# BLD troubles on competitions



## marco.garsed (Nov 15, 2011)

Hi guys,

I avg about 1:00 - 1:08 with 3bld during the last 3 weeks...

My success rate is about 66-68% (I think it's quite good for my times...)

with about 26 memo and 40 solve... (it depends by scrambles too...)

I went to a competition last Sunday and I've done just 1 solve on 6 (the safe one with 52 memo and 36 solve :\) 

I get really upset during BLD competitions (3bld in particulary) and I forget everything... do you have any suggest about it? I just want to get closer to my home times...


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## Jakube (Nov 15, 2011)

I also get very nervous before an official 3BLD attempt, my heart races, ... 

The following things helps me a lot. 

*Just for the BLD event I go outside and do some deep breathing, walk a bit, jump, ... In most of the competitions the location has a bad air in it. Especially when BLD is after midday. 

*When the judge brings the cube, he put it in front of me. Then I check thinks around me (blindfolded, timer, ...) and then I close my eyes and imagine a quiet song, I like (it normally a quiet piece of pirates of the carribean or a song of NIN (f.i. Hurts). I keep in that position until my heart stops racing (~20 - 40 seconds) and than I open my eyes and start. 

*Maybe it helps using Letter Pairs. I don´t know what memo method you are using, but I now swiched from visual to LetterPairs. A visual memo you will forget quickly when your nervous, a word based memo not so fast. 

*Oh, I just remembered one thing one of my teacher said about concentration exercises. She said that we should connect our two parts (left and right) of the brain. This can be done by crossing the arms or feet to get an X position, follow your eyes to an invisible lying 8 and massaging your ears. Try it, it may help.


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## marco.garsed (Nov 15, 2011)

thank you very much! I use letter pairs for edges and just letters for corners (asdtuq for example)... I'll try your methods next competition...


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## Zane_C (Nov 15, 2011)

This can potentially be an interesting discussion.

It's one thing to be able to solve/memorise. 
It's another thing to be able to calm your nerves and relax, that is skill on its own.

There are some people that might perform better when nervous, but for most of us this is not the case.
I think the ability to concentrate and relax is essential for performing your best in competition AND at home. 

-------------------------

This will be somewhat difficult, but I'll try my best to explain what I do prior to a BLD attempt:
-I get in a comfortable seated position. 
-I close my eyes and concentrate on shutting 'everything out'. I reassure myself that absolutely nothing matters except the solve. 
As I sit there, everything around me has no significance. If there are any troubles on my mind, I just simply don't care. 
So, for me it helps to have an arrogant attitude towards my surroundings and thoughts.
_Eg. "Why should I care about what's happening over there?"_
_Eg. "Who gives a sh** about that? It's not my problem."_

This is why I don't wear earmuffs/plugs during any BLD event. If you're focused you shouldn't be taking any notice of noises around you. 
I use this same technique for any situation where I might feel a bit nervous. 

If you don't already, I recommend that you start doing some BLD practice with people around. Public places are the best. 

I'm sure Chris will have something to contribute to this.


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## marco.garsed (Nov 15, 2011)

Thank you Zane, 
last time I tried to think "ok, now I'm at home practicing some BLD..." but it didn't work... I memorised edges with more reviews than usual I thought I had them in my mind very well... then I memorised corners and after solving them... I couldn't remember anything... it was so frustrating... it's not the first time it happens...



> If you don't already, I recommend that you start doing some BLD practice with people around. Public places are the best.



I'll try this tecnique... I get nervous also if I try to do some video...

(sorry for bad english :S)


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## Cubenovice (Nov 15, 2011)

marco.garsed said:


> I get nervous also if I try to do some video...
> (sorry for bad english :S)


Then video training is reccommended 
It will also help you identofy execution errors

Your English is fine!!!


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## Mike Hughey (Nov 15, 2011)

How much do you practice? I found that after I did the several blindfold race thread competitions with hundreds of scrambles in a single week, I seemed to be very consistent in competition. It seems like if you do 50 or 100 solves at a sitting with the same kind of accuracy and speed, it becomes that much more possible in competition to just imagine you're in the middle of one of those and do well.

