Older cubers discussions

[One Wheel]

Sorry to see this thread slipping. I wish I had more to add. I had an unusual 4x4 solve just now, I wonder if anybody else has had similar: I use Yau, and after solving my 4th cross edge I saw that I had a complete f2l pair solved and (once I fixed my wrong color scheme) in the right place. I was able to preserve it for the rest of the solve, and ended up with a not-notable time of 1:31.xx.

 

[Tom Joad]

I can bump it to the top every week with an update

Currently times have stagnated. No signs of progress. Learnt many new f2l cases to improve efficiency but still not smoothly enough to integrate them into good lookahead solves.

Also struggling with planning first pair in inspection. Might just do three move cross solves for six months then on to four move cross and so on to drill the idea of always planning first pair. Otherwise I just aimlessly start the solve and end up with a bad solve unless the first pair just presents itself in front of me.

Sub 15 is now a good solve for me, anything over 16 feels really bad but I’m currently doing lots of them due to the amount of new stuff I’m part way through learning.

Still confident progress will be noticeable eventually...

 

[mark49152]

Mini comp report from me.

I hadn't cubed at all since Leeds in July, due to a sore finger and being busy at work, and have rarely been on the forums either. I wasn't sure I would go to UK Championships last weekend, but I tried a few 4BLD solves four days beforehand and found I could still do it and wasn't much slower. So I did a little 4BLD and MBLD practice each day and went along with low expectations of my results.

At the event, I got a 5:06 4BLD success following two sub-5 DNFs. Not a PR, but I was pleased because it's a good time for me and my general pace of solving was back to when I was at my fastest two years ago. That break really seems to have helped.

5BLD was disappointing. I fitted two full attempts into the time limit; both were slow and both DNFed by messing up the very last alg of the solve. The first time was frustrating, but to do it again was a facepalm moment.

In MBLD, my first attempt was a tired 13/20 at the end of the first day after big blind and three FMC attempts. The second and final attempt was the following morning, fresh again, and I finally broke my PR from two years ago with an 18/20 in 59:41. Overall it was my 11th official attempt at 20 cubes since I set my 15 point PR, and finally breaking that PR was my highlight of the weekend. Came 4th, missing podium on time. Now I will need to up my pace and fit 21 cubes into the hour, as my strategy is to always attempt PR+5 cubes!

Finally, 3BLD. Despite lack of practice and not feeling ready, I set a 48.65 PR on the first solve. The memo just stuck very easily and was fast, for me, at about 20-21 seconds. Made it to the finals but all the rest of my solves were slow DNFs, including one which was so bad I bailed out without even starting execution. Definitely my 3BLD accuracy and consistency has suffered from the long break, and I was just lucky to get one good solve.

Also did 3x3, 4x4 and FMC but there's nothing much to say about those.

As always it was great to catch up with the UK seniors and rest of the UK crew, and congrats to everyone on their results.

 

[SpartanSailor]

Sorry to see this thread slipping. I wish I had more to add. I had an unusual 4x4 solve just now, I wonder if anybody else has had similar: I use Yau, and after solving my 4th cross edge I saw that I had a complete f2l pair solved and (once I fixed my wrong color scheme) in the right place. I was able to preserve it for the rest of the solve, and ended up with a not-notable time of 1:31.xx.

I actually feel stressed when I see a solved F2L pair before I begin edge pairing. I get stuck trying to figure out how to preserve it. Sometimes I’ll try to preserve the solved edge but if I try too hard, I end up with much slower time. At this point, unless I’m at the edge pairing stage, I just blow thru a solved edge as if it’s not already solved.

 

[mark49152]

My highlight from the UK Championships 2019.

 

[h2f]

Nice results Mark, @mark49152! Congrats!

 

[pglewis]

The Facebook group has definitely stolen a good bit of the traffic from here but I still check-in here regularly. Congrats on the blind PRs, @mark49152, fantastic results!

Two and a half months off of cigarettes for me now and I've also been much more active. I've only been doing maintenance solves lately but I'm also getting my 3x3 out to get it some fresh air every chance I get.

 

[pjk]

5BLD was disappointing. I fitted two full attempts into the time limit; both were slow and both DNFed by messing up the very last alg of the solve. The first time was frustrating, but to do it again was a facepalm moment.

How frustrating that would be! Was it the same alg you messed up or different?

Two and a half months off of cigarettes for me now and I've also been much more active. I've only been doing maintenance solves lately but I'm also getting my 3x3 out to get it some fresh air every chance I get.

View attachment 10962View attachment 10964View attachment 10963

Awesome pics and congrats on quitting smoking! Keep that going and crush life.

 

[mark49152]

How frustrating that would be! Was it the same alg you messed up or different?

I haven't checked the video but I think it was the Y-perm/setup for the last corner. Certainly the centres were correct and the edges properly formed, so everything up until corners was done correctly. Some of the tredges were misplaced at the end, so it was an execution error during corners rather than a memo error or incorrect commutator.

 

[openseas]

Mini comp report from me.

I hadn't cubed at all since Leeds in July, due to a sore finger and being busy at work, and have rarely been on the forums either. I wasn't sure I would go to UK Championships last weekend, but I tried a few 4BLD solves four days beforehand and found I could still do it and wasn't much slower. So I did a little 4BLD and MBLD practice each day and went along with low expectations of my results.

At the event, I got a 5:06 4BLD success following two sub-5 DNFs. Not a PR, but I was pleased because it's a good time for me and my general pace of solving was back to when I was at my fastest two years ago. That break really seems to have helped.

