| The unique cube following (not cult) at my school was really great. There were a lot of people who showed interest, but never learned. While there were others who learned, lossed interest and soon forgot. You always feel kind of bad investing the time into teaching someone and they quit. *shrugs* It was ok, we were all having fun. I even saw some kids I didn't know walking around school with cubes. If the interest is really there, maybe I should start a cult... ^-^ I remember once I saw a kid walking down the hall playing with a cube. Another guy, some bully with greased up hair, slapped the cube out of the kids hand. As the cube hit the ground and pieces exploded out in all directions, maybe I thought back to my days of cube baseball. The bully, who I'm going to name JackAss to protect his identity thought this was quite funny. Where is the humor in breaking someone's cube? I mean...punch me in repeatedly in the neck, but please, don't break my cube. I grabbed JackAss by the collar. "What is wrong with you!?! Cubes shouldn't be treated that way!" And I looked over at the victim, "And people have feelings too." As if it were meant to be afterstatement... Anyway, back to the journey.... I finished learning the 3-look a few weeks before RWC 03'. That summer I worked full time doing field work.. Forty hours a week detassling corn, so I could enjoy a single weekend in Canada. And if I had to go through another harsh summer doing field work for minimum wage, just so I could go to the next RWC, I would. My friends and I did a lot of practicing before the World Championships. I was averaging around 31 seconds, and I was happy with it. We were all relatively the same speed in our solves. We went to Niagra Falls on the way to Canada. It was beautiful. It was so natural, except for the fences surrounding the cliff. In fact, it was so natural, I was almost compelled to throw my cube into the churning waters. It would have been happy to be part of the landmark I think, but I needed it that weekend so it really wasn't an option. I noticed something very interesting. Out of respect (presumably), the Canadian side flew both it's own flag, and the American flag. The American side only flew it's own. I mean, America not showing respect for other countries? Is this possible? This is for you to decide. After a very long time driving, we finally made it to our hotel. My friends and I met a lot of great cubers. It was good to be in a place, where the sound of a cube turning wasn't something to frown on. That first night a few of us were in the lobby using the practice timer, into the morning hours. It seemed like most of us were having so much fun visiting with other cubers, that no one was worried about the competition. I still look back and regret that I only participated in three events: 3x3x3: 37 seconds Pyraminx: 29 seconds Megaminx: 4:11 seconds Those were my best times for each event. I had done horribly for all of them. I don't feel so bad about the Pyraminx solve, it was a puzzle I wasn't interested in at the time. In fact, I can solve it about 20 seconds faster now than I did at RWC. My horrible 3x3x3 time on stage is what inspired me from that point on to work harder with the cube. I promised myself, that at the next RWC I would do much better. It's still a year away, and I look forward to improving further! Of course I could write a whole page just on RWC 03', but I will save that for a rainy day. When I got back from RWC 03' I felt mixed emotions. I was glad that I had the chance to meet so many wonderful people, who shared the same hobby as me. I was sad to see it end so quickly. And of course, part of me was angry, that I had done so badly! I turned my anger into something productive, and started breaking 30 seconds consistently a few weeks following the Championships. The movement towards sub-20 would no longer come in long strides, rather it would happen in a series of 'baby steps'. In fact, the duration between the first time I went sub-30, and the first time I went sub-20, was at least a year. Like any major accomplishment, true success does not always lie in what you learn, but how vigorously you apply the knowledge. After I broke 30 seconds, breaking 25 seconds seemed to be the next logical succession. That 5 second difference relied heavily, and almost entirely on, practice. It seems to be a usual trend, for someone to look for the easiest route, or a short cut. Sometimes the easiest route is accepting that there is no short cut. Perhaps, hard work and practice produces the shortest distance between point A and point B. This is for you to decide. I practiced off and on for many, many months before I broke 25 seconds. It's very simple to become excited once your average dips below 25 seconds. Five more seconds to drop, and you would be part of the elite! You would be part of small group of people, who succeeded with an unique (perhaps unusual) hobby. Realizations with my F2L occurred in rapid succession after I went sub-25. I picked the word 'realization', because these are things you hear when you start cubing, but don't apply actively. Here are some of those realizations: * Don't solve your cross at full speed! I used to work really hard to solve my cross in two seconds or less every time. Then, I would stall while finding my first edge pair. Taking extra time on your cross, and not stalling on the first pair will help! I promise. * Slow down your F2L! It is funny that so many realizations that made me faster, were encouragements to slow down. Eliminating stalls during solves keeps things more fluid. *Last C/E pair= Fast Your last edge pair is something you really have to take advantage of. You don't have to slow down, because there are no following edge pairs. At one point I slowed down my F2L, but wasn't able to change my pace for that last C/E pair. It won't save you an incredible amount of time, but it does help! *Focus...please...just focus.... You're probably asking yourself, "Why is he telling me to focus? I know this!" I thought I did too. There really are two kinds of solving in speedcubing. (1) Active Solving- Forcing yourself to focus. (2) Passive Solving- Casually solving the cube, and not really focusing/concentrating. 1 2 3 |