Maybe something you learned the hard way, or something you found out right before making a huge mistake.
E.g., for audiophiles: don’t buy subwoofers from speaker companies, and don’t buy speakers from subwoofer companies.
Maybe something you learned the hard way, or something you found out right before making a huge mistake.
E.g., for audiophiles: don’t buy subwoofers from speaker companies, and don’t buy speakers from subwoofer companies.
I got seriously into speed cubing about a year ago. I don’t even know where to begin giving tips. There’s so much to learn. 🙈
At least I’ve reached my goal for 2025 and am now averaging around 30-35 seconds. I was at about 3 minutes when I was using the beginner’s method. Now using CFOP.
Need to learn more OLL algorithms though.
I regret not just learning CFOP back when I was younger, I wanted to get below 1 minute with the beginner method first for some reason and the combination of my skills and current cube tech were never quite there. 15 odd years later I can do sub 50 with beginner method, but don’t have the motivation to learn CFOP (or I probably do, I don’t have the motivation to make my cross good enough). Moral of the story, learn CFOP when you feel yourself hitting a wall with the beginner method.
I definitely hit a wall with my magnet-less cube trying to get sub-minute using beginner’s. It was just not going to happen.
Now I’m like 13 different cubes in and I got a flagship cube from Moyu which has helped me get these sub-half-minute times. The GAN 14 Pro was also quite instrumental.
But yeah, CFOP is a must if you want to get good times with reasonable ease (i.e. not brute forcing it using beginner’s).
I recommend practicing one thing at a time in order to get good at it. E.g. your cross. Sit and watch/listen to some YouTube or podcasts or something and just do white crosses for like 30 minutes at a time. You will improve very quickly, I promise. Use the fact that a cross is achievable in 8 moves or less from any scramble as a bar from which you can gauge your performance, and count the moves you make. Focus on different aspects at a time: number of moves until finished cross but take your time both with inspection and turning, only move efficiency; then try to do the cross faster but still unlimited inspection time; then finally limit your inspection time as well (if you care about competition rules).
Focusing on different things like this really helps. Same with the CFOP method. If you want to learn it, you’ll want to focus on the muscle memory of one algorithm at a time. Really grinding it until you feel like you know it. After that, try to use it in a solve. Next session, you will have forgotten it again, so repeat a little bit and refresh that muscle memory until it sticks after a while.
Also these things need to be kept fresh. Your hands will forget algs unless they continue to use them.
It’s a lot of work but a lot of fun if you enjoy improving. Nothing beats that feeling of setting a new personal best.
PS: I’m 38 now, and I started less than a year ago. It’s never too late IMO.
Haha, when I first learned beginner we were switching cores on 2-3 different no brand Chinese cubes! I’ve not gone for a signature cube yet, but basic GAN/moyu/yuxin cubes today are just so much better it’s unbelievable! Yeah, it’s probably mostly prioritising cubing Vs other things and then when I do put the time aside I get tempted by bigger cubes/megaminx puzzles. Honestly 9x9 or teraminx can be a lot less intense!
The fact we’re the same age might spur me on a bit again. Drilling algos for muscle memory I’m fine with - I probably just need to dedicate a month to the cross, it was just so so much easier when I could sit for 4-5 hours straight with no real responsibility and drill cube lol.
9x9!! I’ve not gone past my Moyu 4x4 yet. 😅 All my money so far has been on finding a great 3x3 🥲 But I have been eyeing a 5x5, so maybe I’ll give it a go! Megaminx just blows my mind, I’ve not even looked into that at all. 🫣
Yeah buddy! Let’s go. 💪
I feel this. It wasn’t easy with two kids and work. Lots of late nights, and solving while in remote meetings at work; during working from home while I was supposed to be working 😅; at the office during breaks, lunch… Putting in a lot of YouTube hours on the topic. Ugh. There’s a cost other than money to a hobby, eh… 😁
Definitely! Check out AliExpress, Moyu do some really reasonably priced cubes up to ~11x11 - 13x13, starts to get really pricey at 15x15 and above (although tbh there’s not much new after a 7x7/9x9). Megaminx is fun because you can pretty much use knowledge from cubes to get you to maybe the last 3 steps you just have to rethink how you apply the algos you know!
The other interesting thing with big cubes for me was realising I’d essentially forgotten how to solve a 3x3, because I couldn’t finger trick/abuse the cube in the same way it forced me to think about which algos I wanted to apply and I realised I was solving the 3x3 on pretty much muscle memory alone 😂
Great tip! Although I prefer to support my local cube stores to be honest.
Interesting! I’ll have to look at a tutorial for that some day. 😊
Definitely the case for a lot of my algorithms, especially the longer ones! It’s to the point where if I don’t do them fast enough I get confused and it breaks apart and I get lost. And that’s like 10 seconds of punishment just there, or at least can be. 😅