# To the elite- was your first 3x3 blind solve difficult?



## minime12358 (Jan 3, 2011)

Hi, I started blind recently, and im really hoping to get up to 4x4/5x5/multi, and i was wondering- for all the Chris Hardwicks/Mike Hugheys out there, was your first 3x3 blind solve difficult to get? Or did it come naturally? How was it when you were building up to your first blind?

Also, if you remember your first time, please post ^^.


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## kinch2002 (Jan 3, 2011)

I'm going to claim I'm elite 
Tbh, my first solve itself was easy. But the process of learning wasn't that straightforward of course. I studied a method for several hours (I knew nothing of bld before then) and learnt some algs really well. Then did a couple of sighted solves with bld method. Then I tried one and got it first time. I wouldn't say it came entirely naturally, but I was really motivated to learn, which helps massively of course. I'd say that patience, motivation, and concentration are the most important things for bld - not necessarily natural talent.

As for moving to 4bld and onwards, I'd recommend sticking with 3bld until you're at a stage where you're really comfortable with the ideas behind bld, and probably not before you're down to 4 minutes or so with a decent accuracy, otherwise it's going to be really tricky to get a successful 4bld solve that doesn't take all day (not quite literally). I learnt 4bld when I was at 3 minutes for 3bld, and I'm happy with that timing.


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## uberCuber (Jan 3, 2011)

I'm not elite in the slightest (haven't yet done a multi or big cube), but I still want to say that my beginning experience was basically the same as what kinch's first paragraph above says.


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## aronpm (Jan 3, 2011)

I failed my first 3bld attempts because when I was solving corners I was using the wrong J perm so I was messing up the edges. Took me a few solves to realize it.


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## minime12358 (Jan 3, 2011)

Ohh ok, thats cool, what was your first time, if you remember? I got two (first times trying ) that were around 11 minutes, and i got an 8 minute one today.


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## cmhardw (Jan 3, 2011)

I don't really consider myself to be elite to be honest, perhaps only more addicted to BLD than most, and probably still not as much as some *cough*Mike*cough* 

My first 3x3x3 blindsolve took me about an hour and a half. My first perhaps 5 solves were all over an hour. The only method that was published online at the time was Richard Carr's blindfolded cubing series. I did not want to completely just learn a method without figuring most of it out for myself, so I only read the part of Richard's site about how he memorized for a blind solve. Using this, and coming up with my own incredibly inefficient solving approach, I figured out how to do it blindfolded. I still remember the feeling of opening my eyes to my first solved cube. I think I remember that I actually screamed out loud in excitement!

As for the standard methods, I didn't learn about cycle methods until I shared a cab ride with Dror Vomberg in 2003 at the World Championship. That cab ride really opened my eyes to the world of blindfolded cubing and trying to improve my methods/memorization approaches/etc. If it weren't for Dror I would probably not be a BLD cuber except for the occasional 1 hour 3x3x3 solve, so many thanks to him.

So to answer your question it did take a lot of effort to get my first solve, yes. I don't remember it being particularly difficult, just that I had to focus more than I was used to and practice a lot at first. I had a number of DNFs before my first success, and I found it difficult sometimes to come up with an approach for the difficult cases before Dror told me about the cycle method. The thing about BLD, for me, is that the awesome feeling of getting a success is worth all of the sweat and effort to get there, and then some. I really don't know of anything else I can compare it to, but opening your eyes to a solved cube is really one of the best feelings of success and accomplishment I have ever gotten from anything I have ever done. I hope that answers your question?


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## Tyjet66 (Jan 3, 2011)

I really like the idea of this thread, but if you would, would you expand the OP question to include how difficult building up to the first solve was?


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## RyanReese09 (Jan 3, 2011)

I'm ~ 3 minutes but my first solve wasn't that easy, well, memo was the hardest because I just started using a new memo method and what not but I was just overall slow at memo. It wasn't hard per say, just time consuming to actually make memo stick in my head


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## aronpm (Jan 3, 2011)

minime12358 said:


> Ohh ok, thats cool, what was your first time, if you remember? I got two (first times trying ) that were around 11 minutes, and i got an 8 minute one today.



My first time was somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes. I didn't time it, so I don't know exactly. I got stuck around 5 minutes for a while because of my terrible method and lack of practice.


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## Zane_C (Jan 3, 2011)

I don't think I'll considered myself to be "elite". 
After 1 month of learning BLD I was confident enough to attempt a solve, after 2 or 3 DNFs I solved it with a time of 13 minutes. I wouldn't say it was hard, just time consuming. I really don't think it's natural at all and a lot of people will probably say the same thing.


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## amostay2004 (Jan 3, 2011)

People should know that your first BLD solve doesn't relate to how well you will do in the future though


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## Tim Major (Jan 3, 2011)

I'm far off from being elite, but I have to answer no. It was a bit difficult getting ready to attempt (lettering stickers etc.) but I found it really easy. I memorised for 20~ minutes (I don't remember really) while watching tv, then turned off the tv and solved it.
Intimidating, but the actual solve was easy to do, and felt so awesome at the end.


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## Mike Hughey (Jan 3, 2011)

I laughed when the post was titled "to the elite" and then my name was mentioned in the text. I agree with Chris - I'm not elite (I'm too slow), but I am more addicted than most, probably even more addicted than Chris, which is saying something. 

I still remember vividly learning to solve blindfolded. On March 17, 2007, my wife was away for the weekend for a retreat, and I was left alone for the weekend with the kids. I printed out Macky's blindfolded solving guide (which at the time, had nothing about M2 in it) at ten in the morning, and began to read it, going over things with a cube. I remember distinctly sitting outside on the porch while the girls were playing on the swingset, learning how to do it. At about ten that night (12 hours later), I tried my first solve, which took about an hour. I got to the very last algorithm and didn't remember how to do it.  So I opened my eyes and, without looking at the cube, looked at the guide and found the alg, and performed it. And it was solved! So I was pretty excited at this point - not a success, but already I knew I could do it. On Sunday I tried a couple more times and failed, but on Monday I made my (I think) fourth try, and it was a success! It took about 45 minutes, which was about 25 minutes memorizing and 20 minutes solving. I'm slow - I always have been. So it took me about 2 very intense days to learn to solve blindfolded.

I learned to solve 4x4x4 BLD just a few months later, a few weeks after the 2007 US Open. It also only took me a few tries (and about a week) to get a success. My first attempt was 88 minutes, and my first success was about an hour. My first 5x5x5 BLD success was a couple months after that, on a plane, and it took about an hour; it was my third attempt.


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## Yes We Can! (Jan 3, 2011)

Mike Hughey said:


> I agree with Chris - I'm not elite (I'm too slow), but I am more addicted than most, probably even more addicted than Chris, which is saying something.


 
Mike, if you are not elite, noone is.

Anyway, I'm not elite either, but at least I can do 2-5 BLD 
My first BLD solves were hard for me. It took me about 15 attempts until I got it right for the first time. I think the reason was, that I was too unexperienced and did not understand the method very well. That was also, because I did not know much about cube theory.
I think that changed. I'm still not an expert of cube theory, but I understand things now (like comms, why algs do what they do).

All in all, it just comes down to practice - like always .


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## Kynit (Jan 3, 2011)

I'm not even close to elite - I can't even get 2/2 multi! - but memorizing 1 cube has gotten a LOT easier with a month or two of practice. Keep trying and you'll get better.


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## theace (Jan 3, 2011)

I have yet to have a successful bld memo.


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