Older cubers discussions

[openseas]

PB this morning 1:02.98 - Sub 1 the goal in 2019. (p.s. it was a PLL skip).

Congrats! You’re getting there.

Are you planning to compete in Warm Up comp or WC?

 

[David Zemdegs]

Congrats! You’re getting there.

Are you planning to compete in Warm Up comp or WC?

I generally compete in every comp in Melbourne. So there will be quite a few next year including the WC!

 

[SpartanSailor]

This weekend is the final push... by Sunday, one way or another, I will be done with my semester of classes. I took a full-time student load on top of my normal full time job and family responsibilities. I haven’t had much time to practice, but have still managed to make some improvements—that has been especially shocking. However, the event that has probably suffered most is 3BLD. I just haven’t had any time in the past couple months to really practice. I’m looking forward to some more free time and getting my 3BLD back “in shape”. I have a couple comps in January and one includes 3BLD...

Anyway, I know I’ve been relatively quiet around here lately and just wanted to give a brief update. After this weekend, I hope to really dial in my 3BLD and get a sub-3 official time. Realistically, I’d LOVE to get that down to 2:30....

 

[SpartanSailor]

Got my first sub-5min on 6x6x6 today. 4:54.93 with a PB ao5 at 5:07.xx as well. A little surprised about and was fortunately enough to have that happen on the forum weekly comp. Still nearly last in the 6x6x6 competition, but I’m pleased to see the improvement, even if I’ll never get to a “fast” time, it’s a fun even to mix in from time to time for the weekly comp.

Anyone with upcoming comps soon?

 

[One Wheel]

Got my first sub-5min on 6x6x6 today. 4:54.93 with a PB ao5 at 5:07.xx as well. A little surprised about and was fortunately enough to have that happen on the forum weekly comp. Still nearly last in the 6x6x6 competition, but I’m pleased to see the improvement, even if I’ll never get to a “fast” time, it’s a fun even to mix in from time to time for the weekly comp.

Anyone with upcoming comps soon?

Nice on 6x6! I’ve slowed down on 6x6 a bit, I should practice more.

I will need to figure out how to prioritize: I’m going to be organizing a comp in early February with 3-7, feet, 3-5BLD, and probably Megaminx. I’m far from proficient at 3BLD, need to learn 4BLD and 5BLD, and running close to the fairly generous cutoffs for 6x6 and Megaminx. Plus I think if I work on feet a little I could get sub-1:30, and a lot I could go sub-1:00 by the end of next year. Hard to decide how to spend my time.

 

[chtiger]

Anyone with upcoming comps soon?

I've got one next weekend. It's a 3 day comp with every event. but I already had plans for Saturday, so I'm going Friday for 4BLD and 5BLD and back Sunday for MBLD, 2x2, and 3x3. Mainly going for the slim chance of a 5BLD success.

 

[SpartanSailor]

3-day event! That’s huge. Best of luck with that 5BLD attempt.

 

[pglewis]

Still keeping up maintenance solves. I ironed out my goofy G-Perm issue, OLLs still aren't 100% again but are less rusty than at their worst. I landed several 20.x in a handful of timed solves last night after warming up, just to get a gauge since I haven't been timing, so my best solves aren't far off from when I'd peaked. I can feel I'm turning a smidgen slower with a little more recognition delay on LL than when I was at my peak, so the times matched what I expected.

Still no comp on the horizon for me. Between what they've been holding in the region and my schedule there's been nothing I could hit that included bld and mbld and since I don't speedsolve big cubes that's what I'm holding out for. Extra sorry I couldn't make Great Lakes now, that was the perfect comp and reasonably close but I couldn't commit on my schedule in time.

Also, it's fair to say I've officially reverted back to my trusty GTS2-M as my main. The 3-M held that title for a bit then the Gans 354 for a while. There are some aspects of both those puzzles that I still like more than the GTS2-M but as an overall puzzle I just keep coming back.

 

[openseas]

Not much going on lately...

1) Trying to start learning UF buffers. Not that I'm expecting huge gain. Mostly, I need to drill edge comms any way, so, just switching to UF instead of spending more time & efforts for DF. Just started, looks like a long way to go, all those new finger tricks and grip...
2) My next comp will be Dec 26th which will be start of 5 consecutive weeks comps. So, switching buffer may not be a good idea in terms of official results....
3) Randomly tried 4BLD execution only, got a PB, 2:34 single, 2:53 ao5 - these are 4BLD execution only, haha....

