What memory sports do you do to practice for BLD?

[FastCubeMaster]

I would love to know what each of you (especially the fast cubers) do to practice for blindfold solving.
Another question: Do JUST memory sports take up more of your practice time than actually doing BLD solves?

I know memory league is a pretty widely used program, but are there any others?
https://app.memoryleague.com/#!/home
Another good program from Roman:
http://bestsiteever.ru/memotest/

Thanks for the replies in advance, I'm sure many cubers just getting into BLD would love to know.

 

[Carl La Hood]

Sometimes I go on this random letter generator http://www.dave-reed.com/Nifty/randSeq.html
and generate ~20 letters or sets of 20 letters and see if I can memorize them with letter pairs or/and journey locations.

 

[Gregory Alekseev]

I practice all of the memory sports that are on memory leaque, also sometimes flash numbers, 30 minute Numbers and hour numbers in memoriad simulator.
Memory Sports actually help a lot for MBLD and BigBLD. They are not as useful for 3BLD as for BigBLD and MBLD. Well, I got sub-40 seconds memorization with practicing memory sports, but they won't help at all for sub-20, for it you need to make an image for each letter pair and practice 3BLD.
They help a lot, but you can't get good at bld just with training memory. You need to do solves anyway. They just make memorisation feel easier and reduce memo forgettings.
There is also https://memocamp.com/, very popular program, many mnemonists use it.
Probably if I won't be lazy I will create a tutorial thread, maybe even video. Oliver Frost has a small tutorial on Cubing World channel: here.

 

[Fábio De'Rose]

I do only Speed Cards (not good at it yet) and Speed Numbers (not horribly bad at it, but still pending to get a 60 numbers PB in <5min).

At first I was very reluctant to learn Numbers, but once I learned the Major System it quickly changed.

I recommend Anki, which also is available in Android (Ankidroid) as a way to practice not only for Memory Sports, but also to store and practice your letter pairs as well.

 

[Roman]

bestsiteever.ru/memotest
(part of my reply to this thread is on this page)

Practicing memory sports definitely improves your BLD memo, but being good at memory sports primarily requires you to be good at encoding the info (i.e. converting sequences of digits/cards into images). With a well-developed encoding system, it might take quite a lot of time to get used to doing this fast, and this has nothing to do with the speedcubing.
IMO if you want to solely improve your memo, not the encoding skill, you should practice memorizing letter-pairs and do it the same way as if you were memorizing the cube. I used to do it a lot, and I mean A LOT, and I can tell for sure I got faster at 5BLD memo because of that. I use my own console app for this (I'm a terminal guy, meh), but you can use my memotest tool, or the one that @Carl La Hood suggested. Just make sure it generates all possible letter-pairs that can appear in your BLD memo.
As for memory sports events, there are plenty of simulators available. I only tried out the memoriad simulator and a couple Russian competitive-like websites (powermemory, memoryman). Just bare in mind that memorizing pairs of digits limits you to just using 100 images (instead of 23*23=529) and you can barely achieve good results with it, unless you're Maskow. You can also practice binary digits and use 16*16=256 images if you assign 16 of your letters to all possible sets of 4 binary digits, which is still not as efficient as most memory sports athlets' system. For cards, you can assign a letter to a card value and a letter for a suit, so one card = one letter-pair.
Anyway, memory practicing of any kind is fun, so keep having fun and you'd be good

 

[pinser]

bestsiteever.ru/memotest

That website is amazing
Do you have a list of all the websites/programs you've made?

 

[T1_M0]

I've not yet understood how memoing digits can help memorising cubes. Isn't it a whole different thing?

 

[Gregory Alekseev]

I've not yet understood how memoing digits can help memorising cubes. Isn't it a whole different thing?

Memorising digits is a different thing, and it doesn't directly help memorising cubes. But it trains you memory skill, your ability to use Loci, spartial imagination and your concentration. And memorising cubes depends on these four things.

 

[Torch]

None.

This explains why I'm bad at BLD

 

[YouCubing]

None.

This explains why I'm bad at BLD

i relate

 

[Mastermind2368]

I have got 13 pics in a min on that link you gave. Hey, some day that could be me and BLD.

 

[the super cuber]

None. I also think "reading" letter pairs off a scrambled cube fast while simultaneously memorising it is kind of a skill in itself, and something memory programmes can't provide as they give you all the information on a metaphorical silver platter

 

[Fábio De'Rose]

None. I also think "reading" letter pairs off a scrambled cube fast while simultaneously memorising it is kind of a skill in itself, and something memory programmes can't provide as they give you all the information on a metaphorical silver platter

Except you can learn how to encode any kind of information faster and more efficiently through Memory Sports.

Reading the information is the easiest part, while doing it quickly is the second easiest. Encoding, retaining and recalling efficiently, however, is on the opposing side of this spectrum.

What do you think Maskow being the undisputed king of MBLD is because of? He's said himself that this event specifically is a memory and concentration feat, not one of pure speed.

 

[JustAnotherGenericCuber]

What do you think Maskow being the undisputed king of MBLD is because of?

You say as someone who has a very good chance of beating his record is the poster right above you

 

[Fábio De'Rose]

You say as someone who has a very good chance of beating his record is the poster right above you

Yeah, Shivam is indeed the strongest contender right now. My point still stands, though.

 

[Gregory Alekseev]

You say as someone who has a very good chance of beating his record is the poster right above you

Shivam may beat Maskow's WR, but he will reach Maskow's level not soon. The WR is not very good for Maskow(he had 6 minutes more), I am sure Marcin can beat it at any time if he wants that. And I am agree with Fabio that Maskow is "the undisputed king of MBLD" because of the Memory Sports. I have experienced for myself recently how BLD memo improves by practicing them.

 

[the super cuber]

Shivam may beat Maskow's WR, but he will reach Maskow's level not soon. The WR is not very good for Maskow(he had 6 minutes more), I am sure Marcin can beat it at any time if he wants that. And I am agree with Fabio that Maskow is "the undisputed king of MBLD" because of the Memory Sports. I have experienced for myself recently how BLD memo improves by practicing them.

I'm pretty sure the WR is pretty good for maskow, considering he hasn't broken it since (has competed a few times at least) and was his overall PB at the time if I'm not mistaken. At 40+ cubes accuracy is much much more important than speed, and since he could do around 48 cubes sub hour at home (presumably with not less than 4 DNFs) so getting a safe 41/41 in 54 minutes is understandable. It isn't a certainty that doing a few extra cubes in those 6 minutes would have had them being solved too. Also if the person who is the best got there using memory sports doesn't mean it's the only path to success

 

[Fábio De'Rose]

Also if the person who is the best got there using memory sports doesn't mean it's the only path to success

Certainly not the only, but the safest.

 

[Roman]

That website is amazing
Do you have a list of all the websites/programs you've made?

Thanks. Good idea, I have just made a list: http://bestsiteever.ru/apps/

 

[Christopher Cabrera]

Certainly not the only, but the safest.

I don't think that is necessarily true. I think you could end up wasting a lot of time practicing memory sports if your not 100% certain of what you are trying to get out of it.

On another note, I spoke to Mark Boyanowski about this last week end and he told me that he does not do memory sports training that much.

I think the main thing memory sports training provides is variation. I think that variation allows you to practice with out getting bored with the tedious grind of doing the same thing over and over again. However, if you can put up with the monotony of it, the best way to practice memoing cubes is to memo cubes.