Aadarsh's Speed Cubing journey to solve the Rubik's cube under 15 seconds!

Aadarsh's Speed Cubing journey to solve the Rubik's cube under 15 seconds!

 

Speedcubing is easy to achieve if you persevere, work hard and follow the right algorithms, you will successfully master it!!

- Aadarsh Upadhyay, Age 11

This blog post is a guide about how I (Aadarsh) achieved solving the Rubik's cube in 15 seconds. I started my journey of cube solving at the age of 8 with nothing but a 3X3 Rubik's with immense willpower and determination to first be well versed with the algorithm. I scrambled the cube just after I had received it and It had taken me a week to solve the cube without any algorithm. At that time I had no idea that I need to learn algorithms to solve the cube. This is the time when my journey of speedcubing began!

I took help from my friends who were already best at solving the Rubik's cube, and they were kind enough to suggested some online links which I used to solve the 3X3 cube.

Below is the best official link I can share if you are a beginner to solve the Rubik's cube:

https://assets.ctfassets.net/r3qu44etwf9a/6kAQCoLmbXXu29TTuArrk1/404118e1f9bfb6f9997157a284bbc572/Rubiks_Solution-Guide_3x3.pdf

I continued my learning of new sequences of moves until I completed my first solve with help of algorithms. My personal best at the time was 56 seconds when I was 8.5 years old.

I was initially unable to beat my own record of 56 seconds for several months however kept on practicing.

In the meanwhile also learned 2x2 and the centers of 5x5 which I was able to solve through algorithms in decent time. After seeing my friends becoming faster, It motivated me to challenge myself.

I got my first speedcube after finally getting a 52-second personal best at the age of 9. I received a QIYI warriors 3x3 and after the sudden change from cubes, I started getting new personal best and received appreciation from my friends.

I got 35-second personal best after a whole year of practice. I also started learning a new method called CFOP (Cross, First two layers, Orientation of last layer and Permutation of the last layer).

I started learning Ortega and F2L(First Two Layer). My hard work continued until my 11th birthday. I saw from many cube ads that there was a brand named GAN. I was awestruck marveling at people solving the cube so quickly. I was searching for good cubes and suddenly stopped in my tracks. The cheapest cube went around for Rs. 2000. I had to convince myself that I was doing the right thing. I searched for a GAN budget cube until I stumbled upon the Gan 356 M, a magnetic cube.


Here is a short guide to CFOP((Cross, First two layers, Orientation of last layer and Permutation of the last layer):

CFOP(Cross, f2l,oll, and pll) has a lot of algorithms. If you want to get sub-15 I recommend learning 4-look-last layer and beginner F2l along with Jperm’s cross videos. Here are some images that I used along with like to Learn F2l and 4lll:

F2L:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar_Zit1VLG0

www.cubeskills.com/uploads/pdf/tutorials/f2l.pdf

2-look OLL



2-Look PLL


(Photo credit: cubeskills.com)

After a long wait of months, I finally got my personal best of 15 second at the age of 11 years and learned advanced cross and 4-look-last layer from cubeskills.com. I use to practice for about 30 minutes to 45 minutes every day without fail.


Here is a short guide to CFOP.

CFOP (Cross, F2L, OLL, and PLL) has a lot of algorithms. If you want to get sub 15  I recommend learning 4-look-last layer and beginner F2L along with Jperm’s cross videos(Search on Youtube).

I hope you enjoyed this blog and will continue reading my blogs on FirstToyz.com.

 

Author:
Aadarsh Upadhyay, Age 11
Grade 6, Birla Open Minds International School, Hyderabad