# The long and tortuous road to sub-20



## Foreright (Oct 6, 2022)

This will be my progress thread to hopefully motivate me to finally crack and stay sub-20 with Roux.



Spoiler: Long boring history...



I got my first cube back in 1980/81 when I was 5. No guides or anything like that back then (!) so it took a fair old while to get the thing solved until I got this book: https://ruwix.com/the-rubiks-cube/you-can-do-the-cube/. I had previously been able to solve two opposite faces and occasionally lucked into everything except a couple of flipped edges but never worked out how to reliably flip those last couple of edges. With the book and learning those extra couple of algorithms I was able to solve the cube in about 4-5 minutes back then. Fast forward to the very late 1990s and I somehow stumbled across speedsolving on the web - in particular the Friedrich method. I managed to get just sub 1 min with a PB of around 45 seconds with my original cube. Again, fast forward to 2007/8 and I got my first speed cubes (Type C / Type F / Alpha?) and I was able to impress everyone with those incredibly quick 45 second solves but never really practiced or tried to get much faster than that. I've been off and on for months / years at a time since then but back in 2018 made a concerted effort to actually get "fast" and learnt CFOP properly and got *just* sub-20 after learning full PLL. I was always interested in learning different methods though which probably hurt me quite a bit - I started with Petrus and ZZ and tried to learn Roux from Waffle's site and that method interested me the most although it never really clicked until later on. I also learnt Heise and some other random methods that I don't think I could remember now 

I've also got a pretty large cube collection of variants, ghost, axis, fisher, windmill cubes, pretty much all the WCA puzzles, the Moyu clock, Vladi's evil seed, Eitan star (that I can see from here - there's lots more!) that have been my main puzzling focus rather than just straight 3x3 spamming.

I switched to Roux back in 2019 as an experiment for a month as I was bored with CFOP and didn't think I could get any faster without learning a LOT more algorithms and Roux appealed due to it's more intuitive nature. I think I managed to get sub-25 back then (with 2L CMLL) but due to work and family was *very* on and off (more off than on!) until the start of this year. Again, I've made a concerted effort to get faster and got down to sub-21 Ao1000 a couple of months ago and found it difficult / impossible to progress. I've had a Gan iCarry since last year and have been tracking solves and can see that it's really my blocks that are holding me back. I also since purchased the Moyu AI as I find the iCarry *horrible* to solve on - incredibly locky and the magnets are way too strong for me. Aside from the horrible battery life, the Moyu is so much better... With Cubeast, the stats / analysis you can do is pretty cool to see where you need work.



I've attempted to start learning CMLL a couple of times in the past but never really got past learning the H and Pi cases as recall was bad due to not enough practice and big gaps. I've spent the last 3 weeks making a concerted effort to learn full CMLL which I completed much more easily than I though I would by learning whole sets at a time for a couple of days and drilling with OnionHoney. It was actually less than 2 weeks in total but I had weekends and some days off in the middle due to work. Recall is 95%+ at this point but slow for some of the sune / antisune cases that I learnt last.

As it stands right now, my times had increased (due to CMLL recognition times) but are reducing right now and I'm averaging (ie. Ao1000) just under 22. My immediate target is (and always has been!) sub-20. It's pretty much purely CMLL recognition and/or second block that's holding me back at this point as my execution times in terms of TPS seem ok for my immediate target and when I get a good SB and/or CMLL recognition is low I'm getting solves in the 15-18 range which is well below my target.

My splits over the last 100 solves are:

FB-SB-CMLL-LSE : 3.5 - 7.8 - 4.7 - 5.2

... for an average of 21.2 which is fairly representative (albeit SB is quicker than usual...) of where I am right now. For the last 100 solves (as I've improved massively recently...) the move counts are:

FB-SB-CMLL-LSE : 8.1 - 18.2 - 11.6 - 15.3

... for a total of 53.2 STM. Really, my move count is efficient enough in terms of move count to be well sub-20 but it's finding pieces in the second block stage that is killing me right now. I can generally track / predict where the DR edge is going to end up but there's often a 2-3 second (at least!) pause at that point to find the other pieces that I need to somehow eliminate.

So... anyway, for today, I've so far completed 39 timed solves in cubeast and a whole bunch of untimed / slow ones. Best solve is 16.35 and worst 26.44. Average is 21.5 with splits like this:


StepTotal TimeRecognitionExecutionSTMTPSFB3.40.03.47.82.76SB8.31.07.318.92.7CMLL4.52.22.311.46.1LSE5.31.24.116.04.0

Question is, how to actually practice SB with a view to reducing pauses and/or find pieces quickly!

Edit: Completed the Ao50 for today and the highlight is finishing with a sub-20 Ao12 including 2 counting 16.x and a 15.x:









19.79s Speedsolving average of 12 by BewareTheWereHamster on Cubeast






cbst.link





Ao12: 19.79 : 53.75 stm @ 2.72 tps


```
#    Time    Turns    TPS
12    16.35s    51    3.12
11    22.83s    58    2.54
10    18.62s    48    2.58
9    16.17s    47    2.91
8    19.37s    56    2.89
7    19.49s    58    2.97
6    (23.77s)    55    2.31
5    22.14s    57    2.57
4    (15.47s)    48    3.1
3    18.33s    51    2.78
2    21.41s    62    2.9
1    23.22s    54    2.32
```

Ao50: 21.2 : 54.1 stm @ 2.6 tps

All in all, not bad albeit not much of an improvement on yesterday


----------



## AJT17 (Oct 6, 2022)

Good luck!


