 |
Ton's Rubik's Puzzle Building News Nr 11
11 jan 2005
|
|
The art of speedcubing
After I met Ron in 2000, I got interested again in the Rubik's cube. At that time Ron was just starting after a 20 year break still he got
times like 22 to 24 seconds. At that time I was around 45 seconds, It took Ron 3 years before I left my old method and started speedcubing. The WC 2003 was my
first try in a big competition, I started my statistics learning a F2L method in June 2003, I had an average of 33.90 seconds. In June 2004 I thought I could
never get faster than 25 seconds, but I got rid of this mental block and just started investigation speedcube moves, so not just algorithms. The art of
speedcubing has some nice things, there is no speed limit only mental blocks, sure below 7 seconds doing 45 moves would be a limit. The speed you get is
mainly looking ahead and pattern recognition , second is the turning speed, it
help if you have a smooth cube.
Now I have some large number of cube disciples, that use a very basic method I designed (it is not described anywhere). It took me 3 hours to
teach my older brother of 53, after that he could do the cube. One restriction, you must be able to make 1 layer. With this method I taught many colleagues of
mine. Joel van Noort is one the first of the cubers I inspired to get learning for (high)speed, I could see he had a talent for high speed.
Learning and training for speed has some side effects, positive, you can see more at the same time, the effect is even bigger learning the 4x4x4. I notice the effect while driving my car, I notice after a while that I see the road ahead but also the things left and right of the road, not by turning my head but unconscious. The other thing is you learn that dedication can take you to a 20 seconds average, sure talent will get you there faster. But anyone could do and learn the cube in 30 seconds, also 20 seconds is possible with dedication and training, below 19 seconds you must have talent, turning speed and a good memory.
The only one negative is, you must never, never!!! use a bad turning cube to train for speed, you will get RSI problems like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome or Cube Thumb.
The last months I got some major progress, currently my average is around 22 seconds.
Click to see a big version
Analyzing your statistics is very useful to see where you can improve and if you make progress. Still I can make progress, it is 1 second
a month, last months I got about 0.5 seconds a months. I hope this year to get to 19 seconds average as record and a normal average of 20 seconds. I
already proved to myself that I can do a 19.87
in competition see speedcubing.com ranking 2004 place 26th. So nothing can stop me now!
Click to see a big version
I can see from the spike at 19 seconds - because it is growing- I can make a shift from the 22 down to 19 seconds. So I know my
current limit is 19 seconds using current method. But with some new moves I can do the next step...
You can download my Excel statistics sheet to record and analyze your own records, if you add a row in the 3x3x3 sheet, you have to do a search and replace in the 'stat 3x3x3' sheet e.g. replace N$49 with N$50 in the hole sheet. To update the first graphic, you must replace the labels and value references e.g. R$49 to R$50 and A$49 with A$50.
It is useless but fun to do speedcubing!
Ton
Archived news :
About this site
All you want to know about Rubik's Puzzle building, collecting
and speedcubing. If you want to build variation of the Rubik's cube like a
2x2x3,2x2x4,2x2x6 up to an extended 7x7x7 than this is the place! I am a true
Rubik's collector, puz
zle
builder and speedcuber, so in short
a Rubik's fan. I also sell Collectibles and
speedcubes for the collectors and speedcubers. These pages are part of the www.speedcubing.com site!
Did you know that the first Rubik's Cube was made of wood!
Email me at:
Ton Dennenbroek
Rubik's CubeTM
is a trademark of Seven Towns Ltd. Some of these puzzles may be trademarked. This site is
not derived from, associated with, or endorsed by the holders of such trademarks.
