Recording Yourself Cubing

[Hiero]

I know 99.99% of people on here have already done this and have a million videos of themselves cubing on youtube. I did this for the first time and it opened my eyes to a few things. What I thought I needed to work on was not what showed up in the video.

I am pretty slow at around 40 sec. and I thought turning speed was the problem and cube rotations. So I have been working on this for the last week or two. However, after observing the video I am shocked by how many pauses I have and how long they are. I think if you add up all the time I am just staring at the cube it would total about 10-15 seconds of the solve.

Anyway, for the .01% of people on here who have not done it yet and are wondering what to work on to get faster, try recording yourself and watching 5-10 solves. Compare yourself to someone who solves it faster and see what you need to work on. You can also get a good idea of how long it takes you to complete each step.

 

[TheMachanga]

A year ago I was going to post a megaminx solve video. I had a 4:30 time and was going as "Fast" as I could. I saw the video a I was like =O. I kept pausing and my TPS was horrible. I recorded my self again making sure I prevent that. I got a 3:30.

 

[ChrisBird]

From my experience, recording my solves and just watching them again, even if it isn't onto Youtube, I can see where I made mistakes, where I did well, and figure out what I need to improve on and what I need to continue doing well.

It allows me to structure my practice so it isn't just random solving, but a serious attempt to get faster.

~Chris

 

[HelpCube]

Ya, I thought I was doing pretty good with 2-look pll recognition and was trying to get my f2l better, but after watching some solves from toronto winter, I noticed that i had huge breaks in my 2-look pll. were talkin like 5-10 seconds for just 2 algorithms. I've really improved that and got a 16 second pb

 

[Dene]

To be honest I thought this was obvious, hence why so many people have done it. However there are still so many noobs that ask for advice on how to get faster. I vote for stickying this thread in the help/questions subforum, but with a more informative title such as "How you can help yourself improve your times: video yourself solving then watch for weaknesses".

Yes I know that title is very long

 

[nlCuber22]

Just recorded a few solves and realized that my F2L isn't what's keeping me from getting faster, but my LL!

On most of the solves my F2L took 9-10 seconds but my LL was 6-8
Also agree with Dene on stickying the thread, loltitle though

 

[Thomas09]

Or an edit to the how to be Sub 20 thread would do too.

 

[jms_gears1]

Woneykins is an OPPRESIVE MOD

:fp i just realized who woneykins was...
on-topic: i wish i had a better camera mine sucks...

 

[lilkdub503]

What angle would you recommend? I know many cubers like to have it at an angle behind them, but I don't have a tripod. I'm thinking stacking some books and moving my monitor so that way it's in the shot.

 

[IamWEB]

What angle would you recommend? I know many cubers like to have it at an angle behind them, but I don't have a tripod. I'm thinking stacking some books and moving my monitor so that way it's in the shot.

One of these was recorded with a camera on a tripod.
One of these was recorded with a acamera stacked on top of boxes, cases, and books.

Can you tell which?

...

Do anything you can to get a decent or better camera angle.

 

[josmil1]

The first one, the camera is stracked on top of boxes, cases, and books. The second one is tripod. It's obvious because the books need the support of the flat surface of the table where the laptop is. Either way its a great angle regardless very very similar.

 

[MichaelErskine]

I've recorded my solves on a number of occasions and, yes, I see the terrible pauses and hesitations, but it gives me very little to go on for how these can be reduced. I pause when I can't find a piece (especially on big cubes) or when I just plain don't know what to do (due to lookahead fail) or upon a change of plan or PLL recognition failure. I just find the whole thing pretty depressing so I don't do it any more. I'm not your typical speedcubing demographic so feel free to ignore my input

 

[ZamHalen]

I've recorded myself and all i've found out that my tps sucks.Which I knew before i recorded myself.

 

[FatBoyXPC]

I've been wanting to do this for months (probably three months ago), looked for a decent webcam to record with and upload it on youtube to get some help from the forums, but I lazied out.

I finally used my phone though just to see what it looked like. I found far too many pauses, some lasting as long as four seconds (just during F2L), to say the least, that was quite a let down, but also something great to learn from.

I've noticed my PLL recognition isn't what I want it to be either. I've wasted up to six seconds trying to figure out / properly start that PLL.

I think for now I'm going to just go ultra slow until I get where I want to be with look-ahead. Even if it slows down my times temporarily.