----------



## Foreright (Oct 7, 2022)

Not the best day today - solving inbetween calls and meetings but I have a pretty bad migraine today and am pretty tired after the kids kept us up a lot last night so it's made concentrating a little difficult and my times suffered after midday when it hit properly.

Managed 30 times solves this morning at an average of 21.6 : 56.4 STM @ 2.6 tps so pretty much flat on yesterday. Highlight was a 12.96 (38 STM @ 2.93 tps):

Scramble: U' R2 F U2 L2 B U' F' R U' B2 U' F2 D L2 D' B2 D' B2 D' L2 D2
x2 U' F2 B' D // Left block [4/4]
R' U' r' U2' R2 U R2 U2' R' // Right block [9/13]
U' L' U' L U' L' U2 L // CMLL [8/21]
M2' U' M' U M U' M3' U M U2' M U' M U2' M U2' M2' // LSE [17/38]

Love the M3' in the LSE solution - got to stop doing that...

In total though only 8 of my solves were sub-20 today which is disappointing.

Again, in general, second block is kicking my arse. I suspect the real reason for this is just lookahead in general. I can always plan the FB square and I'd reckon 50% of the time can plan to the end of first block but it's (a) trusting my solution and tracking the DR edge or (b) if I've predicted where the DR edge is definitely going to end up then going from there to finding the other SB pieces that is the real killer. I'm finding it REALLY difficult to look at other stuff whilst I'm solving a square / pair hence pauses everywhere. Spent a little time trying to solve FB with eyes closed before the migraine took hold and forced me to stop.

I'm interested to know if other Roux solvers (?) at my approximate level / sub-20 *really* plan the entire FB and DR edge *every time* or whether they rely on good lookahead (or blind luck!) during a solve? I still find some scrambles where the FB seems to be very non-obvious and planning out a complete FB solution in unlimited inspection let alone during a "proper solve" to be impossible.

Anyway, results for today:


IndexTimeSTMTPSFB TimeFB STMSB TimeSB STMCMLL TimeLSE TimeCMLL Case1​20.62​61​2.96​3.59​10​6.74​21​5.48​4.80​L/Back Commutator2​22.79​60​2.63​3.57​8​8.34​21​4.93​5.95​U/Rows3​18.77​64​3.41​2.68​7​5.80​22​5.06​5.15​As/Back Slash4​23.63​56​2.37​3.29​7​6.41​13​5.74​8.17​T/Back Row5​21.17​65​3.07​3.70​9​8.21​25​3.91​5.35​U/Checkerboard6​22.37​61​2.73​5.34​11​7.69​21​3.02​6.32​T/Right Bar7​20.52​61​2.97​2.12​9​5.99​18​5.97​6.44​U/Front Row8​24.41​60​2.46​3.54​9​10.29​25​4.22​6.19​T/Right Bar9​22.53​50​2.22​4.61​7​8.73​16​4.67​4.53​L/Best10​23.21​58​2.50​2.60​6​9.51​24​6.31​4.64​T/Front Row11​20.99​50​2.38​9.16​12​4.68​12​3.35​3.80​Pi/Right Bar12​22.07​62​2.81​3.44​11​9.70​18​3.09​5.84​O/Adjacent13​27.34​56​2.05​7.50​12​9.74​21​4.64​5.28​L/Diagonal14​25.07​65​2.59​3.32​6​12.25​24​3.29​6.03​O/Adjacent15​18.77​46​2.45​2.19​8​6.59​14​5.53​4.46​As/Back Slash16​24.85​68​2.74​4.00​11​8.04​21​5.52​7.28​As/Back Slash17​27.64​57​2.06​7.04​15​8.73​16​6.56​5.32​T/Right Bar18​21.21​54​2.55​1.84​6​7.29​16​6.80​5.28​L/Back Commutator19​19.58​54​2.76​3.49​10​5.28​17​4.16​6.66​S/Niklas20​16.68​55​3.30​2.40​7​4.58​15​3.46​6.24​L/Best21​23.50​61​2.60​3.11​8​8.53​17​5.88​5.97​U/Front Row22​18.46​54​2.92​3.94​7​5.93​15​3.19​5.40​O/Adjacent23​21.93​52​2.37​3.55​8​9.44​17​4.13​4.81​U/Checkerboard24​22.23​57​2.56​6.35​8​6.89​20​3.37​5.43​As/Right Bar25​19.79​52​2.63​3.83​9​5.31​16​4.61​5.90​As/Back Slash26​20.63​62​3.01​1.00​4​8.46​21​2.76​8.40​H/Row27​12.96​38​2.93​1.45​4​3.95​9​1.96​5.60​As/Right Bar28​17.84​42​2.35​1.61​4​4.49​12​4.57​7.16​As/Right Bar29​24.49​53​2.16​1.97​4​6.16​14​11.36​5.00​L/Back Commutator30​23.36​58​2.48​3.42​7​10.41​18​4.24​5.30​H/Column


----------



## Foreright (Oct 11, 2022)

After the weekend I seemed to have regressed pretty horribly - it was quite cold in my office in the morning but I was struggling to break 25 *at all*. Actually managed to do an Ao100 in a new session in Cubeast yesterday and finished with an average of 22.73 which is quite a bit over a second slower than I was on Friday - just horrible blockbuilding, not necessarily inefficient but slow:









22.73s Speedsolving average of 100 by BewareTheWereHamster on Cubeast






cbst.link





This Ao5 of 19.35 in the middle amused me:









19.35s Speedsolving average of 5 by BewareTheWereHamster on Cubeast






cbst.link






```
#    Time    Turns    TPS
5    19.32s    49    2.54
4    17.96s    49    2.73
3    18.59s    51    2.74
2    32.41s    53    1.64
1    20.15s    50    2.48
```

That 32.41 was a relatively efficient solve for me although FB could have been better but holy crap, 1.64 tps - no idea what was going on there with the CMLL - over 8 seconds of recognition!

