"sub30 is easy"

[MichaelErskine]

It's not easy for others to understand how unique a person can be - I'm right there with those sympathetic to your cause: I've been speedcubing since July 2008 and I'm still not consistently sub-30. I follow advice and practice whenever I can. I have received sterling advice from some of the world's fastest cubers but I still haven't grasped some key element or other that restricts my progress. When I work it out I'll let everyone know - it might be exactly what you need! Don't worry about it - nobody can truly know what it's like for anybody but themselves - that goes for so many aspects of life and cubing is no different.

 

[kunparekh18]

Re: "sub30 iz ez"

To break the sub-30 barrier I had to learn full PLL

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[qqwref]

A bit off topic, but Michael, just watching one of your really old official solves, I get this impression:
- You don't seem to plan out much of the cross, and the parts you don't already know how to do after inspection take a while to fix. Perhaps you could practice no-inspection cross, or do some slow cross solves to see how you can solve the last 1-2 edges efficiently. There are really not too many tricks needed to solve the cross in relatively few moves, so I'm guessing you just need to play around with it until you can do single-edge inserts like R'FR or DR' without thinking (and really familiar with your color scheme - from knowing one piece in the cross, you should know where any other cross piece goes).
- Be flexible with F2L. I usually find a corner first, and any unsolved corner will do (don't just look for a specific one). Then once you find it you can try to find the accompanying edge. (Sometimes I do this in the other order, finding the edge first). Ideally you find something useful while you're doing the previous F2L pair - as soon as you see the piece, start following it with your eyes, and maybe see if you can find the piece it wants to be paired to as well. You may be concentrating too much on the current F2L pair to look at other stuff. In that case, you can practice by recognizing an F2L pair, closing your eyes and doing it, then opening them again to look for the next thing. You want to trust yourself that it will end up solved, so you can start finding pieces as you do the turns.
- Your LL looks okay, but I would suggest to not use algs with M turns if you can't do them with one finger Except maybe H-perm, because there is basically no other fast way to do that.

 

[Mike Hughey]

To break the sub-30 barrier I had to learn full PLL

To break the sub-30 barrier, I had to learn full OLL. In the snow. Wearing sandals. And I LIKED it.

No, seriously, I did learn full OLL (and obviously full PLL) to break the sub-30 barrier. I'm sure I could have made it with just practice, but I had trouble thinking of anything else specific to work on, so it seemed like a reasonable way to go to learn OLL as a thing to work on while shooting for sub-30. It did help - it made it easier to get there.

Now I'm struggling with sub-20, which people again say is easy - just practice. I did a thousand solves plus some targeted practice this week; we'll see if I can get there soon this way.

 

[johndmc]

Hey all!

im finding it hard to get sub 60secs at the moment, lol. I got my first cube in Nov 12, i do love cubing though, i just dont have the time to practice that much and learn all the algs, i work full time, and im studying a degree part time. My times are coming down slowly though. I also started learning roux, which seems to suit me better i think. But quickest is still 1min17s with F2L.

 

[cxinlee]

Hey all!

im finding it hard to get sub 60secs at the moment, lol. I got my first cube in Nov 12, i do love cubing though, i just dont have the time to practice that much and learn all the algs, i work full time, and im studying a degree part time. My times are coming down slowly though. I also started learning roux, which seems to suit me better i think. But quickest is still 1min17s with F2L.

1. Practice
2. Learn Algs
If you are willing, find some free time for cubing. It's not like your whole schedule is packed.

 

[JianhanC]

Varies a lot among people really. I'd say sub30 took a tiny bit of effort for me. For cross just keep trying to optimise your movecount, eventually it becomes so natural for you that you'll think back and wonder how dumb you were , F2L just turn slowly, track other pieces, LL just turn fast.

 

[johndmc]

1. Practice
2. Learn Algs
If you are willing, find some free time for cubing. It's not like your whole schedule is packed.

