What makes a Sub-10 cuber?

[DeeDubb]

What??? If I pick up a cube and do an ao5, I get 11.xx! My best ao50 is 12.86 because I've only ever done 2 averages of 50. The other one was 12.89.
I AVERAGE 11 SECONDS.

Your PB Ao12 is 11.22... Are you saying any given average of 5 is within .78 seconds of your PB average of 12?

EDIT: I don't want this to come off like I'm attacking you. I like your posts on the forum, and you seem nice. I just want to help you with definition a bit. Also, this is getting pretty far off topic, so you can call yourself whatever you like

 

[ElectricDoodie]

What??? If I pick up a cube and do an ao5, I get 11.xx! My best ao50 is 12.86 because I've only ever done 2 averages of 50. The other one was 12.89.
I AVERAGE 11 SECONDS.

I doubt your personal best AO5 and your AO100 is less than a .5 difference.
You're probably 13-15.

 

[SolveThatCube]

This response doesn't make sense.

I didn't really understand what he was saying.

 

[GuRoux]

if you did an average of 100 right now what you do you think you would get? if you honestly think you would get 11 then you'd be right.

 

[waffle=ijm]

OP - What you're missing is taking breaks. Give yourself a rest every now and then. Learn new things if you feel like it. It's not in the algs but what's in between that matters. Doing algs fast is easy. The time you spend between steps is what's important. How fast you analyze things. Your transitions between steps. You can't exactly do that if your head is wrapped around focusing too much on sub-10. Take a break. splash some water and when you're mind is clear focus on transitions.

 

[goodatthis]

I'm no where near sub 10, but I can tell you a few things based on what I've noticed between cubers that are sub 10 and ones that are around your speed.

1. Low move count, most of their solves are under 50 moves (it depends on the cuber, but this is what I've noticed in general)

2. Effortless lookahead, I see similar TPS between people who average 11-12 sec and people who average 9-10 sec. They are able to lookahead like crazy and multislot and do other fancy F2L things because of it.

3. If lookahead or lower move count isn't your problem, then maybe it's just TPS. The only way I know to improve your TPS is to practice a lot.

I hope these tips helped, maybe getting into other puzzles for a while might help, like edge pairing on 5x5 is meant to be fast, but lookahead is very helpful as well, maybe you could try big cubes to develop your lookahead.

 

[scottishcuber]

Edit: To do this you'll want to concentrate on solving 2 pairs at once with no pauses, and having absolute confidence in your lookahead.

I think this is the best insight in this thread so far. You get to a point where you know exactly where your next pair will be and then you transition straight into that pair without pausing and trusting that your 'know'-ahead is right...I'm still not great at this, but I'm getting better.

Try just practising the 1x2x3 of <R, U> scrambles blindfolded at first, then practising doing the whole thing fast itself. As you progress you'll find yourself becoming much, much more slick at 3rd and 4th pairs and that good solves will usually be defined by how good the 1st and 2nd pair was; at least, that's good evidence of having improved at what you'd be trying to improve.

I've read this from you a few times in the past and it hasn't really caught on from what I've seen, despite it working so well for you. I'll start practicing this and see where it leads me, thanks.

 

[jeff081692]

The transition between each F2L pair is what I also found was missing between me and sub 10 cubers when it comes to F2L. When I went from sub15 to around sub13 I noticed that there were more cases where I could predict where the next pair was easily and continue turning faster. And there are so many combinations where I have to slow myself down a little that I can understand why some people are faster since those little hesitations do make the difference since they add up.

Yesterday I looked at the cube and found that after an R U R' insert there are 294 possible combinations for where the next pair will end up. Most F2L cases end with either R U R' or R U' R' or the mirrors or inserting with these moves in the back slots. That makes a total of 2352 different combinations. Every time you solve a cube you get practice with 3 of these transitions and so it's easy to see that people who have done a lot of solves have seen more of these 2352 patterns multiple times and are therefore much faster in the transitions between pairs. I am not cubing as much anymore but sometimes I will just set up a set of the 294 R U R' combinations and do those over and over until I feel comfortable with the fingertricks and lookahead. I started by looking at some multislotting algs not sure if they will get me anywhere but I am not taking cubing as seriously right now and it's fun for me. But yea seeing the number of different combinations of pairs made me understand why it can take a while to improve when you get faster. One day you can improve on a fraction of those cases but you won't really see it reflect in your times until you have a good enough proportion of them mastered from experience.

 

[Rocky0701]

What??? If I pick up a cube and do an ao5, I get 11.xx! My best ao50 is 12.86 because I've only ever done 2 averages of 50. The other one was 12.89.
I AVERAGE 11 SECONDS.

You managed to get down to averaging sub 15, and only have done two averages of 50? Do you like not time that often, or reset the times after 20 or so solves or something, so that you never get to 50? I am having difficulty understanding this.

 

[yoshinator]

You managed to get down to averaging sub 15, and only have done two averages of 50? Do you like not time that often, or reset the times after 20 or so solves or something, so that you never get to 50? I am having difficulty understanding this.

I average mid-9, and I don't think I've ever done 100 solves in one sitting in my life (3x3), and I doubt I've ever done more than 50 for 4x4, despite (former) being 5th in the world.

 

[SolveThatCube]

You managed to get down to averaging sub 15, and only have done two averages of 50? Do you like not time that often, or reset the times after 20 or so solves or something, so that you never get to 50? I am having difficulty understanding this.

cough I don't have my own computer. cough

 

[Petro Leum]

You managed to get down to averaging sub 15, and only have done two averages of 50? Do you like not time that often, or reset the times after 20 or so solves or something, so that you never get to 50? I am having difficulty understanding this.

i can totally understand him there

i tend to lose focus after around 20 solves, so it doesnt make sense for me to do big averages, as they dont represent what i can achieve when im awake and focused

 

[Future Cuber]

i can totally understand him there

i tend to lose focus after around 20 solves, so it doesnt make sense for me to do big averages, as they dont represent what i can achieve when im awake and focused

+1 D

 

[SolveThatCube]

i can totally understand him there

i tend to lose focus after around 20 solves, so it doesnt make sense for me to do big averages, as they dont represent what i can achieve when im awake and focused

Exactly.

 

[Rocky0701]

I average mid-9, and I don't think I've ever done 100 solves in one sitting in my life (3x3), and I doubt I've ever done more than 50 for 4x4, despite (former) being 5th in the world.

I don't think I have either, but I just save them and then come back after a while then keep timing.

 

[Petro Leum]

I don't think I have either, but I just save them and then come back after a while then keep timing.

okay, but then why would the big averages matter?

 

[yoshinator]

I don't think I have either, but I just save them and then come back after a while then keep timing.

Yeah... I reset the session after 1 bad solve (unless I'm in the middle of a possibly good avgx). The biggest thing I'll do (other than for lolz) is 25, I lose focus, and when I come back, I suck.

 

[tseitsei]

okay, but then why would the big averages matter?

Well, obviously because the bigger the amount of solves is the less luck has any impact.
Also I'm sometimes magically faster for a short period of time ~10 solves and then get back to my normal times. That also loses significance in bigger averages. So overall they better represent your "normal times"

 

[ComputerGuy365]

I don't average Sub 10, but many cubers that average close to that and Sub 10 always say that F2L Is really the most important. Other LL Algs can help but they are not required. One cuber who averages about 12-13 seconds says once you reach that point, it takes years to drop even a second off your averages.

 

[tx789]

There always the age old go slow look ahead tip. That is said to everyone wanting to get faster(those usually they average sup 20 or 30.). It does take practice, to get faster.