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What is the longest break you have taken from cubing, and Why?

Joined
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Probably a week or so when I went on a trip to Paris, we were doing so much that by the time we got back to the hotel I just wanted to sleep, and we had little time in the morning too, I think it was kind of nice to take that short break though as I did help me take in Paris a bit more, I definitely made up for that week I missed very soon after I think ;) Good thing was my times didn’t drop at all, I wonder how they would fare with a longer break though.
 

Mody

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Joined
May 11, 2019
Messages
37
I had a half year break in between January and May, and the reason is the classic one:You learn to solve the cube, then you lose interest. I picked it up again when my brother challenged me to a cube race, and I decided to learn Petrus.
Why do you choose Petrus of all methods
 

SlechtValk

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Oct 27, 2010
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My first long break was from was from about 11 years old until about 27 in 2001. Nobody I knew did anything with a Rubik's cube in those years.

In 2001 a couple colleagues brought their cubes to work and so I dug up my old Rubik's knockoff from the 80s. I found the site of Jessica Friedrich and we learnt the Friedrich method together (now known as CFOP). After a couple of years I stopped again.

Then around 2011 I discovered this forum, found that you could buy real speed cubes then. Bought a Dayan Guhong and several other sized cubes. I practised hard wanting to get sub-20. After going to 1 competition, performing badly there and getting frustrated with my lack off progress I quit again.

And now thanks to some posts on Reddit that I saw I got interested again and renewed my full collection with magnetised cubes. I am practising again but don't have any set goals at the moment.

We will see how long I will stay interested this time...

Sent from my Nokia 7 plus using Tapatalk
 
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I started cubing from august 2010 and became sub20 in less than a year. by the next months I managed to bring down my avg100 to sub16, and got my first sub15 avg12. but then I got a job and stopped doing my dailys avg100 and I don't practice seriously anymore, just casual solves and some new algs from time to time, just for the sake of not forgetting the method
 

Pulseczar

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Joined
Feb 24, 2011
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2
I got into cubing in 2007 or 2008. I did it for a few years. My PB single got down to 15 something. I started trying to learn lookahead for F2L. My times suffered. People said they would at first. My times rarely went below 20 after that. And I could never seem to get the hang of lookahead -- haven't been able to consistently do it. I've always known that F2L is my bottleneck or barrier to faster solves; so, I've never bothered to try to learn more last layer algorithms, until the day that I significantly improve my F2L. I kind of just lost interest several years ago, I think, in getting faster. I haven't spent a lot of time looking for methods to improve my F2L, either. I just got tired of trying to do lookahead, but never seeming to be able to consistently do it. I think that kind of burned me out -- feeling like I'd hit a wall. I think it was 2 years ago that I started getting back into cubing some, because I figured out a way to solve the 3x3 while understanding every turn I'm making to the cube, and how it's getting me closer to the solved state. I solve the first two layers and last layer edges intuitively. For the last layer corners, I use commutators and conjugates. To me, being able to solve these puzzles, while understanding every move I'm making to the cube, is way more interesting than being able to quickly solve the puzzles. And it seems like an infinitesimally small percentage of cubers know how to do this. So that is pretty cool.
 

IsThatA4x4

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Jul 18, 2021
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2022RITC01
Started in ~2018, and learned LBL until I was about sub-45. I then learned CFOP (4LLL, then full PLL, then intuitive F2L weird order lol) and had watched J perm's advanced F2L video (although my lookahead was nonexistent). I started averaging ~25 and decided to start full OLL...
But I clearly wasn't ready. I didn't know about comps or this forum (which is really helpful for motivation to cube because there is a whole community here). After about a day or two of trying to start OLL, I gave up and then started getting frustrated because my average seemed to be going up out of nowhere (in hindsight due to a lack of deliberate practice). That's when I stopped, cubing less and less each day.
... Then one day on a leaver's trip at my old school one of my friends brought in his old Moyu cube from when he cubed (averaging about 50). I kept asking to try it and so the next day I brought in my old GAN 356 something or other that wasn't magnetic and I got off amazon one day and I instantly realised that why I had stopped was unjustified and I still loved cubing.
... So I got a GAN 356 M (because at the time I thought GAN was the only company that existed) and relearned full PLL, and intuitive and advanced F2L. I learned full OLL with ease over a couple weeks and then started a new school, where I kept grinding down my average, which was 9 or so months ago. That's been me ever since, and as I said, this forum has been really helpful; especially if I ever lose motivation again.

Anyway thanks for coming to my TED talk if you read all of that.
 

OtterCuber

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Started in ~2018, and learned LBL until I was about sub-45. I then learned CFOP (4LLL, then full PLL, then intuitive F2L weird order lol) and had watched J perm's advanced F2L video (although my lookahead was nonexistent). I started averaging ~25 and decided to start full OLL...
But I clearly wasn't ready. I didn't know about comps or this forum (which is really helpful for motivation to cube because there is a whole community here). After about a day or two of trying to start OLL, I gave up and then started getting frustrated because my average seemed to be going up out of nowhere (in hindsight due to a lack of deliberate practice). That's when I stopped, cubing less and less each day.
... Then one day on a leaver's trip at my old school one of my friends brought in his old Moyu cube from when he cubed (averaging about 50). I kept asking to try it and so the next day I brought in my old GAN 356 something or other that wasn't magnetic and I got off amazon one day and I instantly realised that why I had stopped was unjustified and I still loved cubing.
... So I got a GAN 356 M (because at the time I thought GAN was the only company that existed) and relearned full PLL, and intuitive and advanced F2L. I learned full OLL with ease over a couple weeks and then started a new school, where I kept grinding down my average, which was 9 or so months ago. That's been me ever since, and as I said, this forum has been really helpful; especially if I ever lose motivation again.

Anyway thanks for coming to my TED talk if you read all of that.
This is an inspiring story. I hope to become as good as you one day.
 

Shrek

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Joined
Aug 5, 2021
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130
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The Swamp
I took a break from cubing because like normally I do around 100 solves a day, and then I slowly started doing less solves cuz of school and stuff, like 70 solves per day or 50 solves per day until I just didn't cube at all.

After 2 years I started to cube again
 
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Oct 12, 2020
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I took a break from cubing because like normally I do around 100 solves a day, and then I slowly started doing less solves cuz of school and stuff, like 70 solves per day or 50 solves per day until I just didn't cube at all.

After 2 years I started to cube again
And now you're the most famous and most well liked user on the forums.
 

EngiNerdBrian

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Jun 21, 2018
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About 7 years. I started cubing around 2008 and from 2012-2019 I was busy starting my career, traveling constantly, training for and Ironman triathlon and cubing just fell to the wayside. I began solving like crazy during COVID lockdowns and right now I'm once again I'm too busy with life to dedicate much time to cubing.

With such little free time and so many hobbies sometimes cubing just doesn't take priority.
 

OtterCuber

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Jul 26, 2021
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About 7 years. I started cubing around 2008 and from 2012-2019 I was busy starting my career, traveling constantly, training for and Ironman triathlon and cubing just fell to the wayside. I began solving like crazy during COVID lockdowns and right now I'm once again I'm too busy with life to dedicate much time to cubing.

With such little free time and so many hobbies sometimes cubing just doesn't take priority.

Thank you for producing content when you were less busy.
 
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