Older cubers discussions

[h2f]

Brief update about my 3bld. I've finished learning algs with UF buffer and I used to different order of doing 3bld. I was doing Edges Corners memo and Corners-Edges execution till switching from DF to UF. Now I use CEEC and I'm fine with that. I had a comp last month and I got 1:32.97 with UF. This week I had few nice solves with 50.13 best on stackmat.

 

[Izaden]

Don't know if I'm old enough to be an "old cuber" but I'm 29. I learned to solve 3x3 about a year ago and never bothered trying to improve until this week.

 

[Tom Joad]

Second ever sub 12... was lucky with a pll skip. Can feel a sub 11 on the way...

Next up... Will focus on getting my cross down to 1.5 seconds with no rotations... inspired by jperms video from last week... I don’t think I’ve ever really done any cross practice

 

[openseas]

So, my 3rd 6BLD try was the best DNF so far.

One inner T-center inverse comm
One right Oblique inverse comm
Two left oblique inverse traces

- Switching oblique memo to "edge letter scheme" looks better. Before, I used corner letter scheme which resulted in many trace errors.
- Finding right inner slice for execution is a bit tricky for me since I don't do any big cubes at all other than BLD. I had to count slice position before starting execution.
- non magnetized factory default MF6RS is not easy to maneuver either.


Generated By csTimer on 2019-10-06
single: DNF

Time List:
1. DNF(1:09:20.99)=36:19.02+33:01.97 Lw' Bw2 3Rw' R' L' 3Uw' Bw 3Rw B' L2 3Rw Bw2 3Rw 3Uw2 Lw' D2 Bw2 B' D' Bw2 L2 3Uw' Uw Dw' R' Uw2 Lw2 R 3Fw Lw' Dw2 3Uw2 F U 3Rw L2 F Fw' Uw' B2 D 3Rw2 U2 Uw' Lw2 Dw2 Uw' R L F2 Fw' D B Bw' Rw Lw' 3Uw' L' B 3Fw' 3Uw R' Uw2 Bw 3Fw' U2 R' L' Bw R 3Rw 3Uw2 Dw2 Fw' 3Uw' U' 3Fw L Dw' R

 

[Tom Joad]

Third sub 12

Very lucky again: Two move cross, pll skip...

Can’t wait for this “10. something” which is teasing me from the horizon...

 

[mark49152]

Wow. Haven't visited this thread for almost a month, and I thought there would be lots to catch up on. Only five posts?! Where have all the older cubers gone?

 

[AbsoRuud]

Most topics that are discussed have nothing to do with being an older cuber. The most prominent topic is blind solving, for which there are many other topics. So let's start off a discussion that is specific to older cubers.

How do you feel about being one of the few old people in a competition? How do you interact with the youngsters at comp? Do you try and fit in with the kids, or do you act like a mentor figure, even if they are twice as fast? Do you talk to the parents a lot at comps? Do you get mistaken for a parent?

 

[AbsoRuud]

I'm still here, but preparing to evacuate my house as typhoon Hagibis approaches... Wish me luck.

Good luck sir!

 

[JohnnyReggae]

Most topics that are discussed have nothing to do with being an older cuber. The most prominent topic is blind solving, for which there are many other topics. So let's start off a discussion that is specific to older cubers.

How do you feel about being one of the few old people in a competition? How do you interact with the youngsters at comp? Do you try and fit in with the kids, or do you act like a mentor figure, even if they are twice as fast? Do you talk to the parents a lot at comps? Do you get mistaken for a parent?

Initially I felt a little out being the oldest competitor around, but I found that getting involved helped a lot. So started helping out with running, judging, scrambling etc.. I ended up becoming a Delegate quite early on in my Speedcubing career. So now I'm always involved with the running of logistics on the day, organising, delegating ... it's usually quite a busy day for me. The only downside is that I can't really focus on my solving like I would like to and sit down for 30 minutes to warm up and get a few practice solves in. The positive is that I need to be at each Cape Town competition as currently there are only 2 Delegates in South Africa.