Honestly though I think the key for me to get faster is simply going to be to get that tps up from 2.6 (my usual average) to over 3 and that should get me comfortably sub-20 with my current move count. I have the odd solve in the 3.5 - 4.5 tps range and a few in the the 3.0+ range but those are typically where the SB "presents itself" to me and there's no pauses. Planning the whole FB every time is still a little bit beyond me and it's very mentally draining but I think this really is the key to gaining those couple of seconds - being able to not only predict where the DR edge is going to end up but being able to look around the cube whilst I'm solving the first block saves a ridiculous amount of time and those sub-17 times I get are pretty much always where I manage to do that.

Anyway, today will be spend grinding more solves with a view to tracking SB pieces during FB and hopefully reducing pauses.


----------



## Foreright (Oct 11, 2022)

Managed 40 timed solves today inbetween meetings and work - much better today, mainly I think due to the fact that I swapped the pieces from my WRM maglev to my Moyu AI cube midway through this morning. It's night and day better - the lighter magnet adjustment makes a HUGE difference to me and I'm back sub-21 for the solves I did today.


StepTime%ageRecognitionExecutionSTMTPSFB3.49​17%​0.00​3.49​8.15​2.48​SB7.89​38%​0.79​7.10​18.15​2.63​CMLL4.22​20%​2.84​1.37​10.15​7.68​LSE5.28​25%​1.31​3.97​15.38​3.92​Total20.87​100%​4.93​15.94​51.85​2.48​

Highlights are a 13.54, 15.26 and 16.26 which are very low times for me. That 13.54 was 37 stm at only 2.7 tps:









13.53s Speedsolving solve by BewareTheWereHamster on Cubeast






cbst.link





Ridiculously, I had a 31 stm solve earlier which I completely choked on due to all the pieces just "being there" and me not being able to see them as I was looking for them (!). This should have been a REALLY easy PB but instead turned into a 19.3 









19.26s Speedsolving solve by BewareTheWereHamster on Cubeast






cbst.link





Anyway, today was positive - I'm really pleased with the average STM which at below 52 is probably the most efficient I have been over more than a few solves. Might have to do some work on the LSE at some point to try to shave a move or two off there to see if I can push below 50


----------



## Foreright (Oct 12, 2022)

Not quite so good today but lots to be positive about  55 timed solves with a 21.72 average:


StepTime%ageRecogExecutionGoalDiffSTMTPSFB3.59​17%​0.00​3.59​4.00​0.41​8.38​2.59​SB8.19​38%​1.24​6.95​6.00​-2.19​18.09​2.64​CMLL4.57​21%​2.28​2.29​4.00​-0.57​11.65​6.25​LSE5.37​25%​1.22​4.15​6.00​0.63​16.25​4.02​Total21.72​4.75​16.97​20.00​-1.72​54.38​2.50​

Still maintaining a sub 55 STM average with quite a few in the very low 40 and high 30s today. At this point I think I either work on efficiency a little more and try to get my average STM below 50 - would need better LSE for that I think and certainly at least one move off both FB and SB - or I concentrate on keeping to a 54 STM average and increase TPS.

I experimented with both today hence the slightly higher time and stm - in actual fact, and somewhat annoyingly, when I increase TPS hugely (ie. to 3.6+) and let the efficiency go (ie. 60+ STM) I can get sub-20 solves but I think in the long term trying to be more efficient is going to be better in the long term. My aim is 51-52 STM and if I can then subsequently increase tps to 3 or even 3.5 long term then that will get me significantly sub-20.

Not sure how I'm going to lose 2 seconds off my SB though - any ideas?? At 18 stm I need to get my average above 3 tps which still seems fast to me as I'm still pausing during the block a lot of the time... How to drill?


----------



## Foreright (Oct 13, 2022)

Highlight of today - first sub-19 Ao5 since I learnt full CMLL:

https://cbst.link/s/tXjf6H3wbZaNpGfBd3XZ9W 


```
#    Time    Turns    TPS
5    17.56s    50        2.85
4    20.02s    52        2.6
3    21.75s    52        2.39
2    18.20s    50        2.75
1    18.71s    48        2.56
```

50.40 STM @ 2.62 TPS = 18.97s (edited)

Also, I had a period where I had 3 CMLL skips in 5 solves and a 4th a couple of solves after which is pretty lucky - they didn't result in any magical times though unfortunately!

https://cbst.link/s/rBsSWnxTMkuqPGgAMaMJho

Otherwise, a little progress - 80 timed solves for an average of 21.16 @ 55.23 STM:


StepTime%ageRecogExecutionGoalDiffSTMTPSFB3.72​18%​0.00​3.72​4.00​0.28​8.36​2.39​SB7.64​36%​0.98​6.67​6.00​-1.64​18.18​2.79​CMLL4.55​22%​2.10​2.45​4.00​-0.55​12.65​5.91​LSE5.24​25%​1.19​4.05​6.00​0.76​16.04​4.10​Total21.16​4.26​16.90​20.00​-1.16​55.23​2.61​

Major difference today was a good night's sleep last night and I think it's that which contributed to much smoother FB to SB transition and I was simply seeing the SB pieces much better than I was yesterday in the main even if I wasn't really turning any faster. Slightly less efficient due to some 2L CMLLs (I seemed to get a HUGE number of antisune cases today for some reason!).

