Too fast too soon?

[Anthony]

In my opinion I don't think it really matters how long you've been cubing, but rather three other factors. First of all, when you started. There were far less resources 6 or more years ago than there are now. Second, the amount of time you spend practicing. Some people cube 20 minutes a day, while others cube for hours on end. Lastly, I really think there is some natural talent involved. Some people just have that competitive edge.

Some people are going to get fast very quickly and some very slowly, but with enough practice and determination almost anyone could get pretty fast.

 

[Sa967St]

It took me about 15 months after I started cubing to get my first sub20 average, even though I practiced for a few hours each day. I think the reason it took me so long was because I learned a lot of things on my own (how to recognize cases, finding the 'best algs', trying fingertricks) rather than searching the forums for answers or watching lots of tutorials on youtube. I also used a crappy storebought until I averaged 17 or so. I used a lot of wierd and slow OLL algs and I learned F2L last because I was a nub and didn't know doing it LBL style was a lot slower and that F2L is the 'most important' part of a solve until after I learned full OLL and PLL.

 

[Parity]

i got to 30 seconds in maybe 2 months.
And then stayed at that time for 3 months and then 2 months later I am at 25 seconds average.

 

[waffle=ijm]

I rarely practice. took me about 1 1/2 years to get sub-20.

 

[SuperNerd]

I feel like a loser. It took me a year and a half to get sub-20, because I never bothered to learn anything, I just tried my own methods, then like, 5 months ago I picked up CFOP LL, and got sub 20

 

[tkcube1]

It took me 10 months to get my first sub 20 average. Took me 11 (last month) to consistently get sub 20 averages.

 

[Carson]

I have been cubing for about 4 years now. I have taken a couple of extended breaks during that time however. After four years, I have just finally learned 3LLL. My typical average is around 40 seconds, and I do have a couple pb singles of slightly under 25 seconds, although nothing even remotely close to that in competition.

When I first began "speedcubing," I had never met a speedcuber in person. All I knew was from the few online videos of the time. There were very very few truly informative sites for beginners. For those intermediate cubers, there were some sites to follow along with, but for the rest of us, we were pretty much on our own. My two best resources at the time were the yahoo group and Bob Burton's website. I recall many people on the yahoo group attempting to explain how intuitive f2l worked to me, and with a quick search, you can still see many of those conversations archived. At the time though, I had no one to explain it in person, and there simply were no tutorial videos.

"New cubers" are very fortunate these days. Between THIS amazing site, the vast amount of youtube tutorials (especially badmephisto's) and the general willingness of the general cubing community to share resources and tips with all those interested... there is never a lack of information to be had. There simply is no more guess work.

Every person is born differently. As has been stated, some people are geared more to coordination, some to strength, some to intelligence... etc, etc, etc. We are not simply "tied down" to these simple predisposed abilities however. We can still feed our abilities through our life experiences and develop new skills, although you will frequently find that some skills are much more difficult to develop for some than for others.

I believe that one day I will be a sub 20 second cuber, and perhaps with enough work I will make it to the sub 15 realm. Will it come easy, certainly not. Could I have already reached that goal if I had worked both smarter and harder? Most likely so, but I'm not sure that I would still be as interested in cubing if I were to have taken things "that" seriously.

^^Just some of my random thoughts.

 

[DavidWoner]

Let's not forget that Chris started in the "Dark Ages" of cubing. The amount and availability of knowledge we have today far outstrips what Chris had to work with when he first started. Also cubing technology has come a long way, even in the just over two years since I started cubing. Notice once Chris finally switched from "good old As" he started smashing PBs?

 

[blah]

I think with your specific examples; Faz does mainly speedsolving, while Chris does more FMC and puzzle theory. Also keep in mind the age difference, work load difference, thus time spent on cubing difference. It also relies on talent of course. Talent is what makes person A do better than person B while both put in equal effort.

:confused:

 

[cmhardw]

To be fair, the cubing "Dark Ages" (the 90's) were not that bad. There were a number of people who went sub-20 relatively quickly who started about the same time as me. Dan Knights, obviously Ron had already been cubing for some time but he went sub-20 quickly. Andy Camann was a prodigy of the time. Most of the WC2003 top stars had been sub-20 for a while before the competition. Most of the 1982 people had clocked sub-20 averages. David Waterman was 17 seconds back in the 80's (total madness for the time). David Allen was already sub-20 since the 80's, as was Tony Snyder. Of course there was Fridrich and Petrus also.

I think my problem was just that I did not practice very well, I only practiced doing solves but not learning anything new for a very long time.

Chris

 

[dbax0999]

I am very interested in this same topic. I started cubing the summer before high school started, so I also did not have a job when I began. This meant that I had lots of free time, and I was very active and cubed on a daily basis when I first started.

I know a little bit of why it took me so long to get sub-20 (almost 5 years). I wrote a post about it here describing what I did to finally break the 20 second barrier on average. I think the biggest difference as to why some people get fast quickly and others more slowly is in how you practice, not how much you practice.

Chris

This advice is the reason I got sub-20 It truly inspired me. Thank you Chris!

Btw, you also inspired me to learn big cube BLD, but I'm having trouble sticking with that.

 

[cmhardw]

This advice is the reason I got sub-20 It truly inspired me. Thank you Chris!

Btw, you also inspired me to learn big cube BLD, but I'm having trouble sticking with that.

Glad that it helped! Remember that the ability to be sub-20 was always there for you, it was only your mind creating the barrier. This is one thing that I have learned over time that has helped me, and still helps me, break barriers. They are only barriers because we make them barriers in our mind.

As for big cube BLD, it's not something you have to learn in a hurry. I did my first ever 4x4x4 BLD solve fall of 2003, but it wasn't until WC 2005 that Dror Vomberg really inspired me to give big cube BLD a shot. If you have fun practicing big cube BLD great! If you don't have fun with it then let it rest for a bit and then try and pick it up again.

I will tell you, though, that the addiction factor for big cube BLD is way more intense than for 3x3x3 BLD (for me at least).

Chris

 

[Cyrus C.]

It took me 6 months for sub-20, but I practice a lot (an hour a day).

 

[Zubon]

I have been cubing for one and a half years. During the first year I was preoccupied with all different types of twisty puzzles and finding solutions to them. It was only until 6 months ago that I got sub30 averages and now I usually get at least sub 25 averages. It is only in the last 6 months that I have been concentrating on 3x3.

I know that I practice a lot but I am not improving so fast. I really need to go over my solves once again and improve the fundamentals. I will get sub 20, it just might take a while.

 

[miniGOINGS]

What are the "good old A's"?

 

[Waffle's Minion]

What are the "good old A's"?

Old type A from cube4you.

 

[vcuber13]

i learned the dan brown beginner method around may and then about half way through august i started to learn fridrich and i average about 30 seconds now after about 4 months of acually cubing and trying to get fast

 

[Yes We Can!]

Faz hasn't got a job.

Yeah, he's jobless.

 

[Jake Gouldon]

I say it is time put into cubing, and what you focus on. For example, I got into bigcubes very quickly, which I now regret. I am not doing close to ONLY 3x3 to make up for time lost.

 

[TEGTaylor]

I pracrice constantly and It took me about 6 months to get sub 20.