Too old to be fast?

[Muesli]

We should remember that Cubing does not require much brainpower. No matter how much you tart it up. Once you break the barrier in your brain (Like with Portal) you begin "thinking with cubies" and everything becomes much simpler. Children of that age always have incredible imaginations (I know I did) and learning to solve a Rubik's Cube is a perfect funnel for those thoughts. If I had been given a Rubik's Cube at 4 years old I probably would have been able to be taught how to do it. The main thing blocking people in learning the cube is that they think, in their own mind, that it is nigh on impossible. A 4 year old child has no such inhibitions and views the object as a toy, not an impossible thing.

 

[rubiknewbie]

35 years "old" you gotta be kidding me.

I'm not using my age as an excuse, my post was pretty tongue in cheek anyway, but there is a lot of research that's been done with respect to age differences and reaction time http://biae.clemson.edu/bpc/bp/Lab/110/reaction.htm#Age
Other then that, my personal experience with training and coaching people is that age does matter when it comes to learning new things. I'm quite sure that if you allready know how to solve sub 20, aging wont have a dramatic effect, but when you still need to learn a lot, your age will definatelly have an influence.

And your fingers might not be as fast anymore when you're 70

I think the amount of time that can be spend decreases dramatically with age (up to retirement that is) and THAT indeed might be a reason you see so many youngsters (sub-20) doing sub-20's.

You are still making excuses :fp.

 

[Rudinie]

You are still making excuses :fp.

No i'm not, i'm not talking about myself when i say that i agree with Zarxrax on average adults not having as much time to spend to practice.
I personally actually do spend quite some time on cubing.
Other than that, i'm not making up excuses why i'm not faster than i am right now, i'm pretty happy that i can get a sub 25 now and then. The whole age thing is just something that struck me when i saw a couple of vids from the ultra-fast at competitions, most of them were very young.

 

[Ton]

You are still making excuses :fp.

No i'm not, i'm not talking about myself when i say that i agree with Zarxrax on average adults not having as much time to spend to practice.
I personally actually do spend quite some time on cubing.
Other than that, i'm not making up excuses why i'm not faster than i am right now, i'm pretty happy that i can get a sub 25 now and then. The whole age thing is just something that struck me when i saw a couple of vids from the ultra-fast at competitions, most of them were very young.

If you look at Ron and my times you can see what is possible with age
Ton -lazy in practice , use basic F2L and basic OLL and PLL, train on the days before competition 17-20 sec average
Ron - Practice as much as possible ,can do a sub 13-16 sec average

Ron is faster at home, some day he will do a sub 13

 

[MichaelErskine]

Hmmm, I try not to blame my slowness on my age but there is a direct correlation between my personal circumstances (career, home life, etc. -- somewhat dictated by my age) and the amount of time I can dedicate to this pastime. Again, this is all excuses, however...

I will turn 40 on Jan 3rd 2010 and I will fail to meet my sub-30 average goal that I set the previous year. I thought at the time that the goal was realistic based on the assurances and the progress of others, most of whom I must add are half my age! This is despite lots of practice (although everybody will define "lots" differently - I average about 3 hours of puzzling a day).

For whatever reason, age or some other limiting factor, I can only surmise that I'm just not very good at this whole speedcubing thing although I love it dearly! Please pity me accordingly as you all race past me

 

[Rudinie]

everybody will define "lots" differently - I average about 3 hours of puzzling a day.

Allright, that puts things in perspective. I'm nowhere near that, maybe something like 45 minutes a day average, but that's a wild guess.

There must be topics in the forum about this, i will search, i'm quite curious.

 

[Ton]

Hmmm, I try not to blame my slowness on my age but there is a direct correlation between my personal circumstances (career, home life, etc. -- somewhat dictated by my age) and the amount of time I can dedicate to this pastime. Again, this is all excuses, however...

I will turn 40 on Jan 3rd 2010 and I will fail to meet my sub-30 average goal that I set the previous year. I thought at the time that the goal was realistic based on the assurances and the progress of others, most of whom I must add are half my age! This is despite lots of practice (although everybody will define "lots" differently - I average about 3 hours of puzzling a day).