At this point I'm approx. 1/2 second above my best Ao100 since I resumed this year and 1 hundedth above my best Ao1000 so definitely improving!


----------



## Foreright (Oct 17, 2022)

No solving over the weekend but have dropped my Ao100 by a decent chunk Friday and today and it now stands at 20.41 which is my fastest since I started again this year. Ao1000 is 0.01 above my lowest ever at 21.73 but I don't do that many solves and this includes a LOT of solves where I was learning CMLL and was averaging north of 25 so I'm not concerned about that as it should come down significantly over the next few hundred solves 

50 timed solves so far today and 50 Friday so my last 100 solves looks like this:


StepTime%ageRecogExecutionGoalDiffSTMTPSFB3.50​17%​0.00​3.50​4.00​0.50​8.08​2.50​SB7.56​37%​0.99​6.56​6.00​-1.56​18.77​2.93​CMLL4.09​20%​1.73​2.36​4.00​-0.09​12.05​6.16​LSE5.26​26%​1.29​3.97​6.00​0.74​15.79​4.06​Total20.40​4.01​16.39​20.00​-0.40​54.69​2.68​

So TPS is creeping up really slowly but going in the right direction which I think comes down to some better SB tracking and slightly better recognition on my CMLLs. Highlight of today was finishing with my fastest Ao12 since learning full CMLL so far at 19.42. Not great efficiency *at all* but 2.94 tps which made up for that - if only I could combine the two  Looking at below my second block move count was way too high on a lot of these solves:


IndexTimeSTMTPSFBSBCMLLLSEFB_STMSB_STMCMLL_STMLSE_STMCMLL CaseOne Look1​18.724​55​2.94​3.13​7.04​2.23​6.32​7​19​9​20​S/SuneTRUE​2​18.000​61​3.39​1.26​7.75​2.70​6.13​6​24​11​20​T/Left BarTRUE​3​18.588​52​2.80​2.77​7.89​3.79​4.14​9​24​12​7​Pi/Left BarTRUE​4​23.670​51​2.15​4.60​9.16​6.48​3.43​9​21​9​12​As/Forward SlashTRUE​5​21.032​70​3.33​2.86​8.38​4.48​5.32​9​23​21​17​S/NiklasFALSE​6​19.402​66​3.40​3.50​7.52​1.83​6.56​9​28​8​21​As/AntisuneTRUE​7​18.645​54​2.90​5.34​5.91​1.78​5.62​10​18​8​18​S/SuneTRUE​8​17.974​58​3.23​3.72​6.89​2.96​4.42​11​22​10​15​T/Left BarTRUE​9​22.761​63​2.77​4.07​10.28​4.45​3.97​7​22​22​12​As/ColumnsFALSE​10​15.809​39​2.47​3.78​5.79​1.80​4.44​9​12​7​12​S/SuneTRUE​11​18.612​48​2.58​2.22​7.36​4.82​4.21​6​17​11​14​T/Front RowTRUE​12​20.478​61​2.98​3.57​6.43​3.81​6.67​13​16​12​20​Pi/Left BarTRUE​Average19.422​56.90​2.94​3.42​7.43​3.29​5.11​8.60​20.60​11.10​16.00​83%​

Some positive / some negative - will like spend the rest of the day concentrating on slow solving and maximizing efficiency inbetween meetings


----------



## Foreright (Oct 19, 2022)

Last two days have been pretty tough with not an awful lot of progress in terms of time - I noticed that my STM *really* crept up yesterday and made a concerted effort to reduce that today which was pretty successful in the main (!). A total of 45 timed solves today - average is pretty much flat but move count is much better at 53.7 - it's actually a lot better than this as I had a number of very bad and inefficient solves this morning. Taking just the last 30 solves today my move count average is actually 52.05 which is more like what I'm aiming for. I note that my CMLL average is actually below target for the first time also which is a nice bonus. Solve summary for today:


StepTimeRecogExecutionGoalDiffSTMTPSFB3.61​0.00​3.61​4.00​0.39​8.41​2.42​SB7.56​0.98​6.58​6.00​-1.56​18.16​2.80​CMLL3.95​1.58​2.37​4.00​0.05​11.70​6.10​LSE5.30​1.30​4.00​6.00​0.70​15.46​3.90​Average20.42​3.87​16.55​20.00​-0.42​53.73​2.63​

Finished the day with a best Ao100 of 20.19 and my global average (453 solves since starting full CMLL) coming down also to 21.17.

There's a very fine line between going slow enough to increase efficiency and going fast enough to get a decent time (!).


----------



## Foreright (Oct 24, 2022)

Nothing of note over the weekend - few slow solves but today was quite positive in places again - 60 timed solves and after a rocky start finished with my Ao100 down to 20.10 although it briefly hit 20.02 


StepTimeRecogExecutionGoalDiffSTMTPSFB3.21​0.00​3.21​4.00​0.79​7.96​2.53​SB7.99​1.19​6.80​6.00​-1.99​18.76​2.86​CMLL3.89​1.94​1.95​4.00​0.11​11.28​8.01​LSE5.24​1.29​3.95​6.00​0.76​15.32​3.91​Average20.33​4.42​15.92​20.00​-0.33​53.32​2.62​StepTimeRecogExecutionGoalDiffSTMTPSFB+SB11.20​1.19​10.02​10.00​-1.20​26.72​2.38​L10P9.13​3.23​5.90​10.00​0.87​26.60​2.91​Average20.33​4.42​15.92​20.00​-0.33​53.32​2.62​

Some quite slow solves in there, mainly due to either failing to recognise a CMLL in a timely manner or (more usually) a horrible second block. Again, it's the second block that's kicking my butt here, mostly saved by decent CMLL and LSE given my goal. On that note, I'm getting a few more solves in the 40-49 STM range which is nice as it shows that my efficiency is getting better albeit the average STM is not decreasing that much but that's due to a session today where i was trying to push my TPS at the same time which definitely results in less efficient solves 

Little disappointed not to get my Ao100 below 20 today but I need a bit more consistency with hitting those decent times and less Ao12s where I'm averaging 22 or more.