Yeah im not making excuses really, there is no better method than practice to improve, thanks for the tips

 

[MichaelErskine]

A bit off topic, but Michael, just watching one of your really old official solves, I get this impression:
- You don't seem to plan out much of the cross, and the parts you don't already know how to do after inspection take a while to fix. Perhaps you could practice no-inspection cross, or do some slow cross solves to see how you can solve the last 1-2 edges efficiently. There are really not too many tricks needed to solve the cross in relatively few moves, so I'm guessing you just need to play around with it until you can do single-edge inserts like R'FR or DR' without thinking (and really familiar with your color scheme - from knowing one piece in the cross, you should know where any other cross piece goes).
- Be flexible with F2L. I usually find a corner first, and any unsolved corner will do (don't just look for a specific one). Then once you find it you can try to find the accompanying edge. (Sometimes I do this in the other order, finding the edge first). Ideally you find something useful while you're doing the previous F2L pair - as soon as you see the piece, start following it with your eyes, and maybe see if you can find the piece it wants to be paired to as well. You may be concentrating too much on the current F2L pair to look at other stuff. In that case, you can practice by recognizing an F2L pair, closing your eyes and doing it, then opening them again to look for the next thing. You want to trust yourself that it will end up solved, so you can start finding pieces as you do the turns.
- Your LL looks okay, but I would suggest to not use algs with M turns if you can't do them with one finger Except maybe H-perm, because there is basically no other fast way to do that.

Yeah, the problems with my solving need their own website (I've hijacked many threads with my woes and probably started a good few!)

Yes my cross is still terrible: WCA inspection time is often not enough for me to plan a complete cross - when I do have time I often still mess it up in execution! I've done all sorts of cross-focussed practice but I shall try again.

I don't really want to cover the rest right now - that video is a bit old. Sincerely thanks for trying to help though. What I will do is try to get some current solves on video - something a bit more representative - and put them forward for critique. However, insane as it sounds, I often know what I'm doing wrong while I'm doing it but am unable to correct it without introducing additional mistakes. Each really bad solve I do typically ends with me making a (mental) note of all the things that I believe have contributed. But that doesn't stop those things from happening! Nevertheless I shall try to get a video up soon.

Also, I can't seem to look ahead, identify cases, turn accurately, or do fingertricks. Don't get me started on the difficulty I have trying to learn algorithms Sounds hopeless I know but I keep smiling between the rants of frustration!

 

[sneaklyfox]

For people who say things like, "It took a whole year of cubing to get sub-30!" Well, you know the 10,000 hour rule, right? The idea is that it takes roughly that much time to master something. If you practice 2 hours a day, it would take you more than 13 years to master the cube. Even if you cubed 10 hours a day, it would take you almost 3 years. So cubing isn't as hard as some other things because I believe people can "master" it much faster with less practice. (Obviously, I don't really believe the 10,000 hour rule applies to everything.)

But yeah, I agree with OP that just because it's easy for some people doesn't make it easy for others and it can be annoying when people say it was easy to do such-and-such when you're having a hard time with it. Everyone has different talents and natural abilities and cubing may come easier for some.

 

[mark49152]

To break the sub-30 barrier I had to learn full PLL

I learned full PLL to get sub-50 and relearned most of them again with different algs and fingertricks to get sub-40. I videoed myself to see what I was doing wrong and watching it back was a shocker - I felt like I was turning flat out but the video showed a lazy geriatric solving in slow motion. My TPS is awful, that's the bottom line, so it does take me ages to improve, whatever algs I learn. My cross and F2L suck as well. Basically I enjoy cubing and am determined to get sub-30 and one day maybe even sub-20, but my hands are 4x the age of some on this forum so it takes more work to get there. Sub-30 is easy for some, but everyone's different, and it's not always down to methods or learning algs or even practice.

 

[qqwref]

Well, you know the 10,000 hour rule, right?

Yep, and it's not at all accurate unless you're talking about how much time it takes to truly maximize your potential in an extremely competitive field.

So cubing isn't as hard as some other things because I believe people can "master" it much faster with less practice.

But how many people do you think have "mastered" cubing, or even 3x3x3? People who really have learned everything they can, and are as fast as they can possibly go? It can't be more than a few dozen. I think it's pretty common for someone to reach a plateau and just not have the time, motivation, or knowledge to make the improvements they are capable of. I know I've been stuck around 11.5-12 average for a while, but I definitely wouldn't say I've mastered anything - I'm capable of faster times, even if I can't seem to actually get them.

 

[Petro Leum]

But how many people do you think have "mastered" cubing, or even 3x3x3? People who really have learned everything they can, and are as fast as they can possibly go? It can't be more than a few dozen. I think it's pretty common for someone to reach a plateau and just not have the time, motivation, or knowledge to make the improvements they are capable of. I know I've been stuck around 11.5-12 average for a while, but I definitely wouldn't say I've mastered anything - I'm capable of faster times, even if I can't seem to actually get them.

saying that to master cubing ,you would have to learn everything you can and be as fast as you could possibly be, i would even say noone has reached this state so far. i do not even know someone who learned and uses full ZBLL, and even when watching top cubers like faz or 5BLD you can see some very little pauses or tps which can be improved. I believe it is silly for anyone to say "i can't get faster". There is always a way, it's just laziness.

