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Wowzers!! Massive PB for 61 Year Old

Kevin1958

Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2020
Messages
28
Hi Guys, 24 weeks ago I introduced myself as a 61-year-old newbie hoping to capture a sub 30 on film and also to average sub 30 for 10 consecutive solves (still working on that one)


At the time I had done over 20,000 solves since starting in June 2019 and my PB stood at 29.35

This morning, 10,000+ additional solves later my PB was 21.91

I have received great advice on on here, the main one being to practice, practice, and keep on practicing, today all of that practice finally started to pay off.

I was videoing my umpteenth average of 10 session which started with an okay 39.14, then my next solve achieved my long standing goal of capturing a sub 30 on film with a nice little 29.77 then my very next solve broke my single solve PB by a massive 4.58 seconds with a (for me) jaw dropping 17.33

I know it was probably a lucky scramble, but I am just starting to wonder if maybe a sub 15 is possible for this old codger

Cheers - here is the video

 

joshsailscga

Member
Joined
Dec 18, 2014
Messages
954
Location
Maryland, USA
WCA
2014MORR01
Nice work! with a jump like that it may be awhile before another single PB but it will come eventually.

It's always fun to have video of a moment like that. Here's a reconstruction if you hadn't already worked it out yourself:

YEL top, BLU front
Scramble: L B2 R2 B R2 U2 F' D2 U2 B' R2 D2 R D U' B' L' D2 L'
Inspection: remains YEL top, BLU front
Cross: D' R' y' R U R' F2
F2L1: L U' L' U' R U R'
F2L2: y2 R' U2 R y U' R U R'
F2L3: U2 y' R U' R'
F2L4: U L' U' L
OLL: F R U R' U' F'
PLL: F R U' R' U' R U R' F' R U R' U' R' F R F' U2

Time: 17.33
Moves: 52
Avg TPS: 3.00

Yes it is a lucky solve, but that's typically what PB singles will be! A tip for the next 'fingertrick' to work on would be making the D moves with either the pinky or ring finger of one hand, instead of wrist turning. That would have sped up your cross a little bit, for example.
I'm not an expert on cross by any means and this is an inconvenient orange edge compared to the rest of it. I might have tried D' R' y' D R' D' or y' R' D' R B' R'. The main difference between those and your solution just being the 3-move final edge insertion as opposed to 4 moves.
 
Z

Zubin Park

Guest
Great work Kevin! One thing that will save you a half a second instantly is to press the space bar right after you finish solving, as you kind of waited before stopping the timer.
 

Sub1Hour

Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2018
Messages
1,873
Location
Utah
WCA
2018BECK05
YouTube
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Not to be rude or anything but you're scrambling your cube wrong. Techically all your solves are "wrong"
It's actually not that big of a deal for 2 reasons

1. Its only him using the scrambles. If there were more than 1 person competing with those scrambles that were using a different orientation then it would give an advantage to one of them each time
2. It's still a computer generated scramble, so its going be a random state scramble every time no matter the orentation




3. You did a bad job of "not being rude". It's his practice session, not yours. It's not like he was scrambling at a competition. If he wants to scramble that way then let him, at least he isn't doing hand scrambles. You don't have to follow regs at home, and scramble orientation shouldn't make his solves obsolete, especially since he was using a random state scramble. Just give the man some credit for dropping his PB by that much of a margin.
 

Kevin1958

Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2020
Messages
28
Thank you joshsailscga very much for your great and helpful analysis. I can see that a lot of effort went into your post and it was very much appreciated. I was particularly impressed to learn that I can manage 3 turns per second and thank you as well for the finger-trick tip- I will definitely be practicing that one :cool:

I am grateful for each comment. I was pleased to learn from Zubin that I can save up to half a second by stopping the timer a bit quicker but obviously it was Kauhu’s reply that caught my eye. There is no offence taken whatsoever but I cannot understand how I my scrambling of the cube can be wrong? I must be missing something but what else can I do other than follow the F R2 L’ D2 B2 L2 U’ etc sequence generated by the CSTimer site?

Cheers
 
Joined
Jan 3, 2012
Messages
66
Thank you joshsailscga very much for your great and helpful analysis. I can see that a lot of effort went into your post and it was very much appreciated. I was particularly impressed to learn that I can manage 3 turns per second and thank you as well for the finger-trick tip- I will definitely be practicing that one :cool:

I am grateful for each comment. I was pleased to learn from Zubin that I can save up to half a second by stopping the timer a bit quicker but obviously it was Kauhu’s reply that caught my eye. There is no offence taken whatsoever but I cannot understand how I my scrambling of the cube can be wrong? I must be missing something but what else can I do other than follow the F R2 L’ D2 B2 L2 U’ etc sequence generated by the CSTimer site?

Cheers

Kevin, as a note, Kauhu means your scrambles aren't oriented per WCA regs (White Top, Green front), but as WarriorCatCuber said, it doesn't matter if your solving at home, if you aren't hand scrambling the cube is still going to be in a random state. Congrats on the PB!!!!
 

EngiNerdBrian

Premium Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2018
Messages
960
Location
Denver
YouTube
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Thank you joshsailscga very much for your great and helpful analysis. I can see that a lot of effort went into your post and it was very much appreciated. I was particularly impressed to learn that I can manage 3 turns per second and thank you as well for the finger-trick tip- I will definitely be practicing that one :cool:

I am grateful for each comment. I was pleased to learn from Zubin that I can save up to half a second by stopping the timer a bit quicker but obviously it was Kauhu’s reply that caught my eye. There is no offence taken whatsoever but I cannot understand how I my scrambling of the cube can be wrong? I must be missing something but what else can I do other than follow the F R2 L’ D2 B2 L2 U’ etc sequence generated by the CSTimer site?

Cheers
Hey there. The WCA regulations require that the cube be scrambled white on top green in front but just performing the scramble sequence from any solved state is sufficient to scramble your cube for non competitive purposes. I don’t always follow that rule as I often just grab a cube and scramble. Cheers.

Edit: I got ninja’d
 

Kevin1958

Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2020
Messages
28
Thanks for that Michael - I understand now.

Not to be rude or anything but you're scrambling your cube wrong. Techically all your solves are "wrong"

Thanks for pointing that out Kauhu - I literally had no idea that you had to start a scramble with White Top & Green Front. I have been practicing today using the correct method and whilst predictably it has no effect on my times it does make me feel better to know that I am doing it right, also I can see that a consistent starting point is required for fairness at competitions.
 

qwr

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Jul 24, 2019
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It doesn't matter. It evens out.
In the long run you're right, but PB scrambles are exceptionally lucky. For example in the last 1000 solves there might be only one that has a really easy cross, F2L pairs, and LL skip, AND you know enough to take advantage of it.
 

Apolo

Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2019
Messages
120
Location
South West of France
Congratulation !
This is actually a very very good time for a 60+ years old man :D

A next useful step could be to learn more OLL. It will remove a few moves most solves and result in a faster time especially for someone like you.
I can't say a lot more things other than keep on going !
On your first solve I see that you are doing a lot of U to find your f2l pairs. This is way better than rotating but I think that you can work on your F2L recognition.
 
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