# BLD and speedcubing



## cmhardw (Apr 11, 2008)

Hi everyone,

Ok this may sound like a dumb question, but I want to ask how those who practice both BLD cubing and speedcubing frequently handle the fact that the pacing is so different between the two? For BLD I find that I achieve my fastest times on average when I memo at what feels to me like 75% speed. By fastest I mean including solves with recall delays. I have found that when I memo at 75% speed that I very rarely have recall delays that are 30 seconds or longer. If I memo at 90% speed I might get faster solves more often, but I also often get solves with recall delays of 60 seconds or longer.

Ok, for speedcubing I feel like I try to go nearer to 90-95% speed when solving. What messes me up is that I feel like when I do some speedsolves, then go back to BLD that I am still in "go 90-95% speed" mode and I get long strings of DNFs until I tell myself "wait this is BLD, so go back to 75% speed".

Also after doing lots of BLD solves when I switch over to speedcubing I sort of think "well I have to go a lot faster since speedcubing is faster than 75% speed" so I end up often going way too fast and can't look ahead.

Does anyone else have any similar issue? I've heard of people who focus on BLD, like me, in the past saying that it messes with their speedcubing. I think this is starting to happen to me. I am so used to the pacing of BLD from practicing it all the time, and I think I'm forgetting the pacing for speedcubing to some extent. I know practice practice practice will fix this issue. But, it would be nice to know if others experience the same thing, and that I'm not the only one ;-)

Thanks for any tips from others who have a more balanced BLD/speedcubing practice regimen than I do lol ;-)

The reason I ask is that I came very close to my long term goal of getting sub-15 average for 3x3x3 in competition, but lost it because I was stupid and got a +2 penalty on one of my solves. I now have renewed interest in speeding up my 3x3 for this reason.

Chris


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## Mike Hughey (Apr 11, 2008)

I'm probably not good enough to be of that much help to you, Chris, but I have noticed something similar. It seems to me that I go through good speedcubing weeks (for speedcubing especially, "good" is a relative term for me ), which are almost always bad BLD weeks, and then I go through good BLD weeks, which are almost always bad speed weeks. Last week for me was a good speed week (see my Chattahoochee results), and a VERY bad BLD week. This week has been a pretty good BLD week (especially my 21:17 5x5x5! and also my recent success with M2 on 3x3x3), and a VERY bad speed week (you'll see when I post my weekly competition times!). And the funny thing is that I probably practiced speed more this week than I did BLD (which is a little unusual for me). I think I ran into some of the problem you mention of trying to go too fast for speed, and then not looking ahead well enough. Before my 3x3x3 solves, though, I did an average of 50, and got around 30 seconds in my solves (which is respectable for me), so just lots of warming up did seem to help. Hard to do that in a competition, though.

I also have the problem that my practice isn't so balanced. I probably had a balanced week this week, but that's very unusual - I'm usually more like 80% BLD.

I will also agree that a slightly more leisurely pace for memo on BLD is helpful. And a very steady tempo in solving as well; if I try to go too fast I start making mistakes. Since Chattahoochee I've been having problems with 4x4x4 BLD in that I'm trying to go too fast on solving, and I make mistakes - I've been able to backtrack and fix them, usually, but they wind up taking way too long; I haven't had anything near a stackmat solve since the week before the competition. But for some reason my 5x5x5 pace has been better this week. I'm not sure why.

I guess one of the next things to do is to actually start practicing switching back and forth, so we can get good at that. I love competing in every event that I'm allowed to compete in, so it would probably be very helpful if I could learn to do that well.

(P.S. - Any chance you might make it all the way out to Cincinnati on May 31, Chris? Jim Mertens indicated he would welcome big cubes BLD, but I need another competitor with the new rules. I know you're planning on DC a couple of weeks earlier, and it's a long drive for you to Cincinnati, but hey, an extra set of attempts wouldn't hurt, would it? )


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## joey (Apr 11, 2008)

Interesting thoughs chris, I havn't really thought about it.

