# Does tunnel vision help in MBLD?



## abunickabhi (Oct 3, 2021)

I have seen cubers in the past, and current cubers like Chris Hardwick who use googles with a small peep hole for normal sighted solves.

I was wondering if such peephole googles will be useful for MBLD memo part. I have tried use a sight blocker cap in the past but there was just too much heat and sweat generated due to it, so I dropped it. I have never tried the peephole googles idea for creating a tunnel vision during MBLD memo.

Your thoughts and opinions are appreciated.


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## CubeRed (Oct 3, 2021)

I guess it would be good for focusing or controlling nerves in comps. I think it would help more in BLD events more since there is more "thinking" involved.


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## abunickabhi (Oct 3, 2021)

CubeRed said:


> I guess it would be good for focusing or controlling nerves in comps. I think it would help more in BLD events more since there is more "thinking" involved.


I am talking about MBLD event here. MBLD is waaaay different than 3BLD, or onepassed 4BLD/5BLD. The event is much longer and the nerves are quite less. It is more about grind work and being more consistent.


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## eyeoh (Oct 31, 2021)

In Joshua Foer's "Moonwalking with Einstein", he mentions how one of the top competitors uses blackout goggles - Joshua himself wrote that he was going to use them too, but then decided against it due to not wanting to look too weird on TV.

When I play chess (over the board), I'll just close my eyes if I want to focus, and then only partially open them to a squint-like state if I want to look at the position. As for mbld which I'm still a beginner at, I feel that I spend most of my memo time with my eyes closed to focus, visualise, and check recall. I feel that relaxed squinting would serve mostly the same function as blackout goggles - earplugs + earmuffs make a bigger difference, I guess?

Also, wouldn't goggles be an extra obstacle when it comes to remembering to swap it for the blindfold before the 3bld cube is memoed? Somewhat recently when I improved my not-nod don technique, it took me the best part of an entire 3bld session to even remember "swiping/palming" down my sleep mask (just like Jayden McNeill's watermelon sleep mask OcR back in the day) rather than pinching the nose bridge and pulling it down (like pre-nod don Jack Cai).


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## AnthonyRochester (Feb 4, 2022)

I'm currently reading Moonwalking with Einstein, and even before reading it I was thinking about how much visual distraction plays a part in multi-blind. My last comp result was a DNF, I feel like visual distraction played a part. So for one of my home practice attempts I had a long youtube video playing on a screen right in front of me when I was memorising. It made the attempt much more difficult and memo took longer than usual. It felt a bit like how I felt at the competition. 
So I'm thinking of modifying some safety glasses to see if it helps.


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## White KB (Feb 4, 2022)

eyeoh said:


> In Joshua Foer's "Moonwalking with Einstein", he mentions how one of the top competitors uses blackout goggles - Joshua himself wrote that he was going to use them too, but then decided against it due to not wanting to look too weird on TV.
> 
> When I play chess (over the board), I'll just close my eyes if I want to focus, and then only partially open them to a squint-like state if I want to look at the position. As for mbld which I'm still a beginner at, I feel that I spend most of my memo time with my eyes closed to focus, visualise, and check recall. I feel that relaxed squinting would serve mostly the same function as blackout goggles - earplugs + earmuffs make a bigger difference, I guess?
> 
> Also, wouldn't goggles be an extra obstacle when it comes to remembering to swap it for the blindfold before the 3bld cube is memoed? Somewhat recently when I improved my not-nod don technique, it took me the best part of an entire 3bld session to even remember "swiping/palming" down my sleep mask (just like Jayden McNeill's watermelon sleep mask OcR back in the day) rather than pinching the nose bridge and pulling it down (like pre-nod don Jack Cai).


Oh yeah, I read that book last year when trying to get to 1,000 digits of π. (I failed-- the farthest I got was 522 digits, but I still know 350-ish.) I also used the techniques for MBLD and was able to further my knowledge of memory palaces. I found the book more anecdotal than I had expected, which was a little disappointing, but it was still very helpful. As for tunnel vision, I know I wouldn't find it helpful-- As @abunickabhi said (yo, by the way), it would most likely be more distracting than non-tunnel vision for me due to heat/sweat. I think that if one chose to practice extensively with this technique, it may prove beneficial in the long run, but for those who just do MBLD "casually" (meaning under 8 cubes in this case) I don't really see a significant benefit.


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## abunickabhi (Feb 4, 2022)

AnthonyRochester said:


> I'm currently reading Moonwalking with Einstein, and even before reading it I was thinking about how much visual distraction plays a part in multi-blind. My last comp result was a DNF, I feel like visual distraction played a part. So for one of my home practice attempts I had a long youtube video playing on a screen right in front of me when I was memorising. It made the attempt much more difficult and memo took longer than usual. It felt a bit like how I felt at the competition.
> So I'm thinking of modifying some safety glasses to see if it helps.


"having a YouTube video playing on a screen right in front of me when I was memorising" is a good distraction idea for practice of MBLD at home.

Thanks for the idea!


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