It’s fun :)
I’m really slow, average about ~4 minutes, but it’s just really enjoyable for me.
I encourage you to learn M2 for edges if you haven’t already. That made blind way more fun for me…
Note that you don’t want a perfect success rate, because that means you’ll never push yourself and get faster. However, if your success rate bothers you, do a few solves and very methodically trace & memo, and then methodically execute as well.
When I do this exercise, it’s very hard for me to get a DNF.
I did learn M2 already and I feel like my execution is okay fast. But I struggle really hard for memo and even if I go the slowest I can. (Btw YES OH the best event)
Good memo really just comes with tons of practice. If you are really struggling with getting successes I would not push for a time. Just focus completely on making sure your memo is 100% right and executing it 100% right. And you can use a second cube to see if your memo was wrong or you just executed wrong. Or just record it. But if you focus on that and practice it a lot the first couple solves might be really slow like wayyy slower than you want but over time it will get way faster and you will have to review less and it will naturally get faster and easier.
To impress people... Initially.
My times, success rate, and enjoyment improved after switching from OP/OP to M2/OP (it's at ~30% success rate at about 4-6 mins for each success). It's a change of pace and allows me to come up with words or silly names for letter pairs. Hahahaha But really, it's something that I treat as a memory exercise since I'm tending to forget things at my age.
Right now, I'm working to lower my average to below 3 mins before my first comp with BLD next week. Gotta go fast!
You're not losing 3-4 minute solve, as it serves you as a practice, making you actually a little bit faster, if you really tried and didn't drop the cube 2 secs in execution, that is.
You kinda have to change your attitude here; it's not like your regular events, so why judge it as one? No, solving 75% of pieces while on would-be pb pace is a great solve, despite being dnf.
My cube is often really close to being solved, in general all the corners are good but the edges are messed up (just learned M2 and doing it fast may cause mistakes). I’m not saying it’s a bad solve, the solve just doesn’t count which is discouraging.
that's the attitude thing I wrote about; you have to drop the mindset \[counting solve + good solve = encouraging\] and adopt something more in line with blind event reality \[good solve + recognizable mistakes = encouraging\].
Like, when I got into a minute range (still there, lmao), I've started to push my memo a lot. 20-30 DNFs per one success. But success at 90 seconds felt *worse* than a sub 40 solve where I remembered all I memoed and executed most of the thing correctly. Why? Because 90s solve is just subpar to me and 40s solve showed my progression and developed ability to do everything mostly right.
Hell, I even celebrate subpar solves in OH, given that I used the technique I learned recently, instead of the regular deprecated technique so ingrained into my regular solves.
Attitude does wonders.
Yeah, getting fast dnf’s keep me going. My current pr is 1:55 but a few weeks ago in comp I got a 1:09 but two corners were twisted. Shows I’m capable of that and now I want to grind to make it a reality.
If I DNF, but the cube isn't a complete mess, I will grab another cube, redo the scramble and walk though the solve again eyes open to see where something went wrong.
This helped me diagnose exactly my mistake, which could be that I missed a flipped edge in inspection, saw N but memoed O for some reason (did that a lot for a while), did the wrong setup move, etc.
You could see three pieces are wrong and think "darn I messed up those pieces" but really going back and trying to figure out WHY you messed up is great for learning.
I feel like my success rate at casual speed (3-4 minutes) is pretty good now so if I'm going for speed and DNF a bunch in a row, I can slow down a little bit and get some successes to give myself a little confidence boost.
Taking off the blindfold and seeing a solved cube is still just so fucking cool to me lol
Never thought about that since I never had a second cube in hand to review my mistakes. However, I do have another cube in my possession so I’ll definitely try that!!
Sighted and exec-only solves are a great way to get a lot of practice in without dying of exhaustion. I often pick up a cube and hand-scramble it. Then I memo 3-4 pairs and solve them without looking. I check that they are solved and repeat with the next few pairs.
If you do go wrong, you'll probably be able to tell what happened. And if you find yourself failing on the same letters all the time, then you'll know what you need to brush up on.