I'm still the oldest competitor usually, but I like it because my speeds usually put me in the finals of each event except 2x2. So I can hold my head high amongst the kids that are so quick.

ps - I don't really care about 2x2 and only practice for 10 minutes here and there is the few days before a comp. Pretty much the same for the likes of Skewb, Pyra, Mega.

 

[bossel]

Wow. Haven't visited this thread for almost a month, and I thought there would be lots to catch up on. Only five posts?! Where have all the older cubers gone?

With age, things slow down More seriously, I am progressing slowly, no records to report. But I notice I am getting better. Main issue is, I don’t practice enough, there is only myself to blame. Started to learn full OLL (I know about half now). At my stage, its absolutely the wrong thing to do, but I like it and it makes me happy. Also practiced the cross, my most unfavorite step. Trying to improve finger tricks, but still way to go. Dunno if its the age or my rheumatism, but in the end its probably because I don’t practice enough I don’t plan to go after the world record, but if one day I average 30s, I‘d be most happye. It might take me many more month, or a year, but it’ll take the time it takes. I am doing this for fun, and to challenge my grey cells

 

[Tom Joad]

With age, things slow down More seriously, I am progressing slowly, no records to report. But I notice I am getting better. Main issue is, I don’t practice enough, there is only myself to blame. Started to learn full OLL (I know about half now). At my stage, its absolutely the wrong thing to do, but I like it and it makes me happy. Also practiced the cross, my most unfavorite step. Trying to improve finger tricks, but still way to go. Dunno if its the age or my rheumatism, but in the end its probably because I don’t practice enough I don’t plan to go after the world record, but if one day I average 30s, I‘d be most happye. It might take me many more month, or a year, but it’ll take the time it takes. I am doing this for fun, and to challenge my grey cells

Whilst oll is arguably “least reward for most learning time” it is aesthetically pleasing and like you say, what is this all about if not a bit of fun!

Just started videoing my solves and now appreciate just how bad my cross is, so that’s what I’ll be practicing too.

Whilst I am far from the fastest on here, I might put up a video of some “slow turning 19 second” type solves to inspire anyone who thinks their slow turning is a limiting factor on their times...

 

[One Wheel]

I like reading this thread, but I haven’t had much to add of late. I got some new puzzles a couple weeks ago:

- YJ Yulong v2 m is a good 2x2, mostly I’ve noticed faster execution with the few 2BLD solves I’ve done.
- Yuxin Little Magic 8x8 turns very nicely, but it’s very big, not really magnetizable, and came with a smashed corner. It’s on its way back to TheCubicle, they’ll give me credit and I’ll probably try the MF8
- YLM magnetic Square-1 is a really nice quality puzzle. I’m not a huge fan of Square-1 as a puzzle, too alg-heavy, but I’ve done about 150 solves on this and my rolling Ao100 is down to 1:08.xx.

 

[h2f]

Wow. Haven't visited this thread for almost a month, and I thought there would be lots to catch up on. Only five posts?! Where have all the older cubers gone?

Facebook kills forums. I've seen it few times.

 

[SenorJuan]

I too have little worth posting, though I do check here a couple of times a week.
I don't make time to practice so much, either, my solve times are getting longer ... and Max's new OH WR makes me seem even slower. A look at the reconstruction of his solve doesn't help either, it's a pretty conventional solve with a PLL skip, if only I could turn at 10 TPS ( or think that quick ... )
I did buy a Ghost Cube in the summer, a blue one with 'carbon fibre' stickers. I've done about 10 solves on it, but it's not as fun as I had hoped. Really hard to keep it aligned whilst turning, and the visual cues that tell you it's aligned are pretty much non-existent. You have to concentrate really hard, and if you do make a minor mistake, trying to spot it, and correct it, is really tough. The 'parity' problem, however is not a problem. The two 'identical' flat triangular corner pieces are distinguishable on the carbon sticker version, the 'weave' pattern differs. So you can choose the correct one. Hence I recommend buying carbon stickers if you're OK with a little cheating.
I will try and visit the UK Champs in Stevenage next week to say hello to folks.

 

[SpartanSailor]

Over the weekend, I attended a local competition. Nothing spectacular, but I felt like it was a generally good day. My focus these days is 4x4–chasing the ever elusive sub-1:00

This past weekend I competed in 3x3, 2x2, 4x4 and OH.