However, that being said, I really do need to warm up before I solve in competition - if I have to go in cold and do my first BLD solve of the day in a competition, I'm much slower. I need at least 4 or 5 solves just to get going.

I think it's also helpful that I have three daughters in the house providing distractions often when I solve. 

Of course, I'm not quite as fast as you. Maybe it would be different if I were a little faster.


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## Cubepark (Nov 15, 2011)

You could find the answers here 
Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
Joshua Foer


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## cmhardw (Nov 15, 2011)

There is already a lot of good advice in this thread, but I have some things I'd like to mention as well.

I really, really agree with Mike about doing warm up solves. If at all possible your first competition solve should _not_ be your actual first solve of the day. This is completely disastrous for your accuracy and times, it is for me at least.

The things I recommend most (and that have worked best for me):

- Never sit during an official blindfolded attempt (multiBLD might be an exception, I have never tried it in competition, so I have no idea if this would still work for multi)
- Wear earplugs
- Wear earmuffs
- Wear blinders (These really work, and far better than I would have expected)
- practice BLD in public places often before the tournament you're going to

If you listen to certain songs or types of music when you practice, then bring a music player and listen to them right before your attempt. Right before all of my BLD attempts at worlds I listened to the same music I do at home before attempting to break my pb, or whenever I am having a particularly good practice session.

You *must* feel confident before a BLD solve, even to the point of arrogance. You don't have to voice these thoughts, but you *must* think them and feel them. If you allow any doubt to enter your mind, it will catch hold and fester in your brain throughout the whole solve, which can lead to DNFs or slower successes.

As a final side note, and I know this was already mentioned, but I too am reading "Moonwalking with Einstein". I am finding that it is full of lots of good advice that applies very well to blindfolded solving. So I recommend to get that book as well.


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## Reinier Schippers (Nov 15, 2011)

I downloaded a background crowd noise  just put it on and cube with it. Somehow helps me


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## Hippolyte!!! (Nov 15, 2011)

Thanks for this thread, I'm in the same case....
I'm always stressing when I'm doing en official solve, and not especially for the blind events, even when the competition global environment is casual, and I often do higher than my home avg.
But my official blind PB was also my PB ever when I did it, and at that time I wasn't often practising, and I didn't warm up with blind before the event (or maybe just one solve). This makes me less stressed (and also because I thought I had no chance to win), and I do three of my 6 attempts sub my PB. So I think warm up isn't a good thing for everyone, and it could depend from your current mind. I know that I'm always training for 333 before my average, and last comp I did 2 seconds higher that I was hoping.
For the people, I'm not sure too that it's the problem (even it could). I've no problem with cubing in public and I can do real good times when there are no important noises. I've never wearing earmuffs, even for multi. But I will even try to be sure, I'll see that next comp.
And I'll try some of your others advices, thanks to you for your posts.
(and I'm sorry too for the English, I rarely try to make relatively long posts with explanations^^)


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## marco.garsed (Nov 16, 2011)

> How much do you practice?



from 20 to 50 solves per day before that competition :S



> However, that being said, I really do need to warm up before I solve in competition - if I have to go in cold and do my first BLD solve of the day in a competition, I'm much slower. I need at least 4 or 5 solves just to get going.





> You could find the answers here
> Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
> Joshua Foer





> The things I recommend most (and that have worked best for me):
> 
> - Never sit during an official blindfolded attempt (multiBLD might be an exception, I have never tried it in competition, so I have no idea if this would still work for multi)
> - Wear earplugs
> ...






> I really, really agree with Mike about doing warm up solves. If at all possible your first competition solve should not be your actual first solve of the day. This is completely disastrous for your accuracy and times, it is for me at least.



thank you very much for your advices... I'll try some of them at my next competition  I usually warm up but it depends by the schedule...

most of you are "BLD heroes" so I'm feeling quite better now...


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## timeless (Nov 16, 2011)

i dont even wanna attempt bld lol
my success is rate is extremely low


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## Weston (Nov 16, 2011)

I am really bad at BLD during competition too.