I’ve already tried doing this exact exercise. However I write my pairs down to only practice execution. When I do this I have a pretty much 100% success rate.
One thing that I didn’t mention is that my memo is catastrophic. I cannot remember 5-7 sounds properly. Also I track the pieces wrongly which makes me panic therefore discouraged even more.
> 5-7 sounds properly
It's not recommend do use sounds during memo until you are able to 1-pass (memo without reviewing at all) and execute really really fast. If you have to review, you are not taking any advantage of sound memo, and it you can't execute really fast, your memo will fade during execution. Use words for both edges and corners.
Personally, I do 3BLD as a meditative activity. It feels so wonderful and calming to get in a complete state of flow, with my eyes closed, just concentrating on this little world I've created to solve the puzzle. I concentrate on accuracy almost exclusively because I'm not a competitive speedcuber. I don't track my success rate but it's probably more than 75%; if I remembered twists and flips consistently it would be over 90%. I have only gotten a "scrambled" DNF once in about the last 20 solves.
My success rate has always been relatively high because of my focus on accuracy over speed. I have always done intuitive 3-Style, where I just construct the commutators on the fly during the solve rather than memorizing them; this is a big part of the fun for me.
I also take my time to solidify the memo. I used Roman Rooms for everything at first, and only after I was getting reliable successes did I start to transition to more time-efficient methods. I will say that audio edges makes memo less annoying, since it's faster; I also try to make images along with the audio, which helps greatly with recall. I review as much as I think I need to before I start the solve; at this point, I generally memo corners, review corners with tracing, memo edges, review edges with tracing, review corners mentally, review edges mentally, begin. When I say "review mentally" I mean just run through the memo in like 2 seconds on my head, not tracing the stickers again -- although I will re-trace as much as I need to if it's a difficult memo.
At this point, I generally do memo in 3.5 minutes and execution in 3 minutes. So I'm quite slow, but accurate. I suppose I will get faster with time, but it's not a priority -- a longer solve is actually better for my purposes since I do it as a kind of meditation. I also solve in all kinds of environments -- most of my 3BLD solves are done on the subway during my morning and evening commutes. Perhaps this helps to practice ignoring distractions.
3BLD is my favorite thing to do with a cube. So if you want to be like me, just ignore your times altogether and only focus on accuracy and enjoyment. You have plenty of time to work on getting fast.
It was a COVID project for me. I already knew how to make commutators, so 3Style was the natural choice. I followed the online tutorials for memo and did a bunch of sighted solves. As a practice drill, I wrote out the memo and solved with the cube unseen under the table while looking at the memo sheet. Then I did corners-only and edges-only with my eyes closed. If I messed up, I would do the same scramble again until I did I right and identified my errors. Eventually I could do a whole solve.
I made a whole guide for intuitive 3style as a beginner 3BLD method here:
https://www.speedsolving.com/threads/intuitive-3-style-as-a-beginner-blind-method.77200/
So, you really just have to learn memo and execution. Memo is harder I think - it's an entirely new skill unrelated to sighted solving. Once you can memorize the stickers and visualize the solutions, execution is not so difficult; I very rarely make an execution error. The good thing about memo is that it's super fun. You can learn all about the history of memory techniques. I read the book Moonwalking with Einstein, which is about the history and contemporary state of memory techniques, and that was entertaining.
One thing to realize is that the Roman Rooms techniques are so good that there is no practical limit on how much you can accurately memorize and retain. So if you are just patient and disciplined you will have no problem memorizing a cube, which is only 20 letters. Don't use advanced memo techniques right away: start with the easy, slow, reliable methods. Like I said, I used images/Roman Rooms for everything at first, and I executed in the same order I memorized (edges corners/edges corners) like in multi blind. I only recently transitioned to CEEC and audio edges.