For speedcubing, I normally do 50%, until I'm warmed up a bit. Then like you, around 90-95%, fast, but not too fast I make mistakes.

For BLD, for me, it can vary A LOT! But then, sometimes time feels subjective here. I have gotten quite a few sub-70 where it feels as if my memo is 50s! But it must be ~20s or so! It doesn't feel sloow, just more relaxed and I feel as if time is slowing down around me. I know that sounds odd, but it's what happens! If I try go 90% for memo, sometimes (mostly actually), my memo actually gets worse and my solving sucks.

So I guess I'm actually agreeing with you there. My delays are mostly 10s max, if more, I mostly just DNF :S I really should stop that, and change to fixing things even if I get a slow time, it would be good for my memo.


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## Pedro (Apr 11, 2008)

well, I think it didn't affect me yet 

I try to practice both (but usually I do more OH ), so I can know how to deal with each one...

today I had a 1:05.97 bld solve which felt cool and smooth...didn't seem like I memorised that fast...but I tried to go really fast on solving, so I had almost no delays

I think that's my main problem with bld...too many pauses between algs...sometimes I know what to do next and am kinda lazy...but sometimes I actually have to stop a bit to remember what's next...

I tried some bld solves using my rooms and images, for the edges...and it wasn't much slower...but I'm not sure if I'll completely switch to that.

I did an avg of 100 yesterday, speedsolving, of course...

was going quite good until 50 solves, the avg was around 14.5...I think I kept it good until 70 or so...but started getting some bad solves...the RA went up to 16.4x :O
somehow I "magically" recovered and did the best RA on the last 12 solves  14.08...not that good...and the avg of 100 was 14.93...

I'm definitely not happy with that average...got waaaaaay too many bad times (12 16s and 11 17s)
I liked having eight 12s and 19 13s...but...the overall thing was much worse than I could have done...


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## Lucas Garron (Apr 11, 2008)

Well, half-only care for speedsolves to promote MGLS. 
But interestingly, I often don't go that fast (except maybe PLL and 2-gen CLS). Most practice (say, at school) is on slow/stiffer cubes, and I often try alternative things, like pre-orient.
My 15.00 average was set by going slow!

In BLD, I try to go slow all the time, and follow qqwref's suggestion in making sure to keep it in without reviewing. Nevertheless, my exec is always fast-paced (and I rarely make a memo mistake, so it happens here).
Whenever I go fast, I tend to forget corners a lot and leave them until I'm done with edges. Then, after 30 seconds, I remember corners and solve them in 10 seconds. 
My best times are set going slow...

So, I always go slow.


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## alexc (Apr 11, 2008)

Well, for blindcubing I find that my fastest solves, like you Chris, have good memo. I agree with your 75% speed thing. I find my memo is faster if I go slower and memorize efficiently, rather than going all out speed and not memorizing the information as well, which ultimately for me leads to DNF's and slow recall. However, there are some, like Alex Yu, who might disagree because if they go too slow on the memo, their whole time is ultimately slower. (I heard him say that to Jason Baum at Princeton.)


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## tim (Apr 12, 2008)

Mhh, i haven't noticed the speed/bld issue. My speedcubing times are usually the same, 19.xx on good days, 22.xx on bad days. And for the speed: That's very strange. On some days i go for 100% speed and can't get sub-23. If i try to slow down on these days, i can easily get sub-20 solves. But on other days i'm more like 20/21 with slow (maybe 60% speed) solves, and if i speed up to almost 100%, i'll get several sub-18s in a row. It's so strange how it depends on the day, if i have to go slow or fast to get good times.

For bld speed: During practice i try to go for 110% memo speed. In most cases i forget two or three images and my overall times are more like 2-3 minutes, because i try to recall the images. (btw. even with more than 110% memo speed, my accuracy is about the same as if i would go slow.)
In competitions my memo speed is more about 75%.


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