' R B' F2 R2 L' D2
13015 18-jun-2018 13:52:36 00:22.039 B2 U2 L2 D R2 D B2 U' R2 B2 D R' F2 L' U' F' U' R D' U' R
13014 18-jun-2018 13:51:48 00:18.436 U' L2 B2 L2 U' B2 D' L2 F2 D2 B2 L' B D F2 L2 F R D' U R U2
13013 18-jun-2018 13:51:06 00:19.015 R2 U' B2 D B2 L2 F2 U' B2 D' R F' D' L2 F D' L2 D2 F' L' U2
13012 18-jun-2018 13:50:26 00:20.695 U' L2 F2 L2 D' F2 D2 U' F2 D2 F2 R' F U' R D' L' F2 R U2 B U'
 
Western championship is almost over - both Jeff and I did badly, triple dnf'd even before the official comp started (staff competition, a day before), pretty much irrelevant after that. But had a good time with Keaton and east coast folks and all west coast BLDers. Jeff and Daniel did two man 3BLD relay, UWR? like 37s, all top BLDers did 8 man relay - it was so hard to get a success, lol.

The only thing I was able to get was MBLD official 6 points, 7/8, finally qualified for Nats. I haven't done much of MBLD but since my 3BLD time was good enough for 10 cubes, tried to focus on accuracy, didn't care about time but always had couple of execution errors here and there. The one DNF from a corner comm - executed reverse way. Felt something weird but couldn't do much. After that, switched everything to OP. I didn't even use any of twist/flip alg, just afraid of any more errors. Anyway, it was one year kinda anniversary of the start of the very first home MBLD attempt (lower part of the picture).

Now, I can pursue 10+ cubes, less worrying about accuracy.


View attachment 9225
Congrats Jae! Great work on MBLD!!
 
Back
Top