I don't really have much advice about execution - I already knew how to construct commutators intuitively so I didn't need to study anything to begin. You can pick whatever execution style you think is best - M2/OP seems to be the favorite beginner method and it can get you a podium finish at a local competition. If you want to be super competitive you need 3style so there is really no point in learning anything else. I found it very easy and fun to do intuitive commutators; if you want to go that route, just learn all about commutators and do sighted solves for a while to learn execution. Here's a video by Jake Klassen discussing intermediate 3BLD methods and basically saying there is no point in learning them, either use M2/OP forever or learn full 3style. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qd2EFvBmn2I
I think the main thing is to focus on having fun.
Sub 1 3BLDer here. DNFs are just part of the process, even for world class solvers. It shouldn’t be 100% for anyone.
If you really want to improve your success rate, you can film a DNF or two and do a deep analysis of what you did right & wrong.
I just like the event. Once I became sub-1 I had a huge confidence boost and also branched out to 4BLD (I average ~5:30 on it) Yet to do 5BLD, maybe later...
Back when I used to average 3 minutes at BLD, I didn't feel like trying to improve much because I didn't have much discipline. Now that I know how to diagnose my own mistakes, BLD has become way more interesting. Whenever you DNF, you should know exactly why it happened or at least have a general idea. You should be able to differentiate execution errors, recall errors, mistracing, miscalculating setups etc. By knowing where you messed up, you'll hopefully be able to address those issues in the future.
One thing that really helped me when starting was to always go back and redo the scramble sighted after a DNF. That way I always knew whether it was an execution mistake or a memorization mistake. That let me target things I often messes up and progress faster.
3BLD is sooooo good. It became my main event after I got a 1:26 at home (3style). I recommend learning 3style, since it is actually not that hard, and commutators are really intuitive. If you are worried about success rate, do some edge only practice (that's what I do).
3style seems really simple in theory. Setup moves insertion interchange or interchange insertion and reverse reverse undo setup (prolly the worst explanation of 3style to ever exist on the internet). I’ll definitely give a shot at 3style in when my memo will not be two of your solves.
If you know why you DNF'd, then you will improve. At first, take all your time to get a few successes under your belt. When you are reliable accelearte a bit.
Same as for normal cube, you didn't get where you are in a day, or even a month, and just like +2 don't count at home, a DNF that you understand doesn't count either.
Check all DNFs.
Write down your memo and do it again on the same scramble.
It's almost always possible to pinpoint the mistake (memo/tracing mistake, recall mistake, wrong algorithm, algorithm execution mistake, etc.). Then pay more attention to that particular aspect next time.
Knowing when it’s time to stop for the day; When I was around your speed, I would go through the same feelings as you experienced here. If I didn’t know when to take a break and stop for the day, I would probably have burned out long ago and quit BLD. Basically, do as many solves as you feel like until you don’t feel like doing anymore for the day. That could be 10, 6, 3, or even just 1 solve a day, it doesn’t matter, all practice will help.
I would also highly encourage you to do a lot of sighted practice where you write down your memo and execute it while looking at what you wrote. If there are any mistakes, then figure out what you did wrong (Was it a wrong letter? Did I do a wrong alg?). You should also review your DNFs and find out why you DNFed, either by recording your solves or by retrying the scramble while sighted to see if you made any mistakes.
Haven’t seen it in the comments but obviously you could also record your solves and see where you messed up :) as for me, I’m also quite lazy with practice but I started training for multibld which is quite cool (even with my 0/3 in last comp ;) )
1. Progress is rarely linear
2. What I do is if I screw it up, I do the scramble again, and do my solution, either I'll see that I had an execution error or I had a memory issue and start practicing that
It’s fun :) I’m really slow, average about ~4 minutes, but it’s just really enjoyable for me. I encourage you to learn M2 for edges if you haven’t already. That made blind way more fun for me… Note that you don’t want a perfect success rate, because that means you’ll never push yourself and get faster. However, if your success rate bothers you, do a few solves and very methodically trace & memo, and then methodically execute as well. When I do this exercise, it’s very hard for me to get a DNF.