I suggest turning on the TV or radio during practice at home. Anything with a lot of words to screw you up.
Also, go for a run before your official solves.


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## blah (Nov 16, 2011)

This might sound like a huge joke, but I assure you that I'm very serious: Stop caring so much.

Ask anyone who's seen me do BLD in competition (Hug Hey, maybe?). The only time I start caring about a BLD attempt is about 20 seconds before my attempt (and even then all I really do is take a bunch of deep breaths). It just never enters my mind all day, at least not until 5 minutes before the event itself.

I've gotten my best/most consistent results after I stopped caring (about competitive cubing in general). I do have a theory that attempts to explain this but it's just a theory, so ask if you're interested.


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## aronpm (Nov 16, 2011)

Comps are hard.


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## marco.garsed (Nov 16, 2011)

blah said:


> This might sound like a huge joke, but I assure you that I'm very serious: Stop caring so much.
> 
> Ask anyone who's seen me do BLD in competition (Hug Hey, maybe?). The only time I start caring about a BLD attempt is about 20 seconds before my attempt (and even then all I really do is take a bunch of deep breaths). It just never enters my mind all day, at least not until 5 minutes before the event itself.
> 
> I've gotten my best/most consistent results after I stopped caring (about competitive cubing in general). I do have a theory that attempts to explain this but it's just a theory, so ask if you're interested.


 
Yeah it's true and some other people gave me this suggest... for example in some (or many? XD) puzzles I'm not competitive and I don't practice them so much... like 3x3 or 4x4... because I don't like them too much... so I don't care about them... and in competitions I do the same avg that I do at home... also without practicing or warming up... my state of mind is different...

I'm curious about your theory...



> Comps are hard.



Aron do you have my troubles too?


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## aronpm (Nov 16, 2011)

marco.garsed said:


> Aron do you have my troubles too?


 
Yep 

Australian Nationals 2010: DNF, 1:30, DNF, DNF, DNF, DNF
Melbourne Summer 2011: 48.47, DNF, DNF, DNF, DNF, DNF
Australian Nationals 2011: 50.40, DNF, DNF, 45.81, DNF, DNF

(I averaged about 39 at Melbourne Summer 2010 and 33 at Australian Nationals 2011)

Even a week before Australian Nationals 2011, if I thought about the competition and failing, my heart rate could easily go up 15-20 bpm. That's how nervous I get.


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## marco.garsed (Nov 16, 2011)

I knew about your results... Hayan had a lot of DNF too... I'll try all these advices next comp... I'll probably go to a comp next month... I'd want to get a sub1 official...


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## roundy (Nov 19, 2011)

nervous kill blindfold. i can't sleep well before some competions. and nervous slowdown my memo time and solving time. join more competition would be better,because when you put all your eggs in a basket ,you will be nervous then ever before.
if you try to sub 1 min in ONE competition or break the WR in ONE competition you will lost youself...you will be nervious . you should say,take it easy,sooner or later i can sub 1(or i can break the WR) maybe this time ,maybe next time. i should't fore myself to do this in ONE competion. 
Haiyan and I had the same nervous question before. i say this to him,and it helps alot.
and later ,I use this help myself. 
hope this can help marco.garsed and aron . and wish marco.garsed can sub1 and aron can break WR in next 1-3 competiton.


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## kinch2002 (Nov 19, 2011)

I used to have major problems in comps with blindfold, especially with bigbld. I have managed to get rid of most of the problem, but some still remains on occasion. As Chester said, stop caring about it. What I find is that nowadays I don't think about the bld solves much during the day until I'm about to solve. And even then, thoughts going through my mind mostly consist of 'Who cares about this solve anyway? I don't care what happens, I'll do do this cube now.' I also started practising 3bld with music in my ears too, and I no longer wear earplugs under my headphones (I don't even wear headphones for 3bld now). I found that shutting out too much noise in comp made me far to nervous and kind of too concentrated (if that's possible in bld!).


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## marco.garsed (Nov 19, 2011)

Thank's a lot guys... I'll treasure your advices for next competitions  I'll let you know if they work..


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