As above, finished the day with a best Ao100 of 20.02 and my global average (560 solves) at 20.96.


----------



## zzcuberman (Oct 24, 2022)

Do a good 500 or so solves this week and you'll be sub 20 for sure.


----------



## Foreright (Oct 28, 2022)

Didn't get that much of a chance to do any long sessions / serious practice over the few days because of work and the kids being on half term so not an awful lot of progress. What I have done however is some coding to allow my cubing spreadsheet to parse the moves in the second block in solves from cubeast's CSV output and detect where the blocks, square and last pair are so I can break down my stats further to see whether or not it's my square or last pair that's the source of my second block woes.

So as it stands I have a spreadsheet that will automatically download solves from cubeast via the REST API, do some postprocessing via some C++ / C# code to add some columns to split the second block stats into second block square and second block last pair and then I can do all kinds of funky stuff / graphs / stats etc. with Excel. What I have for my list of solves today looks a bit like this (but with nice colours):


TIMESTMTPSIndexTimeRankSTMTPSFBSBCMLLLSEFBSBSBSQSBLPCMLLLSEFBSBCMLLLSECMLL CaseOne Look1​13.66​1​44​3.22​0.62​4.44​2.04​6.56​3​15​8​7​7​19​4.85​3.62​7.39​4.83​As/AntisuneTRUE​2​19.93​11​48​2.41​2.57​10.02​2.90​4.45​6​18​11​7​10​14​2.34​1.93​12.99​4.65​T/Left BarTRUE​3​21.97​19​57​2.59​4.17​7.96​3.74​6.10​11​16​7​9​13​17​2.64​2.15​3.97​3.68​U/XTRUE​4​18.05​6​38​2.10​4.72​7.47​2.42​3.45​12​15​9​6​7​4​2.54​2.50​6.20​4.49​As/AntisuneTRUE​5​20.71​15​51​2.46​3.71​8.80​3.69​4.51​10​15​10​5​10​16​2.70​2.15​8.20​5.53​T/Right BarTRUE​6​20.00​13​52​2.60​3.18​8.80​3.55​4.47​10​14​8​6​12​16​3.14​2.68​6.56​5.01​Pi/Left BarTRUE​7​19.24​9​59​3.07​2.23​8.35​2.11​6.54​7​22​14​8​7​23​3.14​2.83​7.20​4.57​As/AntisuneTRUE​8​18.16​7​58​3.19​0.50​6.29​7.54​3.83​3​18​9​9​22​15​5.98​3.27​6.04​5.31​As/XFALSE​9​21.04​16​53​2.52​4.34​8.53​3.91​4.26​13​17​12​5​12​11​3.00​2.45​6.37​4.85​H/ColumnTRUE​10​20.35​14​63​3.10​5.31​7.40​2.66​4.98​12​17​8​9​14​20​2.26​3.31​12.35​5.07​O/AdjacentTRUE​11​18.20​8​50​2.75​3.68​6.76​1.84​5.75​11​16​4​12​7​16​2.99​3.06​9.37​3.95​S/SuneTRUE​12​19.97​12​54​2.70​2.54​6.77​5.72​4.94​8​18​11​7​12​16​3.15​2.91​2.18​4.92​T/Right BarTRUE​13​24.06​23​59​2.45​4.05​8.43​5.47​6.12​8​16​11​5​15​20​1.98​1.96​2.88​3.99​U/Front RowTRUE​14​15.82​2​42​2.66​2.80​5.06​2.64​5.16​6​15​9​6​8​13​2.14​3.29​7.85​3.54​L/GoodTRUE​15​25.49​25​64​2.51​6.05​6.98​6.89​5.31​7​18​11​7​24​15​1.16​3.11​6.45​4.45​L/GoodFALSE​16​22.40​21​62​2.77​4.11​10.46​3.33​4.50​10​24​16​8​10​18​2.44​2.83​8.51​4.98​L/BestTRUE​17​21.30​17​52​2.44​3.15​6.27​6.97​4.89​8​18​14​4​10​16​2.54​3.06​6.55​4.04​L/Back CommutatorTRUE​18​16.58​4​42​2.53​2.07​7.44​3.21​3.71​7​17​9​8​9​9​3.39​2.37​11.00​3.37​T/Left BarTRUE​19​17.54​5​61​3.48​2.87​6.32​3.45​4.90​8​18​11​7​18​18​2.79​2.86​5.56​4.54​O/DiagonalTRUE​20​19.57​10​64​3.27​2.88​6.16​5.42​5.11​9​14​9​5​25​16​3.13​2.46​5.91​3.40​As/Left BarFALSE​

Highlight of today was a 13.66 which came out of nowhere - 3 move FB helps with an easy CMLL. It was a horrible LSE though - mostly because I kinda guessed at the CMLL and wasn't expecting to get it right (!).