 

[DaveyCow]

With modern cubes and the volume of information available around today, there is absolutely no excuse for taking more than even 2 months to reach sub30. You should be able to do it in 2 weeks.

hmmm so then what does that say about me? I've been cubing 2 years and not sub30 (and I practice every chance I get)

Aside from that, there have been some very good encouraging posts here! I'm glad I posted this I think most comforting is knowing that there are others out there in the same boat as me (thx MichaelE, MikeH, Gordon...!) and experiencing the same frustrations/set-backs. I definitely agree (and need to keep reminding myself) that it should be for fun - putting too much emphasis on achieving goals detracts from that and I think ultimately keeps one from achieving them (or slows down the progress anyway).

 

[yoshinator]

When we say that sub-30 is easy, we mean that it is like 10 times easier than sub-12, or much easier than sub-20. Just because you take forever to get sub-30 doesn't make it inherently hard, it just means that you improve slowly. Getting sub-30 is REALLY easy by comparison to other time barriers.

 

[mark49152]

Obviously - and sub-12 is easy compared to sub-10.

 

[DaveyCow]

Hey all!

im finding it hard to get sub 60secs at the moment, lol. I got my first cube in Nov 12, i do love cubing though, i just dont have the time to practice that much and learn all the algs, i work full time, and im studying a degree part time. My times are coming down slowly though. I also started learning roux, which seems to suit me better i think. But quickest is still 1min17s with F2L.

Sounds like we're about the same (at least starting out anyway) - though you're probably still doing better than I did - it took me 4 months to get down to 90 sec (of course I started out with a slow LL method) then 2 more months to get down to 60 (I have a spreadsheet with al my times recorded ) But sounds like you're comeing along faster than I did

When we say that sub-30 is easy, we mean that it is like 10 times easier than sub-12, or much easier than sub-20. Just because you take forever to get sub-30 doesn't make it inherently hard, it just means that you improve slowly. Getting sub-30 is REALLY easy by comparison to other time barriers.

oh yeah - I need to remember about the "relatively speaking" thing (btw saw yur sub3 Ortega vid - very nice I think it will help me alot!)

 

[googlebleh]

Now I'm struggling with sub-20, which people again say is easy - just practice. I did a thousand solves plus some targeted practice this week; we'll see if I can get there soon this way.

A thousand solves.....dang I wish I could spend that much time cubing....
And sub-20 might not be that simple--it depends on your turning style. My style is quite slow, but I was able to get sub-20 without full OLL/PLL because I just improved lookahead on F2L to eliminate pauses. On the other hand, you could do something like this and increase TPS to get good times, but I thought it was easiest to lookahead if you turn slow.

 

[uniacto]

Sub 30 is easy enough if you can figure out how to lookahead.

 

[jayefbe]

"sub30 iz ez"

For me, cubing is COMPLETELY about competing with myself, and trying to reach the absolute best of my abilities. Everyone should know that their abilities are not the same as everyone else's, and therefore, should not make universal statements like "there's no excuse for not being sub-30 in two weeks". Which side note, is one of the most jerkish statements I've seen on this forum. Dene, you obviously no longer remember what it was like to be a noob. You may have gotten very fast at cubing in a very short amount of time. Guess what, nobody cares!!! If you're so eager for recognition that you have to belittle EVERYONE'S abilities (I haven't seen anyone actually achieve sub-30 in two weeks), then you're obviously lacking in some aspects of your life.

For the most part, I think people on this forum realize that getting better at cubing is a personal struggle that is different for everyone. For the most part, people seem to support each other, and get pleasure out of everyone's progress, regardless of their skill level. But their are some people that feel like they need to brag unnecessarily, or denigrate other people's progress in some passive aggressive manner. Everyone's abilities are different. You might be able to cube better than someone else. Cool, use that ability to support them and try to make them better. But being faster doesn't give you the right to belittle someone's progress. Everyone has different struggles. Chances are, this slower person can absolutely whoop you in some other aspect of life. For the most part, this is a very supportive community. But I think there are a few that could use some more self-awareness and humility. Being sub-30 is not easy. For the majority of the world, just solving a Rubik's cube is not easy.

And remember, those that need to brag, don't actually have anything to brag about.