3x3: Im still seeking an official sub-20 average. This weekend wasn’t a pb but a 20.71. I’ll take it. My times were still overall decent: 18, 21, 22, 21, 19. The upside of those 21s and 22 is I realised I was making errors or struggling and kept my nerves in check and managed to have “decent“ “bad” solves. Nevertheless, it’s a lot more consistent across the average than I’ve had in several preceding comps.
highlight of the comp was hanging out with a fellow old-guy. on our 3rd solve, they happen to place us side by side on the competitor table. We laughed that they
were giving us an “old guy head to head”. Then, we ended up getting the EXACT same time of 22.492 (or something). But it was exactly the same to the third decimal. Lol

2x2: I haven’t touched my 2x2 since US Nationals. I don’t practice so I had no objective. Ended with an average of 7.9 or some thing. That’s fine.

4x4: like my 3x3 quest for sub-20, I’m in this for the long haul. Given the amount of practice I put into this event, my progress can be best measured on the same scale as the history of the planet. Slow... would be an overstatement of my rate of progression. That said, I was pleased to get 1:05 to start. Cutoff was 1:10, so that removed that pressure. Then 1:13. far more inconsistency and variation with 4x4. Then 1:04, 1:13 again and ended with DNF. Oh well. I was feeling good about my look ahead during edge pairing and even predicted OL and PLL pretty decently when dealing with parity which reduced paused in those final steps. So, despite the times, I’ll call it a success. Oh, the DNF was that I just quit mid-solve when I realised it was going to be slower than 1:13.

OH: i was quite pleased with this event. I don’t practice a lot, but I have improved considerably since my most WCA profile time was posted such awhile ago. My goal Was to make the 45s cutoff and get a decent average in the 40s range. I was pretty consistent with 42, 49, 42, 44, 42. Made cut off and averaged 43.3. I have done better at home, but all things considered this was a very good result for me in a comp setting. I’ll keep playing with OH for a bit, it seems to be fun for the time being.

We have another next month that will be the anniversary of our very first comp (our = me and my son). I don’t have any particular expectations, but I’ll take another shot at that 3x3 sub-20 average. They are not hosting 4x4.... so that will have to wait for another day.

happy Monday folks!

 

[Pascal-NL]

How are you old guys doing? When I was a kid I liked to play with my 3x3 for a while but I sucked big time. I am now 42 and just starting to learn how to solve the cubes. This results in something great. I can only get faster with solving the cubes with age instead of getting slower
My daughter of 10 is now curious watching me while I am learning algorithms.

 

[AbsoRuud]

How are you old guys doing? When I was a kid I liked to play with my 3x3 for a while but I sucked big time. I am now 42 and just starting to learn how to solve the cubes. This results in something great. I can only get faster with solving the cubes with age instead of getting slower
My daughter of 10 is now curious watching me while I am learning algorithms.

I'm doing great! I got my Ao2000 down to 29.98 today. Minor milestones and all. Where are you from? Always nice to meet fellow Dutch cubers! Are you planning on attending any competitions soon? It's always nice to go, even if you're slow (like me) because it's nice to hang out with a very friendly community. And you can always try out cubes at a competition to see which ones you like.

 

[Pascal-NL]

I live in Jisp. It is a very small village between Zaandam and Purmerend. I just started with cubing so I have no clue yet if there is a competition nearby soon.

 

[SlechtValk]

I am a 46 year old Dutch guy.
I was pretty active with cubing around 2011 (8 years ago... Pfft, time flies). I was trying to get sub-25, but after a while I realised that I had to really work hard to get there and got discouraged.

So I did quit trying to get faster and just continued to do casual solves. And I taught several of my colleagues and a niece to solve the cube.

Just recently I got back into cubing and have renewed my collection (3x3-8x8, megaminx and my first square-1) with modern cubes. Haven't yet updated my 2x2, because I don't like solving it very much.

And already started learning new methods for solving the 4x4 (Yau) and Megaminx (Westlund).
It's fun, but also challenging to get my brain to accept these new methods.

 

[AbsoRuud]

Welkom Hans. Hope to see you at a competition at some point!