# Do longer fingers mean faster moves?



## Lotsofsloths (May 31, 2008)

I am just wondering if you all of you long fingered people have an advantage over me >.<


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## Alex DiTuro (May 31, 2008)

I have pretty long fingers. But I'm not sure if that means anything...


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## jtjogobonito (May 31, 2008)

I'm pretty sure there is no difference because i have gigantic hands(9 inches from the beginning of my wrist to the tip of my middle finger) and I don't really turn the cube much faster than you. In fact, my PLL time attacks are like 5 seconds slower than yours. It might help, though, with huge cubes(like the 9cm 3x3) or the big cubes. Other than that I believe no difference.


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## Lofty (May 31, 2008)

Over in the OH section we have talked about hand size and at least for OH cubing we found hand size had no real difference (unless of course your hand is too tiny to hold the cube). I wouldn't see it having a difference in 2H cubing either.


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## Lotsofsloths (May 31, 2008)

Mmk, because In have a 6 and a half inch hand, and I *think* it affects my M2 turns. Everyone mostly turns M2 trigger with their left hand, I do it with my right..


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## Harris Chan (May 31, 2008)

If it's too long, it might get in the way  does Nakajima have long fingers? What about chubby vs skinny fingers?


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## masterofthebass (May 31, 2008)

I have fat ass fingers, and I find the smaller cubes kind of annoying to go fast on. I love the size of a rubiks/meffert's 5x5 and a rubiks 4x4, and basically HATE the size of an ES. I have huge hands, but they are proportional, so my fingers aren't that long.


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## Guoguodi (May 31, 2008)

If you play piano, you'll know there really isn't any difference afforded by having long, skinny fingers. People with such finger "type" do however tend to have good dexterity with their hands. 

In contrast, many of the greatest pianists had thick, relatively short fingers. Such finger types still possess great dexterity and speed. For one, Yu Nakajima doesn't have long/skinny fingers ... and I dare say he has one of the best finger technique (or "feel", as I call it) in the world. I would love to see him as a classical pianist. Those fingers resemble Volodos's!


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## Inusagi (May 31, 2008)

Guoguodi said:


> If you play piano, you'll know there really isn't any difference afforded by having long, skinny fingers. People with such finger "type" do however tend to have good dexterity with their hands.
> 
> In contrast, many of the greatest pianists had thick, relatively short fingers. Such finger types still possess great dexterity and speed. For one, Yu Nakajima doesn't have long/skinny fingers ... and I dare say he has one of the best finger technique (or "feel", as I call it) in the world. I would love to see him as a classical pianist. Those fingers resemble Volodos's!



you can reach longer in piano if you have long fingers...


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## MistArts (May 31, 2008)

Lotsofsloths said:


> Mmk, because In have a 6 and a half inch hand, and I *think* it affects my M2 turns. Everyone mostly turns M2 trigger with their left hand, I do it with my right..



If I do M2 with my right ring...it takes my over a second


But I don't think it matter.


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## CharlieCooper (May 31, 2008)

having extremely small hands, i think it makes a difference. obviously for OH more but even with two hands i find it hard to reach certain bits of the cube sometimes!


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## apoplectic (May 31, 2008)

Finger length has nothing to do with speed. Its all about dexterity and flexability IMO.


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## Jacco (May 31, 2008)

I'm surprised how people trigger their M2, I use right ringfinger for the first M' and left ringfinger for the second one. I can do an H perm in 1.09 =)


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## shelley (May 31, 2008)

Isn't "No" the same as "No difference"? Unless you're suggesting long fingers may give people a disadvantage...

People adapt to whatever size hands they have. I have small hands, and when I watch myself cube on video it looks a little awkward compared to some other speedcubers. But it feels completely natural to me.


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## nicjsb (Jun 4, 2008)

Two things:

1) I *think* Leyan Lo does his M2 with right hand. This is the H perm listed on his site: M2 U' M2 U2' M2 U' M2

2) Longer fingers mean longer reach in piano, but that isn't the only factor affecting reach. From Wikipedia:

_Perhaps a large contributing factor to Liszt's affinity for extreme technical difficulty was the structure of his own hands. An original 19th century plaster cast of Liszt's right hand has been reproduced, and is now held in the Liszt House at Marienstrasse 17 (also known as the Liszt Museum). The plaster cast reveals that while Liszt's fingers were undoubtedly slender, they were of no exceptionally abnormal length. However, the small "webbing" connectors found between the fingers of any normal hand were practically nonexistent for Liszt. This allowed the composer to cover a much wider span of notes than the average pianist, perhaps even up to 12 whole steps._

In summary, Franz Liszt had incredible reach, but his hand was pretty average in shape. However, by lacking the webbing between fingers, he could farther. I'd say that was a much more important factor than simply having long fingers.

So it's not entirely black and white; we must consider other factors of the hand too


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## mrbiggs (Jun 5, 2008)

nicjsb said:


> This allowed the composer to cover a much wider span of notes than the average pianist, perhaps even up to 12 whole steps.



...that's two octaves. I don't believe that.

Longer fingers can be an advantage in some situations with piano playing, but those situations almost always deal with reach. Cubing involves very small reaches with the fingers for the most part, so unless you have a large cube and small hands I don't see why it would be a factor.


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## RafaelChan (Jun 5, 2008)

Harris Didn't u even seen nakajima in person?? nice


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## mrCage (Jun 5, 2008)

Hi 

Speed is intuition, practice, lookahead...

Longer fingers may possibly give a higher top speed for certain algs - but overall i dont think it's much of an advantage 

- Per


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## nicoJ (Jun 5, 2008)

my turn
i will say 3 examples, with full names

Yu Nakajima and Edouard Chambon
both extraordinarilly good
both short fingers
both soooooo fast

for a long fingers cuber, i would say M. Kuti
very good
very long fingers


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## Crystl (Jun 6, 2008)

I think long and fast finger does well


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## Cubie Newbie (Jun 6, 2008)

There are three cases where finger qualities may give you a disadvantage:
1. Your fingers are so short that they can't flick the cube.
2. Your fingers are so fat that you can't separate them, causeing a drop in
dexterity.
3. You are missing some fingers.

Otherwise, finger size/length is trivial. Important qualities include look-ahead, dexterity, and reflexes: all qualities derived from diligence rather than genetics.


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## Lucas Garron (Jun 6, 2008)

I've met Justin, Jun, and Emerson at competitions, and I don't think they're inherently any slower than me. Justin actually had a faster single at Berkeley Spring, Jun is getting sub-15 averages, and Emerson doesn't seem much slower than normal 2-handed people. 

Also, I took this photo to beat Dan.


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