For whatever reason, age or some other limiting factor, I can only surmise that I'm just not very good at this whole speedcubing thing although I love it dearly! Please pity me accordingly as you all race past me

For me decisive factor where:
-Dedication, especially when you begin speedcubing, practice is the key
-Not to do everything your own way -it took Ron 3 years, before I quit using my own method- learn from others was the key for me if you have limited time to find your speedcubing working set, it saves a lot of time to learn from the best
-get rid of a mental block , I used to say I can never do a sub 20, after I realize this was blocking progress, I just say to myself I can do 16 average and lower these boundaries each year -for me it is per year-
- Not to turn to fast when practice, I needed to train recognition , finger tricks comes basically naturally . Beginner want to turn fast , this actually slowed my progress

Currently I practice at most 15 min for the 3x3 per day to remain at my speed

Maybe the above will help you do the same thing as I did, I really believe everybody can do a sub 20

 

[Rama]

What is Smart without Lucky ?

What's that supposed to mean? I don't agree with this.

*Exaggerated example*
Imagine you are a small child who has the potential to graduate from Harvard and all the other university's at the same time and cum laude too!
But... you grow up in an unhealthy environment, where your parents are a pair of coke addicted binge drinking idiots who have no jobs and are loose cannons and you happen to live in a redneck town where Billy Bob is legally married to his sister.

That's bad luck and I am sure you won't get your potential living in such environment.

 

[Rune]

Hmmm, I try not to blame my slowness on my age but there is a direct correlation between my personal circumstances (career, home life, etc. -- somewhat dictated by my age) and the amount of time I can dedicate to this pastime. Again, this is all excuses, however...

I will turn 40 on Jan 3rd 2010 and I will fail to meet my sub-30 average goal that I set the previous year. I thought at the time that the goal was realistic based on the assurances and the progress of others, most of whom I must add are half my age! This is despite lots of practice (although everybody will define "lots" differently - I average about 3 hours of puzzling a day).

For whatever reason, age or some other limiting factor, I can only surmise that I'm just not very good at this whole speedcubing thing although I love it dearly! Please pity me accordingly as you all race past me

I will turn 80 on Apr 18th 2010 and I expect my first sub-30 in springtime to come.

 

[brunson]

I've thought about this quite a bit, especially when I see the kids that get sub 30 in a few months and sub 20 in less than a year. I wonder how much of it has to do with how young you were when you *started* cubing. Ton and Chris started way back, and though I could solve it in high school, I didn't pick it back up until I was 40 (I'll be 43 next month).

It's no new news that younger brains are more malleable and pick up things like language faster than someone over the age of 25. I think the key to cubing is memorization (algs), pattern recognition and the ability to allow muscle memory to take over while you're doing something else cognitively (look ahead). These things may come with practice to anyone, but I think they may come faster to the young. Once you have them, I think they stick with a little maintenance, like Ton describes.

Come March I'll have been speed cubing for three years and sub-30 has been hovering tantalizingly out of my reach for almost a year. I know I have bad habits in my practice, my biggest downfall is look ahead and that's exactly what I don't spend enough time on. I still have hopes, but I know it will take a little more effort on my part to get under 30, but have no idea if I'll be able to get under 20.

I'm looking forward to my kids getting interested in cubing, I'm hoping that will lead to the resurgence of my practice and hopeful improvement.

 

[Stefan]

Update of my age vs speed analysis:
http://worldcubeassociation.org/results/fun/age_vs_speed.html

I will turn 80 on Apr 18th 2010 and I expect my first sub-30 in springtime to come.

Very much looking forward to that!

 

[Kian]

Update of my age vs speed analysis:
http://worldcubeassociation.org/results/fun/age_vs_speed.html

"4.07 years 17.00 Jonathan Tan Wei Xiat"

Is that age accurate?!? Maybe a typo when he signed up for a competition? If it is accurate then I am truly startled by his ability. That's impressive.

 

[Stefan]

There were several very young and fast cubers at the recent Malaysian Open, Ron is checking with the organizers.

