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Older cubers discussions

mark49152

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And a quick one for all the experienced mbld folks: is there an ideal breakdown for memo/execution time? Memo is the current bottleneck so I want to work out ideal memo time and work backwards from that. My 7 attempt was just over on time but was doable, if I wanna get crazy and set a goalpost at 10 I should work out how fast the memo needs to be to get there.
I'm with the others, 40/20, and that seems consistent with most of the solvers I watch on YouTube too - except for those doing 40+, who need to leave a bit more time for execution.

To me, MBLD is all about time management. IMHO it's important to develop a good system of blocks, reviews and checkpoints. I do blocks of 4 and aim for 6 minutes per block for initial memo plus one review checking the tracing too. For a 20 cube attempt I therefore have checkpoints for the first 4 blocks at 6, 12, 18 and 24 mins. After that I quickly review those first 16 cubes, for which I budget 5 mins, before doing the last block - so further checkpoints at 29 and 35 mins. That leaves me a 5 minute safety margin, which I do usually eat into. I consider 38 or less quite safe, as I can then afford a steady execution; sometimes I'll run as late as 42 mins in which case I have to rush execution.
 

pglewis

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IMHO it's important to develop a good system of blocks, reviews and checkpoints.

Yeah, this was the next thing I was going to have to work out a system for. My jump from attempting 3 to attempting 7 was literally just a few successive days but it was already clear I was going to need to subdivide into groups soon. My instincts would have probably been 5 or 6 per group but I'll wager you've found a good "butter zone", so 4 it is for now.
 

mark49152

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My instincts would have probably been 5 or 6 per group but I'll wager you've found a good "butter zone", so 4 it is for now.
Some time ago I reviewed several videos of top solvers to see what they do. They fall into two groups. Mark, Maskow and Kamil do their first review every 2 cubes so you could argue their smallest block size is 2. They then review again every 8 cubes and once more at some large number like 24 or 32. Shivam and Graham do first review after 8 cubes and 1 or 2 more later, which I think is the more modern approach. Four is somewhere in between but for the number of cubes I attempt it's in proportion to 8, and my plan is that once I get to 24 cubes I'll start working with blocks of 8 instead.
 

Mike Hughey

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I was trying to go for blocks of 2 and 8, to copy the experts from a couple of years ago. But since then I've discovered I do better with 2, 4, and 8, which is probably terrible for advancing upward from 16, but it made 16 reachable.

Perhaps I should try 4 and 16. Maybe that would really work for me.

4 is a good block for me because it's one room.
 

pglewis

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Another reason 4 feels attractive right now is practice time. A full mbld attempt is a time and mental investment for me to undertake at the moment. Besides the hour attempt itself there is scrambling and prep and then postmortem afterwards (which is best done soon after the attempt). All told probably an hour and a half+, one hour of which kinda needs to be during a good focus period. If I can practice blocks of 4 in a half hour or less it feels like I could tool up for full attempts somewhat without always needing to do a full attempt.
 

SpartanSailor

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FINALLY sat down for some 3BLD practice today. Wow! I’m rusty... string of DNFs with each one slower than the previous—all of which were far slower than I was doing a few months ago. Shouldn’t be too surprised, I suppose. I have had some 3BLD Success recently, just haven’t done any dedicated sessions. Not expecting too much at this comp in a couple weeks. I’ll probably focus more on OH and 7x7 so I can get official times (average for OH, single for 7x7) under the respective cutoffs.
 

pglewis

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FINALLY sat down for some 3BLD practice today. Wow! I’m rusty... string of DNFs with each one slower than the previous—all of which were far slower than I was doing a few months ago. Shouldn’t be too surprised, I suppose. I have had some 3BLD Success recently, just haven’t done any dedicated sessions. Not expecting too much at this comp in a couple weeks. I’ll probably focus more on OH and 7x7 so I can get official times (average for OH, single for 7x7) under the respective cutoffs.

Looks like we're both in remedial 3bld mode. I'll be picking up where I left off on my image pair app as well, even in the prototype stage it has been invaluable for me... much better than the old spreadsheet I started with. I'll be creating a post around here once I get that dusted off.