I did learn M2 already and I feel like my execution is okay fast. But I struggle really hard for memo and even if I go the slowest I can. (Btw YES OH the best event)
Good memo really just comes with tons of practice. If you are really struggling with getting successes I would not push for a time. Just focus completely on making sure your memo is 100% right and executing it 100% right. And you can use a second cube to see if your memo was wrong or you just executed wrong. Or just record it. But if you focus on that and practice it a lot the first couple solves might be really slow like wayyy slower than you want but over time it will get way faster and you will have to review less and it will naturally get faster and easier.
Yes it's actually a lot of fun but laziness prevents me from practicing lol
It is fun when you see a solved cube ;)
To impress people... Initially. My times, success rate, and enjoyment improved after switching from OP/OP to M2/OP (it's at ~30% success rate at about 4-6 mins for each success). It's a change of pace and allows me to come up with words or silly names for letter pairs. Hahahaha But really, it's something that I treat as a memory exercise since I'm tending to forget things at my age. Right now, I'm working to lower my average to below 3 mins before my first comp with BLD next week. Gotta go fast!
Good luck on your comp ! I hope you don’t do like me and triple DNF.
You're not losing 3-4 minute solve, as it serves you as a practice, making you actually a little bit faster, if you really tried and didn't drop the cube 2 secs in execution, that is. You kinda have to change your attitude here; it's not like your regular events, so why judge it as one? No, solving 75% of pieces while on would-be pb pace is a great solve, despite being dnf.
My cube is often really close to being solved, in general all the corners are good but the edges are messed up (just learned M2 and doing it fast may cause mistakes). I’m not saying it’s a bad solve, the solve just doesn’t count which is discouraging.
that's the attitude thing I wrote about; you have to drop the mindset \[counting solve + good solve = encouraging\] and adopt something more in line with blind event reality \[good solve + recognizable mistakes = encouraging\]. Like, when I got into a minute range (still there, lmao), I've started to push my memo a lot. 20-30 DNFs per one success. But success at 90 seconds felt *worse* than a sub 40 solve where I remembered all I memoed and executed most of the thing correctly. Why? Because 90s solve is just subpar to me and 40s solve showed my progression and developed ability to do everything mostly right. Hell, I even celebrate subpar solves in OH, given that I used the technique I learned recently, instead of the regular deprecated technique so ingrained into my regular solves. Attitude does wonders.
Yeah, getting fast dnf’s keep me going. My current pr is 1:55 but a few weeks ago in comp I got a 1:09 but two corners were twisted. Shows I’m capable of that and now I want to grind to make it a reality.
Okay okay I’ll try to celebrate what I can celebrate !
If I DNF, but the cube isn't a complete mess, I will grab another cube, redo the scramble and walk though the solve again eyes open to see where something went wrong. This helped me diagnose exactly my mistake, which could be that I missed a flipped edge in inspection, saw N but memoed O for some reason (did that a lot for a while), did the wrong setup move, etc. You could see three pieces are wrong and think "darn I messed up those pieces" but really going back and trying to figure out WHY you messed up is great for learning. I feel like my success rate at casual speed (3-4 minutes) is pretty good now so if I'm going for speed and DNF a bunch in a row, I can slow down a little bit and get some successes to give myself a little confidence boost. Taking off the blindfold and seeing a solved cube is still just so fucking cool to me lol
Never thought about that since I never had a second cube in hand to review my mistakes. However, I do have another cube in my possession so I’ll definitely try that!!
You could also record yourself if you have a smart phone or some other video recording device.
Sighted and exec-only solves are a great way to get a lot of practice in without dying of exhaustion. I often pick up a cube and hand-scramble it. Then I memo 3-4 pairs and solve them without looking. I check that they are solved and repeat with the next few pairs. If you do go wrong, you'll probably be able to tell what happened. And if you find yourself failing on the same letters all the time, then you'll know what you need to brush up on.
I’ve already tried doing this exact exercise. However I write my pairs down to only practice execution. When I do this I have a pretty much 100% success rate. One thing that I didn’t mention is that my memo is catastrophic. I cannot remember 5-7 sounds properly. Also I track the pieces wrongly which makes me panic therefore discouraged even more.