5BLD was disappointing. I fitted two full attempts into the time limit; both were slow and both DNFed by messing up the very last alg of the solve. The first time was frustrating, but to do it again was a facepalm moment.

In MBLD, my first attempt was a tired 13/20 at the end of the first day after big blind and three FMC attempts. The second and final attempt was the following morning, fresh again, and I finally broke my PR from two years ago with an 18/20 in 59:41. Overall it was my 11th official attempt at 20 cubes since I set my 15 point PR, and finally breaking that PR was my highlight of the weekend. Came 4th, missing podium on time. Now I will need to up my pace and fit 21 cubes into the hour, as my strategy is to always attempt PR+5 cubes!

Finally, 3BLD. Despite lack of practice and not feeling ready, I set a 48.65 PR on the first solve. The memo just stuck very easily and was fast, for me, at about 20-21 seconds. Made it to the finals but all the rest of my solves were slow DNFs, including one which was so bad I bailed out without even starting execution. Definitely my 3BLD accuracy and consistency has suffered from the long break, and I was just lucky to get one good solve.

Also did 3x3, 4x4 and FMC but there's nothing much to say about those.

As always it was great to catch up with the UK seniors and rest of the UK crew, and congrats to everyone on their results.

Nice report & congrats!!!

I have a sore right thumb - not sure when but it does have impact when I cube a little bit aggressively. Trying to slowdown the pace these days, can’t do much big BLDs, unfortunately.

 

[openseas]

I stopped by Japan on my way back to US for Japan Championship.

It’s a 3 day comp but skipping the last day, it ends Monday due to Japan’s Holiday schedule and I needed to come back for work. Not losing much but 5 BLD.

3BLD was actually good, I’ve got 3 success out of 6, all sub 1 min. I even made final ranked 16th @ 1st round, finished 13th @ final.

Both 4BLD and MBLD were terrible, all DNF. MBLD was a miserable 1/13. The only positive thing was, after tons of review (back and forth, multiple times), was able to finish with 55min. Purely rime perspective, I think I can go up to 16-ish.
Execution wise, on the other hand, tons of works to do, including rotationless twist algs, more drilling on comms, etc.

 

[SlechtValk]

Rant-mode:

Am I the only one getting annoyed and frustrated by post by young guys (my assumption) saying things like: "I have started cubing a short while ago (weeks, months) and average X seconds (X < 15). How do I get faster?"

If you started only a short while ago and are faster than many people will ever be no matter how hard they try, you have practised a lot, used many tutorials you do know where to find the stuff to improve further.

Stop annoying and frustrating those who will never be this fast!

Rant-over

Sent from my Nokia 7 plus using Tapatalk

 

[One Wheel]

Rant-mode:

Am I the only one getting annoyed and frustrated by post by young guys (my assumption) saying things like: "I have started cubing a short while ago (weeks, months) and average X seconds (X < 15). How do I get faster?"

If you started only a short while ago and are faster than many people will ever be no matter how hard they try, you have practised a lot, used many tutorials you do know where to find the stuff to improve further.

Stop annoying and frustrating those who will never be this fast!

Rant-over

Sent from my Nokia 7 plus using Tapatalk

A. Yes, that’s annoying
B. I’ve decided that most of those kids are exaggerating how fast they are. “Usually sub-15” without more detail probably means “I got a couple of sub-15 singles, or close to it, and I think I can get more.”

 

[AbsoRuud]

I'm not annoyed by it. It's a fast of life. Kids learn faster. There's this one kid in the Netherlands who started a year ago and he's in the top 10 with regular top 5 finishes.

 

[SlechtValk]

I'm not annoyed by it. It's a fast of life. Kids learn faster. There's this one kid in the Netherlands who started a year ago and he's in the top 10 with regular top 5 finishes.

It is not that I don't believe them.

But if you have learnt to solve so fast in a short amount of time you should know where to find to information to improve further.

And if you really want help, post example solves and/or give a breakdown of your times. That way people can give real tips and advice.

My feeling with posts like those is that they aren't real requests for help, but really boosts about how fast they are.

I know that my annoyance with these post is largely fueled by my own failure to become faster. I'm stuck around 30s for a long time...

Sent from my Nokia 7 plus using Tapatalk

 

[One Wheel]

My feeling with posts like those is that they aren't real requests for help, but really boosts about how fast they are.

Seconded. It’s a classic humblebrag.

 

[mark49152]

Stop annoying and frustrating those who will never be this fast!

The fact is, youngsters improve way, way quicker than us oldies, and go further before hitting their limits. Even if there's an element of humblebragging involved, there's no point getting annoyed or frustrated about faster youngsters' progress or their desire to talk about it. Just enjoy your own progress and feel good about reaching your own goals - or if you're competitive, theres the oldies' rankings to watch!

 

[openseas]

The fact is, youngsters improve way, way quicker than us oldies, and go further before hitting their limits. Even if there's an element of humblebragging involved, there's no point getting annoyed or frustrated about faster youngsters' progress or their desire to talk about it. Just enjoy your own progress and feel good about reaching your own goals - or if you're competitive, theres the oldies' rankings to watch!

Completely agree!


That’s what kids do - brag about their progress but also complain not achieving their goals so quickly (then they expected).

and that’s another reason we have our own thread for oldies.

 

[Miguel.Brazil]

I dont mind about other cubers times . I really enjoy the learning process , now Im very happy with my time ( now betwen 40s -50s for me a wonderfull time !) im improving slowly, perform the algorithms is great pleasure. My goal is tô reach my personal limits. Cubing is Just one of my interests in life .

 

[GAN 356 X]

Difference between older and younger cubers. I find my dad uses mnemonics to remember ales whereas I spam TPS.