Good luck on the upcoming comp!
 

SpartanSailor

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The stars aligned! I got a solid 6x6 solve all the way through with no OLL parities, smashed my 3:54.xx single PB with a 3:46.88. The YLM 6 M is breaking in beautifully.

I almost have the algs down to actually start trying 4BLD solves.
Damn! Very nicely done!! I hope to learn all the algs in 2019 for 4BLD too... I want that to be smooth before I get too ambitious with 4BLD attempts.
 
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Boogie dude

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Hello fellow cubers. I was directed here by a fellow mature cuber, I will be 50 next month. So I was around when the Rubik’s cube craze started.
I am reading a few posts, and seeing a lot of abbreviations. Hopefully I will become conversant in time.
My main solve method is the cross then build the layers.
But I am now looking at the roux method,
I am currently considering a new speed cube.
A few years back I set myself a goal of a sub 1 minute solve and managed it. I even got down to 32 seconds but my long term goal is to get sub 20 seconds every time.
Another of my goals is to get my turning technique better. But I need to understand notation better.
But I am just enjoying solving my cube again.
 

JanW

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Hello oldies! I haven't been around in about 6 months, haven't had much spare time for cubing lately either. Work has been hectic and I also spent two months in Africa, where I would occasionally do some blind solving on the balcony, with a beautiful view of the Atlantic ocean, which makes me wonder why I chose an activity that required I have my eyes closed...

The other day I had some friends over who got interested in my cubes and to my horror I found my skills have deteriorated to the point where I cannot even remember any R-perms after a few glasses of glühwein. Looks like I need some more practice.

Any interesting developments in the scene? Any new hardware I need to check out? Any of you oldies set a world record yet? Is this thread still heavily focused on bld (from the looks of the last page looks like you're all doing mbld by now)?
 

JanW

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Welcome back! I find practicing PLLs whilst drinking aids in later recall after a couple glasses of my favourite scotch or whiskey. So... as they say, train how you fight!
Thanks! Good idea, I'll keep that in mind!

I had a look at the WCA website and Wow! What is this madness? 3.47 single? 3:01 5bld??
 

SpartanSailor

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I know. That 3x3 single is insane. Some kid in China... I can’t see that being beat for quite some time. All the stars must have been aligned for that youngster!

The 5BLD is borderline insulting, for those of us that can’t even barely solve a sighted 5x5 that fast or 3BLD that fast! It’s remarkable how fast these times are....
 

Mike Hughey

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I suppose it's possible that 3x3x3 single will last a while, but I'm not sure of that. Max Park is just amazing, and he tends to be as good in competition as he is at home. He has a 3.14 single PB at home, along with a 4.15 mean of 3, a 4.64 average of 5, and a 5.75 average of 10,000. (Yes, that's 10,000!!!) So while it would take some luck, Max does go to a lot of competitions, and I could see him doing it someday soon if he gets a bit lucky.

As for Stanley's 3:01 5BLD, yeah, that's Stanley for you. He just knocks them out like they're nothing. I was really happy to get my PB a few months ago and get second place to him, with a time that was only one minute more than 3 times his winning time. :) To think I used to be competitive at this...
 

SpartanSailor

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I agree about Max. Playing the numbers he could do it sooner than anyone else that comes to mind. I still think it’ll take a bit for all that to align...even for Max. But hey, I’m just guessing and look forward to when it does happen.

Although selfishly, I’m more excited about getting my OWN sub-20 average someday. Lol... I’m not sure which will happen first; my first official sub-20 Ao5 or Max breaking the 333 WR single!
 

Mike Hughey

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Although selfishly, I’m more excited about getting my OWN sub-20 average someday. Lol... I’m not sure which will happen first; my first official sub-20 Ao5 or Max breaking the 333 WR single!
I hope you get there quicker than me - when I was at your speed in competition (2010), it took me 3 more years before I got my first official sub-20. And to this day, I still only have 2 of them.
 
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