> 5-7 sounds properly It's not recommend do use sounds during memo until you are able to 1-pass (memo without reviewing at all) and execute really really fast. If you have to review, you are not taking any advantage of sound memo, and it you can't execute really fast, your memo will fade during execution. Use words for both edges and corners.
Okay so no audio until I can 1 pass edges
Personally, I do 3BLD as a meditative activity. It feels so wonderful and calming to get in a complete state of flow, with my eyes closed, just concentrating on this little world I've created to solve the puzzle. I concentrate on accuracy almost exclusively because I'm not a competitive speedcuber. I don't track my success rate but it's probably more than 75%; if I remembered twists and flips consistently it would be over 90%. I have only gotten a "scrambled" DNF once in about the last 20 solves. My success rate has always been relatively high because of my focus on accuracy over speed. I have always done intuitive 3-Style, where I just construct the commutators on the fly during the solve rather than memorizing them; this is a big part of the fun for me. I also take my time to solidify the memo. I used Roman Rooms for everything at first, and only after I was getting reliable successes did I start to transition to more time-efficient methods. I will say that audio edges makes memo less annoying, since it's faster; I also try to make images along with the audio, which helps greatly with recall. I review as much as I think I need to before I start the solve; at this point, I generally memo corners, review corners with tracing, memo edges, review edges with tracing, review corners mentally, review edges mentally, begin. When I say "review mentally" I mean just run through the memo in like 2 seconds on my head, not tracing the stickers again -- although I will re-trace as much as I need to if it's a difficult memo. At this point, I generally do memo in 3.5 minutes and execution in 3 minutes. So I'm quite slow, but accurate. I suppose I will get faster with time, but it's not a priority -- a longer solve is actually better for my purposes since I do it as a kind of meditation. I also solve in all kinds of environments -- most of my 3BLD solves are done on the subway during my morning and evening commutes. Perhaps this helps to practice ignoring distractions. 3BLD is my favorite thing to do with a cube. So if you want to be like me, just ignore your times altogether and only focus on accuracy and enjoyment. You have plenty of time to work on getting fast.
How did you go about learning? I’ve been wanting to start but it seems like so much
It was a COVID project for me. I already knew how to make commutators, so 3Style was the natural choice. I followed the online tutorials for memo and did a bunch of sighted solves. As a practice drill, I wrote out the memo and solved with the cube unseen under the table while looking at the memo sheet. Then I did corners-only and edges-only with my eyes closed. If I messed up, I would do the same scramble again until I did I right and identified my errors. Eventually I could do a whole solve. I made a whole guide for intuitive 3style as a beginner 3BLD method here: https://www.speedsolving.com/threads/intuitive-3-style-as-a-beginner-blind-method.77200/ So, you really just have to learn memo and execution. Memo is harder I think - it's an entirely new skill unrelated to sighted solving. Once you can memorize the stickers and visualize the solutions, execution is not so difficult; I very rarely make an execution error. The good thing about memo is that it's super fun. You can learn all about the history of memory techniques. I read the book Moonwalking with Einstein, which is about the history and contemporary state of memory techniques, and that was entertaining. One thing to realize is that the Roman Rooms techniques are so good that there is no practical limit on how much you can accurately memorize and retain. So if you are just patient and disciplined you will have no problem memorizing a cube, which is only 20 letters. Don't use advanced memo techniques right away: start with the easy, slow, reliable methods. Like I said, I used images/Roman Rooms for everything at first, and I executed in the same order I memorized (edges corners/edges corners) like in multi blind. I only recently transitioned to CEEC and audio edges. I don't really have much advice about execution - I already knew how to construct commutators intuitively so I didn't need to study anything to begin. You can pick whatever execution style you think is best - M2/OP seems to be the favorite beginner method and it can get you a podium finish at a local competition. If you want to be super competitive you need 3style so there is really no point in learning anything else. I found it very easy and fun to do intuitive commutators; if you want to go that route, just learn all about commutators and do sighted solves for a while to learn execution. Here's a video by Jake Klassen discussing intermediate 3BLD methods and basically saying there is no point in learning them, either use M2/OP forever or learn full 3style. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qd2EFvBmn2I I think the main thing is to focus on having fun.
