[Member Intro] Very old man cuber

[Oldmancfop]

Hi all, I'm new here. I am far too old and slow to be wasting my time learning to solve a 3x3 elegantly, efficiently and fast, but I cannot put the damn thing down, my fingers ache, my wrists are sore, AND I'M NOT GETTING ANY FASTER!! But I will not be beaten... yet!

 

[AbsoRuud]

How old are you and how slow are you?

 

[Dylan Swarts]

He's 49. Learn F2L. Atleast 1 look PLL and 2 look OLL. Cant help much without knowing avg time

 

[Oldmancfop]

Yep 49 years young. Avg 32 seconds, single best 25 (alright, stop laughing). I know all pll, 2/3 look oll (I often make a mess of my last pair and end up with a dot but I'm getting there) , really focusing on my f2l, learning all cases and getting rid of bad f2l habits.

 

[Dylan Swarts]

hmm. if turning speed is decent then just keep practicing. I can't really say much else. if you're trying for sub 30 avg then maybe have last layer take between 7-10 seconds. cross around 3-5 and f2l 15. Just about roughly to see if a certain part of your solve needs special treatment. Good Luck!

 

[Oldmancfop]

My turning speed is slow, I have not been timing myself for the last month'ish as I am re-learning my f2l to get rid of my bad case solves. When everything starts to feel a bit more natural I'll try and speed up my turning a bit and try a few timed solves, hopefully see some improvement in another month or 2.

 

[Mike Hughey]

49? You young whippersnapper, you!

Seriously, I think it's safe to say it generally takes us oldies a lot longer to get fast at speedsolving, but we can eventually make decent progress at it if we work hard enough. Probably the biggest problem is that most of us get distracted by the other events (like, for me, blindfolded solving), and few of us ever get really fast at 3x3x3. But there are a few fast ones. This link shows some of what is possible:
https://github.com/Logiqx/wca-ipy/blob/master/Partial Rankings.md

But anyway, welcome - happy to have you here! Be sure to check out the thread:
https://www.speedsolving.com/forum/threads/older-cubers-discussions.37405/

It's made just for old geezers like us!

 

[AbsoRuud]

32 average isn't bad. That's about what I have. Just takes practices practice practice. I started out taking over 5 minutes to solve one after I relearned beginner's method for the third time.

 

[Oldmancfop]

This is cool, all of the speedsolvers I have seen on Youtube are very young so I assumed this was the reserve of the young. It's refreshing to find out I'm not the only cuber with a little wisdom.

 

[AbsoRuud]

I never claimed to have any wisdom. But I'm not much younger than you, oldman.

 

[Oldmancfop]

I never claimed to have any wisdom. But I'm not much younger than you, oldman.

I call it wisdom, my wife calls it gin .

 

[Tabe]

Yep 49 years young. Avg 32 seconds, single best 25 (alright, stop laughing). I know all pll, 2/3 look oll (I often make a mess of my last pair and end up with a dot but I'm getting there) , really focusing on my f2l, learning all cases and getting rid of bad f2l habits.

You're only a little older than me. There's definitely room to semi-fast even at our age. My PB is currently 20.80 and I can definitely see where I need to improve.

With our limited time, the key is to practice smarter, not just more. You've got the right idea - pick an area of focus and work on that.

Welcome and good luck!

 

[Deleted member 36445]

my dad is 59 and he solves the cube in roughly 2min with intuitive f2l

 

[AlphaCuber is awesome]

Can’t say anything in regards to your age being only 14 but you are not slow I would say the average cuber averages between 20-30 seconds so your pretty close to that also go to a competition they are great fun whatever your speed
https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/competitions
You can find them here if you want to see a list.

 

[Oldmancfop]

Can’t say anything in regards to your age being only 14 but you are not slow I would say the average cuber averages between 20-30 seconds so your pretty close to that also go to a competition they are great fun whatever your speed
https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/competitions
You can find them here if you want to see a list.

Thanks for the words of encouragement, every clip I see on Youtube is of some really young kid solving sub 10 and making it look effortless. I'll keep chipping away, my immediate goal is sub 30 and I'll see how far I can go from there. I have looked at the competitions (just to spectate I'm not ready to compete), I would like to take my 12 year old son to give him some inspiration but there aren't any events close to me, hopefully something will come my way later in the year.

 

[Mike Hughey]

Thanks for the words of encouragement, every clip I see on Youtube is of some really young kid solving sub 10 and making it look effortless. I'll keep chipping away, my immediate goal is sub 30 and I'll see how far I can go from there. I have looked at the competitions (just to spectate I'm not ready to compete), I would like to take my 12 year old son to give him some inspiration but there aren't any events close to me, hopefully something will come my way later in the year.

If you do get a chance to go to a competition, please compete, no matter your speed! There are almost always at least a few people over 30 seconds, sometimes many. And you will enjoy the competition so much more if you compete. And there's no real reason not to compete - for 3x3x3, it only takes 10-15 minutes, it will be fun, and you'll have experience with the process of official solves for the next time you compete, so you can do better the next time.

 

[David Zemdegs]

Yep 49 years young. Avg 32 seconds, single best 25 (alright, stop laughing). I know all pll, 2/3 look oll (I often make a mess of my last pair and end up with a dot but I'm getting there) , really focusing on my f2l, learning all cases and getting rid of bad f2l habits.

Welcome! I'm 59 so if you're old, what does that make me? I know its boring but the only way to improve, especially the intuitive F2L, is practice. That's if you have the time...

 

[Oldmancfop]

Welcome! I'm 59 so if you're old, what does that make me? I know its boring but the only way to improve, especially the intuitive F2L, is practice. That's if you have the time...

Old age is relative, ask the younger cubers if I'm old and the answer will be unanimous. I'm really pleased to find a community of older cubers, it makes me fell less weird! At the moment practice for me is not a chore, in fact putting the cube down is more of a problem.