Timer nervousness, how to surpass it??

[mrs1986]

Hi all!

I'm pretty new with the speedcubing, and I'm having some problems while timing my solves... I must say that I'm not going to go to competitions probably because I'm quite old and I don't wan't to have my butt kicked by a 15 years old boy (joking).

Well, the thing is, if I solve whitout timing myself, I can quite lookahead and all in all I dont think I have suuuuch baad times, like let's say 30 seconds or so, but if I'm timing myself, I probably go up to 40+ seconds, is like I don't look ahead and move the cube for ever to find or make a F2L pair... I don't know, I'm not in a competence but I just can't help it...

Did you ever went through this? What did you do to improove??

P/D: Sorry for my english, I'm from Uruguay...

 

[mark49152]

Just practise. After you've done 1000 timed solves you won't be nervous about the timer any more.

 

[mrs1986]

Just practise. After you've done 1000 timed solves you won't be nervous about the timer any more.

He he, that looks so easy...

But, it kinda get unmotivated because of this my times go to hell... I guess I should try to practice more and more and see what happens...

Another question, I have been trying to improve for like 4 moths maybe, more or less I don't know exactly, I did know how to solve it before I "decided" I wanted to be at least a sub 20 solver... I was at the 1:20-1:30 and now I'm somewhere at the 40~ sec on almost all my solves... Do you think thats good progress or I should practice harder? I may have 30 minutes to an hour to practice everyfew days BUT I have my cube all day with me while I'm working, and I kinda solve it slowly but solve it all day long... I have so little time because I work 9 hours a day, study at nights and probably the only time at my home is on weekends...

Thankss!

 

[AlphaSheep]

It's not nervousness, it's caring too much. Start the timer, then take a deep breath, hold it in for a couple seconds, then let it out before you start turning. Deliberately force yourself to turn slower, especially during F2L. Tricks like this help remind you that the timer isn't in charge, you are. Eventually though, you'll want to speed up your solves, and the only way to do that is to get used to the timer. The only way to do this is to do hundreds of solves in front of the timer.

It also helps to not look at the time during a solve. Use a timer that can hide the time during a solve, or stick something over where the time is displayed.

 

[mrs1986]

It's not nervousness, it's caring too much. Start the timer, then take a deep breath, hold it in for a couple seconds, then let it out before you start turning. Deliberately force yourself to turn slower, especially during F2L. Tricks like this help remind you that the timer isn't in charge, you are. Eventually though, you'll want to speed up your solves, and the only way to do that is to get used to the timer. The only way to do this is to do hundreds of solves in front of the timer.

It also helps to not look at the time during a solve. Use a timer that can hide the time during a solve, or stick something over where the time is displayed.

That's a great advice

Do you know of any web timer that let you hide the time?? I find myself watching at the timer while solving... I guess that sets me back too...

EDIT: I don't have a real timer yet, I guess I will get one eventually... But for now I use the computer...

 

[biscuit]

That's a great advice

Do you know of any web timer that let you hide the time?? I find myself watching at the timer while solving... I guess that sets me back too...

EDIT: I don't have a real timer yet, I guess I will get one eventually... But for now I use the computer...

Try CStimer.net

 

[pglewis]

I've mostly beaten the timer nervousness at home, at comp remains to be seen. I'm as keen to hear advice and experiences as you are.

When I'm hitting the timer heavily at home I'll even kind of forget it's running, exactly what I want. Sometimes it takes me a few days to get my timer legs back if I've mostly been doing slow solve practice without timing much. Also remember: even if you're having a bad run a PB could always pop up on the very next solve. My lone 23 was a bolt out of the blue, preceded by a pair of 44s and followed by 51. Two look last layer and no accidental x-cross or anything... just a single moment where the lookahead came together and I got to taste what a low 20 solve is like. And sometimes I just have an off day, or days, where I can feel the concentration is off. That practice is still good even if the times aren't, I'm reinforcing the concepts just like when I'm casually doing absent-minded solves. So I try not to worry too much about it, like weight-loss where you don't want to focus too much on what the scale reads any one particular day.

As far as progress, we're close on times but I've probably been sweating at it twice as long and with more time to practice. I think you're doing well and I think all that really matters is we can both remember when a 1:20 solve would prompt a cheer and not so much later we're both cussing over a 50 second solve.

Try CStimer.net

In particular, under Options -> Timer, set "timer update is:" to "none".

 

[mrs1986]

I've mostly beaten the timer nervousness at home, at comp remains to be seen. I'm as keen to hear advice and experiences as you are.

When I'm hitting the timer heavily at home I'll even kind of forget it's running, exactly what I want. Sometimes it takes me a few days to get my timer legs back if I've mostly been doing slow solve practice without timing much. Also remember: even if you're having a bad run a PB could always pop up on the very next solve. My lone 23 was a bolt out of the blue, preceded by a pair of 44s and followed by 51. Two look last layer and no accidental x-cross or anything... just a single moment where the lookahead came together and I got to taste what a low 20 solve is like. And sometimes I just have an off day, or days, where I can feel the concentration is off. That practice is still good even if the times aren't, I'm reinforcing the concepts just like when I'm casually doing absent-minded solves. So I try not to worry too much about it, like weight-loss where you don't want to focus too much on what the scale reads any one particular day.

As far as progress, we're close on times but I've probably been sweating at it twice as long and with more time to practice. I think you're doing well and I think all that really matters is we can both remember when a 1:20 solve would prompt a cheer and not so much later we're both cussing over a 50 second solve.



In particular, under Options -> Timer, set "timer update is:" to "none".

You are right, when I first started when I got the first 1:20 solve I was like "Wooow I'm a Wizard", but now, as I get to know better the cube and algorithms it gets frustrating to get high times...

Is like when you see Chris in his walktrough solves getting 8 seconds and his hands are like "wat, how did that happend dammit"

I guess we should be happy enough with our times, after all, is still super fun to play with the puzzles!!

Thanks for your comment!

 

[Keefe Fons]

Hi all!

I'm pretty new with the speedcubing, and I'm having some problems while timing my solves... I must say that I'm not going to go to competitions probably because I'm quite old and I don't wan't to have my butt kicked by a 15 years old boy (joking).

Well, the thing is, if I solve whitout timing myself, I can quite lookahead and all in all I dont think I have suuuuch baad times, like let's say 30 seconds or so, but if I'm timing myself, I probably go up to 40+ seconds, is like I don't look ahead and move the cube for ever to find or make a F2L pair... I don't know, I'm not in a competence but I just can't help it...

Did you ever went through this? What did you do to improove??

P/D: Sorry for my english, I'm from Uruguay...

When your times drop while timing yourself, don't worry. It's normal and happened to me a lot... How you fight this, is STOP thinking about the time! Just focus on exactly what you're doing. In my head, I'll be thinking cross...track pair, f2l, oll...a perm... And done. Then I look at the time. If you look at your solve as a whole and worry so much about the time, you won't focus on being efficient and hence ur times worsen. If this doesn't help, try taking a deep breath, close your eyes 5 seconds and open them again before starting