What is the most common speed plateau?

[adimare]

I don't agree there. Average times do not imply that every solve takes you the same amount of time. The question is asking what it's asking: what's the average.

You're saying exactly what I said.

 

[pglewis]

You're saying exactly what I said.

Yeah, reading comprehension 101. What a difference a couple skipped words while reading makes

 

[KenBrace]

The biggest plateau occurs whenever life gets busy or you stop trying to improve. Anyone who practises a decent amount and practises WELL should not get stuck.

Haha same here. I'm stuck at 12-13 but that's probably because I don't practice much. I'm satisfied with my speed and I have more important things going on in my life. So I probably won't get much faster. Perhaps I'll reach sub 10 over time slowly but I won't be working towards that.

I don't agree there. Average times do not imply that every solve takes you the same amount of time. The question is asking what it's asking: what's the average.

The point of the OP is to figure out where the average speed solver plateaus. It's not an invalid question. I'm guessing that it's somewhere around the 15 second mark for most people but I was interested to hear what others thought.

 

[JustinTimeCuber]

That's like saying that asking what the average height of US citizens is implies that everyone in the US has the same height.

but plateaus can be very random, so the average won't necessarily be much more likely than either extreme, i.e. the distribution curve would be close to a flat line, that's just my opinion.

 

[pglewis]

but plateaus can be very random, so the average won't necessarily be much more likely than either extreme, i.e. the distribution curve would be close to a flat line, that's just my opinion.

This is what makes me curious, my instinct is to guess a bell curve somewhere in the 10-18 second range. I'm still new and nothing but a series of plateaus still so I have no extra data to provide.

 

[JustinTimeCuber]

This is what makes me curious, my instinct is to guess a bell curve somewhere in the 10-18 second range. I'm still new and nothing but a series of plateaus still so I have no extra data to provide.

yes but people use different methods, cubes, turning styles, algs, etc. which make them get stuck at wildly different times, so there is a slight bell curve but I doubt that there are exact times that people get stuck at much more than others, which is what I feel like this question implies.

 

[adimare]

but plateaus can be very random, so the average won't necessarily be much more likely than either extreme, i.e. the distribution curve would be close to a flat line, that's just my opinion.

You think that roughly the same amount of people plateau at 7 sec than at 20?

If I was forced to bet, I'd bet on normal distribution.

 

[FastCubeMaster]

I don't know if it's just me, but I sped through 20s and sub 20, but then slowed down a lot at 15 or something similar.

 

[Ksh13]

I don't know if it's just me, but I sped through 20s and sub 20, but then slowed down a lot at 15 or something similar.

Literally exactly the same happened to me. Went from sub-20 to sub-15 in two months, 2 weeks of which were spent being stuck at high 15.

 

[turtwig]

In my experience I really had no problem getting down to sub-20 and after that improving gets gradually harder. I think in general, the faster you get, the slower you improve, obviously, and there isn't a point where it's especially hard to improve (if you think about it, it doesn't really make sense). The times when I stop improving is when I practice other events more or I practice less in general.

 

[Jbacboy]

The biggest plateau is always to come, you probably still haven't reached it.

 

[LyrikTech]

I've been stuck at ~20 for about a year now, I've been cubing for 2 years now.

 

[OLLiver]

sub 11. Stuck at 11-12 for 10 months. Feels like I can't improve

 

[Smiles]

i never experienced a plateau until my average was about 12.00, but at that point it was just because i cubed on and off and barely worked on anything, so it wasn't really a plateau, i just didnt care enough to improve.
now im sub 11 and i was not even sub 12 a few months ago.

i'm the only data point i have, but i feel like if you keep working on new things and keep your motivation then the plateaus are all in your head, until you reach your actual limit.
but i dont think a lot of people get to their limit anyway

 

[shadowslice e]

Hmmm... discounting where I am now (10-11 where I have been for maybe 4 months though I haven't really been practising and it still seems to fall in line with the way that progress slows down as you get faster), I would say that the longest I've been stuck at is 20 where I got stuck for maybe 3-4 months.

 

[Ordway Persyn]

I have been stuck at 14-15 seconds for a while, however this is likely do to me not practicing regularly.

 

[sqAree]

For me it was around 21-22. I remember that I felt the breakthrough to sub20 coming, then I became worse and my global average reached 23 again even though I kept practising. In total that period lasted more than 4 months iirc.

 

[FastCubeMaster]

When people are stuck averaging <15 seconds, a lot of people think that they are stuck because they don't notice the improvement. When it gets that fast, you do improve by fractions of a second, it's just terribly unnoticeable.

 

[Big Red]

I think sub 20 is about right. Personally I'm barely sub 25. Although I did at sub 35 for like four months.

 

[AlphaSheep]

I think sub-20 could feel like a barrier where a lot of people get stuck because it's a big milestone at a round number. Personally I was averaging 22 seconds a year ago, and I average about 19 now, so my improvement feels really slow compared to before that. But I'm pretty sure that's because I work a full time job, and if I was a student with plenty of practice time, I'm sure I'd be closer to 15 seconds by now.