 

[Rudinie]

Update of my age vs speed analysis:
http://worldcubeassociation.org/results/fun/age_vs_speed.html

There is a pretty big gap roughly between the age of 25 and 40. Why is this? Not so many entries in that age-category?

 

[MichaelErskine]

everybody will define "lots" differently - I average about 3 hours of puzzling a day.

I hasten to add, this isn't all 3x3x3! I practice the 2x2x2, 4x4x4, 5x5x5, 6x6x6, 7x7x7, Megaminx, Pyraminx, Clock, and Magic with timed solves for the weekly competition and there are others I am learning or that just take up lots of time -- master pyramorhix, 360 and Gigaminx are recent culprits!

Allright, that puts things in perspective. I'm nowhere near that, maybe something like 45 minutes a day average, but that's a wild guess.

There must be topics in the forum about this, i will search, i'm quite curious.

I'm certain that being young is advantageous for picking up speedcubing. It follows that being older presents more of a challenge. This isn't just sour grapes, it's how it is

...
Maybe the above will help you do the same thing as I did, I really believe everybody can do a sub 20

I think so too -- it's just going to take a while! That's all good advice there Ton. You are an inspiration.

I will turn 80 on Apr 18th 2010 and I expect my first sub-30 in springtime to come.

You too are an inspiration Rune.

I've thought about this quite a bit, especially when I see the kids that get sub 30 in a few months and sub 20 in less than a year. I wonder how much of it has to do with how young you were when you *started* cubing. Ton and Chris started way back, and though I could solve it in high school, I didn't pick it back up until I was 40 (I'll be 43 next month).

I think another major factor is having other cubers around to learn from. I only see cubers at competitions - when I'm there I get a bit of information overload! People are pleased to give advice but I'm not very good at picking it up!

 

[Mike Hughey]

There were several very young and fast cubers at the recent Malaysian Open, Ron is checking with the organizers.

Jonathan, in addition to being so fast, has a girlfriend already, who apparently "loathes cubes", but supports his cubing nonetheless, according to a post he made elsewhere on this forum. A rather precocious young man, wouldn't you say?

 

[Stefan]

There is a pretty big gap roughly between the age of 25 and 40. Why is this?

That's cause Ron is awesome.

Someone in that age range would have to get an average in the 13.43-13.51 range, i.e., below 13.51 seconds.

Btw, I find it funny how Erik appears only once while many others appear several times. Oh, the pity of holding the single world record and being stuck between Piti and Tomasz for average...

 

[qqwref]

There were several very young and fast cubers at the recent Malaysian Open, Ron is checking with the organizers.

Yeah, I found this very weird... there were quite a few people at that competition who apparently were 3 or 4 years old and sub-30 (some even sub-20), which I find extremely hard to believe. Something like 7 of the youngest 10 cubers on the list were only at that comp. I am sure that Theethat Jaruwattanakun is legit (there is a video on youtube) and pretty sure about Kento Hiroyama (he has a blog but I can't read it), but the ones above those are highly questionable.

 

[Toquinha1977]

This thread gives me significant hope. I'm 32 and I have yet to crack sub 20 consistently (I've done it exactly 3 times), but I have noticed some level of improvement over the last year. But, considering the average age of dominating cubers (mostly high school kids and university students), is it more a function of physical ability (ie: hands less prone to osteoarthritis) or free time (lack of family and career commitments)?

 

[MatsBergsten]

Ohh, you are removing my excuses for being so slow.

But no matter how you joke about it age definitely affects your physical abilities.
I have been running for 43 years and have a rather complete diary of that. So I can
without doubt say that I am more than 50% slower at (soon) 60 than when I was 20-40
years old. Now that is running and not cubing, but running is not the only physical ability that is affected. Now I am still in progress when we are speaking of cubing, but I have a very hard time getting sub-45. 'Men huka dig Rune, nu laddar jag om' to cite a former Swedish Prime Minister.

And with increasing age you can always switch to blindfold cubing, the mental abilities does not regress in the same speed as the physical

And I see I also got post #60