 

[h2f]

1) Trying to start learning UF buffers. Not that I'm expecting huge gain. Mostly, I need to drill edge comms any way, so, just switching to UF instead of spending more time & efforts for DF. Just started, looks like a long way to go, all those new finger tricks and grip...

Huh. Same me. I was drilling DF and I've read Graham's post about his fingertricks. Mark (@mark49152) asked why UF is better than DF. I've checked Graham's answer, checked few comms. I liked them. Now I'm drilling UF. I'm gonna to back to practice 3bld when I go through all comms and I'll be able to figure out all cases.

 

[mark49152]

Huh. Same me. I was drilling DF and I've read Graham's post about his fingertricks. Mark (@mark49152) asked why UF is better than DF. I've checked Graham's answer, checked few comms. I liked them. Now I'm drilling UF. I'm gonna to back to practice 3bld when I go through all comms and I'll be able to figure out all cases.

I decided that's the last time I'm going to get involved in a DF-UF debate. The conclusion seems to be that some cases have more finger friendly algs with UF. However, the more I ask and the more I hear that answer, the more of a dilemma I face: continue to "waste" time on DF, or start again with UF. The bottom line is, because I have a busy life, I like to learn incrementally at my convenience, and I can't see myself ever being willing to throw out everything I've learned for DF and face a year of official DNFs while I get used to UF. I'm unlikely to ever reach a level where it makes a significant difference anyway.

 

[h2f]

I decided that's the last time I'm going to get involved in a DF-UF debate.

Ha! So thanks Mark. That were my thoughts too: drill DF or switch to UF and waste some time. My 54.xx is so painfull for me to watch and Grahams comms seemed to me so natural so I decided to switch. I give myslef 2-3 months to see where it leads. If I'm fine with my times, I'll stay.

 

[pglewis]

Surprisingly good batch of solves today, including a 15.88 single with a PLL skip and beat my Ao12 PB by a tenth. That high 15 was my 51st solve, I'm glad I wasn't watching closely or I'd have ended the session at 50 lol. The Ao12 was the biggest surprise, I was already overdue for another good single and averages longer than Ao5 aren't quite back in shape yet, or so I thought.

Spoiler: Stats

solves/total: 51/51

single
best: 15.88
worst: 48.50

mean of 3
current: 19.85 (σ = 4.65)
best: 19.85 (σ = 4.65)

avg of 5
current: 22.47 (σ = 3.33)
best: 21.40 (σ = 1.32)

avg of 12
current: 22.45 (σ = 2.61)
best: 22.45 (σ = 2.61)

avg of 25
current: 23.84 (σ = 3.32)
best: 23.84 (σ = 3.32)

avg of 50
current: 24.97 (σ = 3.84)
best: 24.97 (σ = 3.84)

Average: 25.05 (σ = 3.83)
Mean: 25.70

 

[SpartanSailor]

Just hanging around the hotel room in Washington waiting to meet with family for breakfast... spent some time with my 3x3 and 4x4... took a short break, returned to 4x4 and nailed a new PB of 56.77! Only the second time I’ve gone sub-1 and my previous PB was back on 21 July 2018. My wife, saw the fist pumps and said, “I assume that was a good time.”

Pretty stoked about this one. The centers came together well. All the edges happened smoothly and quickly (for me) and then F2L went well. I noticed around OLL that I was at 49-50 seconds... I tried to ignore that and got luck to avoid parity so it worked out just right. I’ve had several 1:05s over the past couple weeks that were the result of double parity, but it feels REAL good to see the timer say 56.77.

 

[openseas]

Ha! So thanks Mark. That were my thoughts too: drill DF or switch to UF and waste some time. My 54.xx is so painfull for me to watch and Grahams comms seemed to me so natural so I decided to switch. I give myslef 2-3 months to see where it leads. If I'm fine with my times, I'll stay.

I think it will take at least 6 month for me.
My reason is not that my DF comm executions are terrible - it will be same bad and ugly with UF as well. But when I’m in the learning stage, just easier to go with “recommended method” so that later I don’t have to blame my self why I didn’t do that If I stick to DF, it may take additional 2-3 month for drilling. So, 3 extra month, may be not too bad. When I learned 33, ignored my son’s advice, stick to “whatever way to get me no assistance 30s solving” asap mentality. It ended up with terrible F2L and others which I need to start over to improve efficiency if I ever get to practice 333 again.