13.66s Speedsolving solve by BewareTheWereHamster on Cubeast






cbst.link





My average for the 20 timed solves I did this afternoon was 19.6 which is good - it leaves my latest Ao100 at 20.15 with my latest Ao500 at 20.66 so still coming down. Total moves is creeping up again a bit though which is not so good - it's above 54 now when I'm really aiming for very low 50s with a long term goal of sub-50.


----------



## zzcuberman (Oct 28, 2022)

Foreright said:


> it's above 54 now when I'm really aiming for very low 50s with a long term goal of sub-50.


i would really work on FB efficiency and SB efficiency. i would watch kian mansour or a couple of the others. he has a full SB algsheet along with speedcubedb


----------



## Foreright (Oct 28, 2022)

Like I say, it’s crept up - interestingly it’s been LSE that was the highest. My first block has been pretty decent and second is ok in terms of efficiency in general - it’s the lack of speed / pauses that’s the issue


----------



## Foreright (Oct 31, 2022)

Another 50 timed solves today and some progress - my first sub-20 Ao100 came about 5 solves into my session today at 19.98 and I've managed to maintain it today finishing with my best Ao100 of 19.82:


StepTimeRecogExecutionGoalDiffSTMTPSFB3.23​0.00​3.23​4.00​0.77​8.10​2.62​SB7.51​0.92​6.59​6.00​-1.51​18.44​2.86​CMLL4.08​1.66​2.42​4.00​-0.08​13.44​7.09​LSE5.00​1.33​3.68​6.00​1.00​15.37​4.25​Average19.82​3.91​15.91​20.00​0.18​55.36​2.79​

Disappointed that my move count is stubbornly staying above 55 - had quite a few times with move counts in the 40s today (and two in the 30s) but way too many two look (S/As) CMLLs today pushing those solves into the 60s which kills the average

On the positive side, more than half (27/50) of my solves today were sub-20 with 7 of those being sub-18 so that's an improvement and my TPS is trending upwards slightly from 2.6 to just about 2.8 now. If I can get that to 3 with my current move count I'll be comfortably sub-20 and happy 

Need to drill my S and As CMLLs a lot more so recognition is significantly quicker as that and my second block are still kicking my arse - on the latter, I should be at 6s for that stage at 20s overally so that's a full 1.5s to come off my time - theoretically at least(!). Again, I had plenty of solves where my second block was in the 4-6 second range but WAY too many that were 8+which again, kills the average.


----------



## zzcuberman (Oct 31, 2022)

Foreright said:


> Another 50 timed solves today and some progress - my first sub-20 Ao100 came about 5 solves into my session today at 19.98 and I've managed to maintain it today finishing with my best Ao100 of 19.82:
> 
> 
> StepTimeRecogExecutionGoalDiffSTMTPSFB3.23​0.00​3.23​4.00​0.77​8.10​2.62​SB7.51​0.92​6.59​6.00​-1.51​18.44​2.86​CMLL4.08​1.66​2.42​4.00​-0.08​13.44​7.09​LSE5.00​1.33​3.68​6.00​1.00​15.37​4.25​Average19.82​3.91​15.91​20.00​0.18​55.36​2.79​
> ...


yeah sb and lse look high to me


----------



## Foreright (Oct 31, 2022)

zzcuberman said:


> yeah sb and lse look high to me



SB for sure - would be happier with 16 stm - LSE not so critical as (a) I don’t know EOLR and (b) it’s faster overall so a move or two saved won’t make too much difference


----------



## zzcuberman (Oct 31, 2022)

i would learn some tricks to effect edge orientation while doing cmll. learn two algs per cmll atleast. sb should prob be around 14 at really good levels


----------



## Foreright (Oct 31, 2022)

zzcuberman said:


> i would learn some tricks to effect edge orientation while doing cmll. learn two algs per cmll atleast. sb should prob be around 14 at really good levels



I'm focussing on consolidating the CMLL algs I already have and second block for now. Learning multiple CMLL algs can wait for a good long while  As you say 14 or even lower is a good level for good solvers - I'm aiming for 16 for now but mostly eliminating pauses / searching for pieces during second block is going to be the most productive thing for me right now and should be getting me down to at least sub-18 on its own


----------



## Foreright (Nov 1, 2022)

More of the same today - improved the Ao100 to a low of 19.81 but finished on 19.86 after 36 solves with exactly 50% of them being sub-20. There was an improvement in move count slightly also down to 53.73 for the day:


StepTimeRecogExecutionGoalDiffSTMTPSFB3.43​0.00​3.43​4.00​0.57​8.62​2.60​SB7.32​0.90​6.41​6.00​-1.32​17.66​2.80​CMLL3.75​1.60​2.15​4.00​0.25​11.38​6.11​LSE5.40​1.31​4.10​6.00​0.60​16.28​4.02​Average19.90​3.80​16.10​20.00​0.10​53.93​2.71​

I finished the day with an Ao12 of solves which were semi-untimed to see if I could improve my move count and that went pretty well albeit only 1 and a bit moves less than my timed solves (!) and significantly slower - this set did have a MUCH better second block count (14.75) but worse LSE - I seem to remember getting a few 6-flip cases which are always high move count. Might start looking at some of the easier EOLR cases but again a positive day overall 









Empty Speedsolving session by BewareTheWereHamster on Cubeast






cbst.link


----------



## Foreright (Nov 2, 2022)

Only the 17 timed solves today as work was quite demanding plus it was pretty cold in my home office so was feeling it in my hands. It's a small sample size but there were some good solves today:


StepTimeRecogExecutionGoalDiffSTMTPSFB2.42​0.00​2.42​4.00​1.58​6.43​2.82​SB6.94​1.00​5.94​6.00​-0.94​17.50​3.05​CMLL4.36​2.06​2.30​4.00​-0.36​12.00​6.61​LSE5.57​1.34​4.23​6.00​0.43​15.71​3.81​Average19.29​4.40​14.89​20.00​0.71​51.64​2.68​

Finished with Ao100 on 19.88 and Ao1000 finally below 21 at 20.96. The graph is amusing though as that Ao1000 is dropping like a stone right now.

