[Member Intro] Past my cubing prime

[jwicked87]

Hello everyone. I’m in my 40s and just go into cubing in the last year, thanks to my nephew who encouraged me to learn so we would have something fun to do together. I’m so glad I did! I really enjoy 3x3 and it pretty much goes with me wherever I go. I’ve done a little 2x2 and 4x4 but I’m mostly interested in getting better at 3x3. I’ve got a solid grasp of the fundamentals and I average around 35 seconds but I’d like to get better by learning new techniques and becoming more efficient before I continue trying to get faster. Just finished leaning full PLL and I’ve learned a small handful of OLLs. I’m glad to be here and I look forward to learning from people who are more experienced than I am ( and likely quite a bit younger).

 

[abunickabhi]

Hi there and welcome.

What do you mean by having a solid grasp of the fundamentals?

 

[Megaminx lover]

Hi
Dont be too sad that you're 'old', apparently now that Yiheng has the average WR you have to be under 9 to be considered young...

 

[jwicked87]

Hi
Dont be too sad that you're 'old', apparently now that Yiheng has the average WR you have to be

 

[jwicked87]

Thanks. Never too old to learn something new and challenging, right. It’s a lot of fun watching those super fast cubers no matter what their age.

 

[jwicked87]

Hi there and welcome.

What do you mean by having a solid grasp of the fundamentals?

Hello and thanks for the warm welcome. I'm talking about the steps of CFOP and fingertricks. I mostly have good, fluid fingertricks but I'm currently working on not regripping for easy things like R U R'. Its difficult because I'm undoing habits I learned from the start but I feel it's the right way to go. The same goes for F2L: I learned how to do all the cases but I'm constantly looking for more efficient ways by testing new algorithms or doing insertions from different angles rather than rotating. I'm trying not to get to a place where I am just practicing everything I already know and reinforcing old habits even if there are better ways of doing things. In addition to being able to plan my cross before i start turning, I'm working on finding a balance in how I handle F2L. For example, I recently started paying attention to edge orientation but I often find that it's easier for me not to rotate when i have a bad edge and instead just to perform a specific algorithm for a case or to do an f R' f' or something like that. I find that I'm not sure where my priority should be; do I look for easy cases in the U layer? Try to fill the back slots first? Do rotationless inserts to better keep track of solved slots? I used to just lock onto the first pair I saw and do it as quickly as possible but that led to nice, quick F2L pairs with waaaay too long pauses between. To make a long story short, I learned all the steps but now I want to learn them better and more efficiently and relearn things if need be, instead of just trying to get faster.

 

[abunickabhi]

Oh makes sense.

By doing more solves, our decision to do back slot, easy cases on U layer get fine tuned.

Don't think, just solve.

 

[Running for cube]

Hi
Dont be too sad that you're 'old', apparently now that Yiheng has the average WR you have to be under 9 to be considered young...

Yeah, we are all too young to break wr now

 

[jwicked87]

Oh makes sense.

By doing more solves, our decision to do back slot, easy cases on U layer get fine tuned.

Don't think, just solve.

Thanks for your feedback. I really love the cubing community - people are always so encouraging and eager to help each other out.

 

[Isaac VM]

Welcome!

There is no age for cubing Be sure to checkout this thread (I find it very interesting) and if you are into comps you might also want to check out the senior rankings.

Happy cubing!

 

[OreKehStrah]

Hello and thanks for the warm welcome. I'm talking about the steps of CFOP and fingertricks. I mostly have good, fluid fingertricks but I'm currently working on not regripping for easy things like R U R'. Its difficult because I'm undoing habits I learned from the start but I feel it's the right way to go. The same goes for F2L: I learned how to do all the cases but I'm constantly looking for more efficient ways by testing new algorithms or doing insertions from different angles rather than rotating. I'm trying not to get to a place where I am just practicing everything I already know and reinforcing old habits even if there are better ways of doing things. In addition to being able to plan my cross before i start turning, I'm working on finding a balance in how I handle F2L. For example, I recently started paying attention to edge orientation but I often find that it's easier for me not to rotate when i have a bad edge and instead just to perform a specific algorithm for a case or to do an f R' f' or something like that. I find that I'm not sure where my priority should be; do I look for easy cases in the U layer? Try to fill the back slots first? Do rotationless inserts to better keep track of solved slots? I used to just lock onto the first pair I saw and do it as quickly as possible but that led to nice, quick F2L pairs with waaaay too long pauses between. To make a long story short, I learned all the steps but now I want to learn them better and more efficiently and relearn things if need be, instead of just trying to get faster.

Welcome! It's always nice to see new people joining the community with a good mindset for improving! As for your F2L thoughts, the main things to keep in mind is the avoidance of solving 2 diagonal slots like FR and BL for example, using EO recognition to maximize pairs that can be solved rotation less, and not avoiding rotations excessively. A lot of cubers find lookahead for things like f R f' to be worse than if they rotated and would only use as a last slot solution, so that's one example where avoiding the rotation is not universally considered better. If you need help, advice, solve/solution critique, etc feel free to message me.

 

[Deleted member 36445]

Don't think, just solve.

instructions unclear. I accidentally threw my cube at my sister's cat

 

[jwicked87]

Welcome! It's always nice to see new people joining the community with a good mindset for improving! As for your F2L thoughts, the main things to keep in mind is the avoidance of solving 2 diagonal slots like FR and BL for example, using EO recognition to maximize pairs that can be solved rotation less, and not avoiding rotations excessively. A lot of cubers find lookahead for things like f R f' to be worse than if they rotated and would only use as a last slot solution, so that's one example where avoiding the rotation is not universally considered better. If you need help, advice, solve/solution critique, etc feel free to message me.

Thanks for the help. Now that you mention it I do tend to end up with diagonal slots solved. I think I need to draw some focus away from just the first pair I see. I spot a pair, get tunnel vision to recognize and solve the case and it’s not until I’m done setting it up that I’m usually even aware of where the slot is that it belongs in. I need to work on my awareness of where my solved and unsolved slots are. That’s why I’ve been practicing rotationless solves - it helps me keep track of where I’ve put everything! Thanks again. I really appreciate your input.

 

[1x1 wr holder!]

Hello there fellow Californian. In cubing, age doesn’t matter. As long as your doing what you love with people that you love, you stay young at heart. Tip: it’s good you know 2x2 and 4x4. It’s easy to burn out after lots of time on one puzzle, and trying another puzzle can feel extremely refreshing. I wish you success on your cubing journey.

 

[jwicked87]

Hello there fellow Californian. In cubing, age doesn’t matter. As long as your doing what you love with people that you love, you stay young at heart. Tip: it’s good you know 2x2 and 4x4. It’s easy to burn out after lots of time on one puzzle, and trying another puzzle can feel extremely refreshing. I wish you success on your cubing journey.

That’s good advice. Thanks. I do have a 2x2 and a 4x4. You’re absolutely right about enjoying your time and having fun. Without that, what’s the point? You seem nice but I should warn you-one day I’ll smash your 1x1 record! Mark my words!

 

[efattah]

You can average sub-10 at any age. Don't expect to average sub-6 though....