Not sure how I handle 4/5BLD though. I may go with UF for 3BLD, DFr for 4/5 BLD which will sure be a regrettable decision in near future.

BTW, edge comms are much easier than corner comms - learning is not a much of issue but drilling will be. We’ll see.

 

[h2f]

Not sure how I handle 4/5BLD though. I may go with UF for 3BLD, DFr for 4/5 BLD which will sure be a regrettable decision in near future.

BTW, edge comms are much easier than corner comms - learning is not a much of issue but drilling will be. We’ll see.

It seems very reasonable. I dont know how I will do 5bld but maybe I'll stay with df/dfr. Yeah, edge comms are easier.

 

[mark49152]

It seems very reasonable. I dont know how I will do 5bld but maybe I'll stay with df/dfr. Yeah, edge comms are easier.

I plan to stick with DF for 4/5BLD for now because I'm not convinced the benefits would be as significant as the UF folks claim for 3BLD. For example, u/d and f/b slices are not as nice anyway, so I expect to use r/l for most cases, which means lots of different algs from 3BLD anyway.

For 3BLD I'm going to stick with DF until I'm sub-40. Once I'm the first sub-40 over-40 I'll reconsider whether DF is holding me back

 

[pglewis]

Definitely an interesting discussion as someone who hasn't taken up comms yet nor committed to any buffers.

 

[h2f]

I plan to stick with DF for 4/5BLD for now because I'm not convinced the benefits would be as significant as the UF folks claim for 3BLD. For example, u/d and f/b slices are not as nice anyway, so I expect to use r/l for most cases, which means lots of different algs from 3BLD anyway.

Me too. I'like r2/m2. I'm not sure if I could handle with E/S moves with midges in 5bld. After my failure in August in 5bld - after 4 months of practice 5bld - I'm gonna back to 5bld. My goal for 2019 is to make an official solve. There's gonna 10 comps with all events and I hope to go for few.

For 3BLD I'm going to stick with DF until I'm sub-40. Once I'm the first sub-40 over-40 I'll reconsider whether DF is holding me back

Amazing goal! I wish I was sub50 globally.

 

[chtiger]

Comp results from Friday/Sunday - http://www.cubecomps.com/live.php?cid=3801&compid=5
Finally had a round of 2x2 that wasn't completely sloppy, no 5BLD success, 4BLD PB barely, MBLD was disappointing, 3x3 wasn't close to sub-20.
Weird stat that may be a first - had PBs in 2x2 avg and 4BLD with the improvement in 2x2 (1.13 sec) bigger than in 4BLD (1 sec)

Spoiler: details on the BLD attempts

Had 1hr30min cumulative for 4 and 5BLD. I'm not used to or good at doing multiple big blinds together. I've only done more than one 5BLD in a day once ever, and that was at a comp with one solve in the morning and one in the afternoon (and one the previous day). So I was hoping for a success on the first attempt, and anything after that would be a bonus.

5BLD attempt 1 - Wasn't very close, but I was satisfied. Time was sorta fast for me, 30:34 I think, especially since I spent what felt like 5 minutes trying to recall the next to last center pair, which I did eventually. Corners were correct, but every other type had a few pieces wrong.
4BLD attempt 1 - Was just happy to get a success right after doing a 5BLD, and very surprised to get PB.
5BLD attempt 2 - Did good to get the memo down in a reasonable time. Accidentally memoed the centers in the opposite order as usual though, and that caused me to make an execution error which I didn't think I could undo, so quit midsolve.
4BLD attempt 2 - brain finally turned to mush. Was going to be slower than my first solve, and wouldn't have time for a 3rd attempt to try for an average, so quit during memo.
MBLD - considered doing 9, but settled on 8 so I wouldn't have to worry about time, then almost ran out of time, 4/8 59:37. One was off by 3 edges because of an edge pair executed backwards, which I should've realized. One was way off, 4 corners and 3 edges. And two were off by 3 corners. I need to figure out why that keeps happening. Last two attempts, 5 of the 7 DNFs were off by 3 corners. I don't generally do corners in pairs, so I shouldn't be doing pairs backwards like with the edges.