I spent some of this afternoon on untimed / slow solves just concentrating on getting my second block efficiency as high as possible and it resulted in some good (but slow!) solves. The following is STM for 30 solves:


FB8.00​SB​​15.20​-- SB Square-- 8.52-- SB Last Pair-- 5.92CMLL10.28LSE14.76Total for solve:48.68

So a sub-49 STM average - if I could maintain that whilst turning faster I'd be extremely happy! In actual fact I suspect this could have been lower as I wasn't focussing at all on first block so there's some higher-than-there-should-have-been counts for that in there and I had a couple of less optimal efforts towards the end. I suspect that my best course of action here is going to be to literally solve like this for some time to ingrain some of the more efficient solutions and forget about timing for a while as it's reinforcing bad habits.


----------



## Foreright (Nov 4, 2022)

Interesting couple of days - I'm getting faster but it doesn't feel like it as with the speed comes reduced efficiency which is annoying. Did 15 timed solves today with an average of 19.27 @ 51.7 STM / 2.7 TPS which is better although a small sample size. Ao100 is now at it's best at 19.64 and Ao1000 at 20.84 and still coming down nicely. Highlight of those solves was the last one which was a 13.39 which came out of nowhere as the rest of my solves had all been above 17 (!):









13.38s Speedsolving solve by BewareTheWereHamster on Cubeast






cbst.link





Stats for those 15 solves:


StepTimeRecogExecutionGoalDiffSTMTPSFB3.21​0.00​3.21​4.00​0.79​7.69​2.48​SB6.73​1.04​5.70​6.00​-0.73​16.85​3.01​CMLL4.03​1.25​2.79​4.00​-0.03​12.31​6.01​LSE5.26​1.21​4.06​6.00​0.74​15.62​3.93​Average19.24​3.49​15.75​20.00​0.76​52.46​2.73​

Spent the rest of day playing with untimed solves concentrating purely on second block efficiency and inbetween meetings and work managed 100 solves with the move count stats looking like this:


STAGEMOVE COUNTFB7.94SB15.63... SB square... 8.56... SB last pair... 6.54CMLL10.63LSE15.16

Average STM for the session was 49.29 which is nice as it shows I'm capable of solving in a relatively efficient way albeit with an average time of 41s. There were 5 solves in there with sub-40 move counts too with a low of 34 which was nice with the vast majority being in the 40-52 range which is my ultimate target for STM, especially since at 52 STM, you need a TPS greater than 2.6 to break 20 and that's a fair bit lower than my speedsolving TPS so should be ultimately achievable 

I did notice that I was getting a bit faster towards the end of the session so maybe this is the way to practice - literally forget about the clock for a while and just steadily try to increase the speed keeping the efficiency until I'm back at full speed (?) - anyone had any success in doing this?


----------



## Foreright (Nov 11, 2022)

Been a week now and a little progress I think and some frustration also. I've been doing a lot less timed fast solves and have been doing a LOT more untimed and / or timed slow solves with the smart cube concentrating on getting second block move count down consistently with some success. I have 295 of these solves recorded with an average STM of 49.7 but an average time of 41.2s. I've had plenty of sessions in that when STM was well below that (ie. 48 average and below) which is what my long term target will be for speedsolving I think. Interestingly the biggest fact on whether I get a 45 move solve or a 50+ seems to be LSE which makes sense as I haven't done any EOLR-type training at all and am kinda "winging it" a bit at that stage. When I slow right down to a crawl it's much easier to have an efficient LSE.

Anyway, in terms of times solves latest Ao100 is 19.53 with my Ao500 stubbornly staying above 20 at 20.02 (!) and Ao1000 at 20.72. My complete graph since I learnt full CMLL looks like this:


At the start I knew all of H / Pi / T / U and some L / S / As but there was a LOT of 2L CMLL solves in there hence the quick drop in times. The big hump is where I committed fully to learning S / As / L set and using them all. It's interesting to put this in the context of my complete solve history for this year which is 3200 solves or so and looks like this:


There's three humps here - the first at 1100 solves where I started learning CMLL and I guess learnt H / Pi and some of T / U and the second big hump where I learnt T / U and some of the remaining algs and then the third when I learnt the rest.

In terms of move count, the complete graph looks like this for STM with the blue line being Ao12 and red Ao100:



For individual steps the blue line is Ao100:



Quite a decent improvement I think!

In terms of time, I'm pretty much able to maintain a *just* below 20 average now in most sessions. Latest 20 timed solves I did this afternoon was an average of 19.79s / 51.2 stm @ 2.65 tps which is pretty standard right now. I'm still pausing WAY too much in my second block though and that's what's killing my average overall otherwise that would be sub-19 at least. Move count again would be better but I find it faster / easier to "spam" in the LSE stage rather than slowing down and actually look properly 

Highlight of today was a 12.6 - my second best time ever - completely out of the blue as I had a 15 and a couple of 17s prior to that but nothing amazing.