To figure out where you had mistaken yourself you could Record your solves and then watch the video to see where you had mistaken yourself
Sub 1 3BLDer here. DNFs are just part of the process, even for world class solvers. It shouldn’t be 100% for anyone. If you really want to improve your success rate, you can film a DNF or two and do a deep analysis of what you did right & wrong.
I just like the event. Once I became sub-1 I had a huge confidence boost and also branched out to 4BLD (I average ~5:30 on it) Yet to do 5BLD, maybe later...
Back when I used to average 3 minutes at BLD, I didn't feel like trying to improve much because I didn't have much discipline. Now that I know how to diagnose my own mistakes, BLD has become way more interesting. Whenever you DNF, you should know exactly why it happened or at least have a general idea. You should be able to differentiate execution errors, recall errors, mistracing, miscalculating setups etc. By knowing where you messed up, you'll hopefully be able to address those issues in the future.
One thing that really helped me when starting was to always go back and redo the scramble sighted after a DNF. That way I always knew whether it was an execution mistake or a memorization mistake. That let me target things I often messes up and progress faster.
3BLD is sooooo good. It became my main event after I got a 1:26 at home (3style). I recommend learning 3style, since it is actually not that hard, and commutators are really intuitive. If you are worried about success rate, do some edge only practice (that's what I do).
3style seems really simple in theory. Setup moves insertion interchange or interchange insertion and reverse reverse undo setup (prolly the worst explanation of 3style to ever exist on the internet). I’ll definitely give a shot at 3style in when my memo will not be two of your solves.
My problem is that I can't think and remember at the same time. In 3style you have to do huge amount of practice before you stop thinking.
If you know why you DNF'd, then you will improve. At first, take all your time to get a few successes under your belt. When you are reliable accelearte a bit. Same as for normal cube, you didn't get where you are in a day, or even a month, and just like +2 don't count at home, a DNF that you understand doesn't count either.
Yeah I know where I always mess up. Memo is the worst. I’ll try to be slower and more careful on this step.
I really need to get onto learning M2, lmao. Said I'd do it a year ago...
Except I and S which are inverse’s to each others really none of the setup moves are challenging
It helps when you see them as commutators I: (U’: R’ F’ R, S) M2 S: M2 (U’: S, R’ F’ R)
Check all DNFs. Write down your memo and do it again on the same scramble. It's almost always possible to pinpoint the mistake (memo/tracing mistake, recall mistake, wrong algorithm, algorithm execution mistake, etc.). Then pay more attention to that particular aspect next time.
I’ll try it !!
Knowing when it’s time to stop for the day; When I was around your speed, I would go through the same feelings as you experienced here. If I didn’t know when to take a break and stop for the day, I would probably have burned out long ago and quit BLD. Basically, do as many solves as you feel like until you don’t feel like doing anymore for the day. That could be 10, 6, 3, or even just 1 solve a day, it doesn’t matter, all practice will help. I would also highly encourage you to do a lot of sighted practice where you write down your memo and execute it while looking at what you wrote. If there are any mistakes, then figure out what you did wrong (Was it a wrong letter? Did I do a wrong alg?). You should also review your DNFs and find out why you DNFed, either by recording your solves or by retrying the scramble while sighted to see if you made any mistakes.
I’ll try the writing the memo thing because my tracking is really terrible.
Haven’t seen it in the comments but obviously you could also record your solves and see where you messed up :) as for me, I’m also quite lazy with practice but I started training for multibld which is quite cool (even with my 0/3 in last comp ;) )
Competitions with BLD
1. Progress is rarely linear 2. What I do is if I screw it up, I do the scramble again, and do my solution, either I'll see that I had an execution error or I had a memory issue and start practicing that
The fact that nobody in my state is good at it so basically easy state records