Why is it harder for cubers in 20s+ to be world class in speedcubing?

abunickabhi

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Note: This question is open-ended, subjective and highly time dependent. This question may not hold any value since the qualities can vary from person to person. This question is highly event dependent as well. For example, 2x2 is easier to focus on for kids, 5BLD is easier to focus on when we are in late teens or full adults*.

I want to list out the reasons why it is tough to continue cubing in the 20s. Please add your reasons as well. Summarize the topic or refute a few points listed in this thread.

Reasons (from my perspective):
  • WCA duties and delegation duties (takes more time than actual cubing)
  • Less time dedicated for cubing (can be avoided if we decide to be jobless)
  • Lower priority for cubing compared to other things in life
  • Social and monetary responsibilities (can be avoided if you are super rich)
  • A lot of Work stress (THE MAJOR REASON)
  • Less Mental bandwidth (it is tough to have a full practice session knowing that we have a lot of work and life things pending)
  • Loans and monthly commitments (obvious choice to quit cubing if you are stuck in this cycle)
  • Long travel time to workplace (practicing during travelling does not help improve at all)
  • Family pressure to move on (parents can pester to quit cubing during adulthood)
  • Investing time in big algsets which do not improve turning quality or TPS (UF5 in my case, ZBLL in others maybe)
  • Bad turning style and habits (cubers in 20s will have grown familiar with hardware which was 10 years old and cannot adopt fast enough to new improved hardware)
  • Dating and marriage (takes every bit of available time and mental capabilities outside work, leaving no time for mental hobbies like cubing)
  • Checking news and business ideas more often (takes a lot of our thinking time and essential to survive in job market and have good opportunities)
  • Investments and spending (adults have to get conscious about money which leads to less focus during speedsolving)
  • Sacrifice (we might have a younger sibling who needs more resources for say education so we quit cubing)

My personal short story, I found it hard to continue cubing since 2018 (age 22) when my college finished and also during my thesis year in college. For the last 6 years, I have barely broken any PRs except if hardware improvement makes it super easy to improve or I get lucky, I still attend comps a lot, but I miss the 2015 days when I could cube 10+ hours a day, and became world class easily with less hurdles and commitments in my life.

Disclaimer: This is my personal view. This question is speculative and I do not intend to imply anything. I do not want to indirectly propose anything or create confusion. This question was not made on behalf of any of the cubing roles that I currently have.
 
Elijah Brown
honestly, time. when you're a kid you have so much time to just, do things. when you're an adult you have a bunch of responsibilities, you just dont have significant time to dedicate to cubing.
anyone saying things like "oh when you're older you cant learn as well" or "your fingers get slower" are flat out wrong and i refuse to agree with those statements at a base level.
the one thing adults do not have that most kids do have, is time.

Enrique Alberto Ibarra Cuanalo
While adults are clearly better at learning stuff that requires higher order thinking like engineering, it’s possible that neuroplasticity in children allows them to learn and recall the visual/spatial patterns associated with cubing more easily.

Chaeerin Kajira
Brain performance peaks at 25, so I do kinda believe that the faster response times currently are more because kids have more time on their hands and as such their brain is more prepared to deal with specific stimuli

Lars Petrus
That's certainly the case for most competitive sports. Also for musicians, which is the closest finger dexterity activity I can think of.

Tomasz Kartasiński
Time is the main reason:
Basically that is how my time is consumed during a day:
1. Get my child ready for kindergarten etc. from 7-8:30 am
2. Go to work and earn some money: 9am - 5pm
3. Spend time with family: 5pm - 9pm
4. Gym or running in my case: 9pm - 11pm
5. Sleep
Repeat 5 times a week.
So sometimes I am able to do some cubing around 10pm-11pm but are anyone able to be focused etc at that time after long day of working? If You are not consistent and dedicate at lease 2hours a day then there are no big outcomes when it comes to speedcubing.

Rowe Hessler
I’ve always felt like I have a very unique position when it comes to this. Working in the industry has helped keep my cubing abilities and interest alive, I’m 100% certain I would not have achieved anything in cubing after 2014 if I wasn’t working at The Cubicle. However, I still have most of the other pressures of being an adult, except having to raise a family right now, so I still have that same feeling that there just isn’t enough time in the day and it’s frustrating.
One downside for me though is that I’m always around cubing, and I really can’t take a break from it for an extended period of time. This makes my mbld stuff really challenging to keep up with after work even if I do have time, I often experience serious cubing burnout if I try to practice with the same intensity I did in my mid-late 20s. Another thing I’ve noticed is that I feel like I have been almost programmed to take cubing more seriously than others because I work in the industry, and I can’t help but have the same mindset towards my mbld stuff. It has definitely helped my progress in many ways, but often it makes it feel more like an obligation rather than a hobby that I enjoy. And believe me when I tell you, MBLD is a LOT harder to do when your heart isn’t in it. The results I get during periods where I’m enjoying it are significantly better than times where I’m forcing myself, so I have to be careful with that.
But yeah, don’t get me wrong I love my job and The Cubicle has changed my life for the better, but it isn’t all fun and games. Work-life-cubing balance is pretty complicated for me with my MBLD quest thrown into the mix.

Knut Skaug Haraldsen
In my view it is mostly about two things that happen when you become an adult. You naturally get less time easily available, as adult life demands more of your time than what school does. The second is that adult life comes with new arenas such as work and relationships, which you often end up somewhat prioritizing over cubing. In your teens it is possible to have life basically be about two things, school and cubing. When you get older you tend to find that there are other things to do with your life which are meaningful in different ways than cubing is.

Jules Desjardin
Time is the biggest factor, but brain elasticity is also one. Yiheng can learn to 1look F2L because he's a kid, so his brain can adapt. When you get older, you're physically less able to learn this kind of stuff.
To be clear I'm not talking about learning algs, because that can also be done by adults.

José Cabadas
I always thought that, if people were able to make a living out of competitive cubing, the cubing scene would be actually dominated by people between 20-30 yo

Other responses on FB were not well formed so they are not shared here yo.
 
my cubing slowed down immensely when I went to high school (it was extremely rigorous and competitive)

now I'm 22 in college. whenever I cube I have a nagging feeling that I could be doing something more productive

I honestly feel that work will be *easier* than college. after work, I will go home at 4 and not think about it the rest of the day. in school, there is always another assignment or a long-term project to work on. maybe when I start my job I'll cube more compared to now
 
22 here and finishing up undergrad. I have no time except for a handful of solves almost every day. I typically only do clock, since I simply don't have time to seriously practice all events I compete in. Getting high grades and a job have to come first, and I'm also completing two majors (which I did to myself).

It was distressing at first not being able to cube as much, as it was kind of my break from stress (it still is when I can). However, it can present as a distraction during the day. I'd rather be caught up on work, but I guess that change naturally comes with a different set if responsibilities.
 
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