12.59s Speedsolving solve by BewareTheWereHamster on Cubeast






cbst.link





This was a nice scramble as I could plan right into second block which always helps and the pieces were just "there" at every stage with an easy CMLL to boot.


----------



## Filipe Teixeira (Nov 11, 2022)

graphs


----------



## Foreright (Nov 11, 2022)

Filipe Teixeira said:


> graphs


Yep got to love a graph - I probably spend more time in excel than solving


----------



## OtterCuber (Nov 11, 2022)

Foreright said:


> Yep got to love a graph - I probably spend more time in excel than solving


Move to R and you'll be doing a lot less solving. And we have similar goals and progress. You should push for Ao100 sub-10.


----------



## Foreright (Nov 11, 2022)

OtterCuber said:


> Move to R and you'll be doing a lot less solving. And we have similar goals and progress. You should push for Ao100 sub-10.



Im not sure sub-10 is a realistic target for me - having a job and kids means I can’t practice 8 hours a day and I’m not naturally talented / fast enough to wing it.


----------



## Foreright (Nov 14, 2022)

40 times solves today with an average time of 19.37 - so pretty flat on last week which is ok. STM is at 52.78 for the day which again is ok as I am trying to turn a bit faster so that's inevitably going to suffer a bit.

One encouraging thing is that the number of solves where I actually get good lookahead during the second block phase is increasing markedly. I'm finding it a bit easier to either full plan the first block (and importantly ignore it whilst I'm solving and look for SB pieces!) or to at least plan the square and track the last pair and DR edge and that's definitely showing up in my second block times which for today is below 7 seconds with just about a quarter of my solves today being sub-6 (ie. on target!) for the second block. Given a week ago I was lucky to get one or two solves below 6 seconds for second block per session that's a big improvement.

I can really see now that second block lookahead (or rather lack of...) is the only factor holding me back from being significantly sub-20 at this point. Out of my 40 solves today, 11 were sub-18 with 2 of those being sub-15 and 24 were sub-20.

One of the stats I put in my spreadsheet today is a prediction as to when I'll reach an Ao1000 of 20 seconds based on the slope/intercept of my Ao1000 graph. It currently reckons 310 solves. Current Ao1000 is at 20.65 with Ao500 now at 19.90. Given I'm doing an average of 20-40 solves per day (weekdays only!) that's approx. 2 weeks time assuming a steady rate of progress.

Trimmed mean (ie. discard top/bottom 10%) for each step for today looks like this:


StepTimeRecogExecutionGoalDiffSTMFB3.41​0.00​3.41​4.00​0.59​8.12​SB6.95​1.00​5.83​6.00​-0.95​16.94​CMLL3.67​1.13​2.34​4.00​0.33​11.52​LSE5.11​1.12​4.00​6.00​0.89​16.39​


----------



## espeed (Nov 14, 2022)

Reminds me of playing poker. Those were the times. Give me more graphs.


----------



## scrubizilla (Nov 14, 2022)

you should try sub 9 but gl :;


----------



## Cubinginatree (Nov 14, 2022)

Foreright said:


> 40 times solves today with an average time of 19.37 - so pretty flat on last week which is ok. STM is at 52.78 for the day which again is ok as I am trying to turn a bit faster so that's inevitably going to suffer a bit.
> 
> One encouraging thing is that the number of solves where I actually get good lookahead during the second block phase is increasing markedly. I'm finding it a bit easier to either full plan the first block (and importantly ignore it whilst I'm solving and look for SB pieces!) or to at least plan the square and track the last pair and DR edge and that's definitely showing up in my second block times which for today is below 7 seconds with just about a quarter of my solves today being sub-6 (ie. on target!) for the second block. Given a week ago I was lucky to get one or two solves below 6 seconds for second block per session that's a big improvement.
> 
> ...


Nice!


----------



## abunickabhi (Nov 15, 2022)

Foreright said:


> Been a week now and a little progress I think and some frustration also. I've been doing a lot less timed fast solves and have been doing a LOT more untimed and / or timed slow solves with the smart cube concentrating on getting second block move count down consistently with some success. I have 295 of these solves recorded with an average STM of 49.7 but an average time of 41.2s. I've had plenty of sessions in that when STM was well below that (ie. 48 average and below) which is what my long term target will be for speedsolving I think. Interestingly the biggest fact on whether I get a 45 move solve or a 50+ seems to be LSE which makes sense as I haven't done any EOLR-type training at all and am kinda "winging it" a bit at that stage. When I slow right down to a crawl it's much easier to have an efficient LSE.
> 
> Anyway, in terms of times solves latest Ao100 is 19.53 with my Ao500 stubbornly staying above 20 at 20.02 (!) and Ao1000 at 20.72. My complete graph since I learnt full CMLL looks like this:
> 
> ...


Beautiful graphs and analysis yo.

How does your Bluetooth cube keep track of M moves? My Giiker registers it as 2 face turns in the reconstruction or move count analysis.


----------



## Foreright (Nov 15, 2022)

abunickabhi said:


> Beautiful graphs and analysis yo.
> 
> How does your Bluetooth cube keep track of M moves? My Giiker registers it as 2 face turns in the reconstruction or move count analysis.



M/E/S (and wide) move detection is going to be down to the software. If you look at how the hardware works it can only register face moves and in some cases send gyro information. Cubeast at least detects the two face turns being simultaneous / near simultaneous and records them as M (or whatever) instead. This is the cases for both my iCarry and Moyu Ai. 

I guess that whatever software the Giiker uses doesn’t do that.


----------

