← Back to all episodes
What Is Speedcubing?
Tommy Cherry • 2025-05-06
Dylan Carnahan:Welcome to the Simple Questions Podcast. This is your host, Dylan Carnahan. The question for this episode is, what is speedcubing? You will learn in this episode about the various speedcubing competitions. From local events to international championships, the strategies top cubers use to gain a competitive advantage, including blindfolded solving, and how to train and prepare if you want to compete yourself. Our guest holds the world record for the fastest blindfolded solve of a standard 3x3x3 cube, completing it in just 12 seconds flat. Set the world record for the mean of 3 consecutive blindfolded 3x3x3 solves, and has achieved a total of 14 official world records in speedcubing. I introduce to you Tommy Cherry. I'm in middle school. I walk into a classroom during the middle of the day when I see a gentleman who I believe his name was Sam Fruth, playing with the Rubik's Cube. And I think this is really the first time I was exposed to that. He would go to town randomly during the day. And I think it got the teacher upset because he was distracting people. But again, this is like in seventh grade. This is just like, you know, when you can express yourself a little bit more in the classroom. And I remember that fondly is kind of one of the first exposures to a Rubik's Cube. And so I'm curious, Tommy, how did you get into speed cubing?
Tommy Cherry:Yeah, so I do want to talk a little bit later, kind of branch off of what you were just describing because I've had various experiences that like elementary, middle school and high school, and now college as far as like how each of the institutions see cubing and how that's affected me. But yeah, so my story with cubing started about 10 years ago. So one of my friends in elementary school, his name is CJ. He was having like a sleepover birthday party with, you know, some of our friends from school and his cousin, Jonathan. Jonathan, I didn't know it at the time, but he knew how to solve a cube. We like follow each other on YouTube and I guess subscribed, you know. And later on, I saw a video he uploaded about like making some kind of two by two or three by three pattern. He's just like showing some algorithms and it was very clear that he like knew how to solve these things. And I was very intrigued by that. I had never seen anybody else solve a cube prior to that. And something about it just made me really want to pick up a cube for myself and learn. So actually, before I went to actually buy my first cube, I was just going down a rabbit hole on YouTube, watching some iconic cubing videos, like some vlogs, like the World Championships, and high-profile cubers racing, doing relays of a bunch of different puzzles. So yeah, I have pretty vivid memories of that even to this day, because it just felt so... Something about it was so intriguing and just felt so novel to me. So within a few days, I convinced my dad to go to a local Walmart and buy a cube for me. Not that it was very hard to convince, but I was so desperate to get a cube as soon as possible. So I'm like, please, let's do this today. Yeah, and then once I got my cube, I remember the first thing I did was I was trying to just do some kind of sequence of moves over and over again in hopes that it would solve. At the time, I didn't realize that the sequence of moves would take a lot of iterations for the cube to actually return to its original state. So at some point, I just got bored and started doing random turns on the cube. But by then, the cube was just scrambled in a way where I didn't know how to restore it back. You know, something not everybody may know is that for any sequence of moves you can do on a Rubik's Cube, if you repeat it enough times, the cube will go back to its original state. So this kind of leads to a common misconception, though, where it's like, oh, well, then by repeating any combination of moves, you can solve any state of the cube. But this only actually applies when the cube is solved and you're trying to return it to its original state. Or if the cube is scrambled up, then doing this will only just bring it back to that same scrambled state. It won't just magically solve it. I've seen a lot of click-baity tutorials on YouTube where it's like, solve the Rubik's Cube in two simple moves. Unfortunately, it doesn't work quite like that. I guess it is a fortunate thing though, because then it leads to complexity that leads to this whole interesting world of speedcubing. But I guess I went off on a bit of a tangent there.
Dylan Carnahan:Notion dismissed. You can't just repetitively do the same move and you're just going to, we're dismissing that notion right now.
Tommy Cherry:Exactly. Hoping to debunk that as much as I can. Yeah. So I think for a few days, by this point, my cube was fully scrambled and I didn't know what to do. So I started browsing around for tutorials on YouTube. And I was 10 at the time. And I guess my focus levels weren't generally the greatest. And I particularly remember like, dark elementary school, I was never exactly seen as like, I was always like excelling in math, but I wasn't ever like a particularly focused student. I kind of just like to goof off and stuff. And I guess, a kind of byproduct of that was that when I was browsing around for tutorials, I had very low focus levels and ended up didn't understanding much and then kind of just put the endeavor to the side after a few days. I'm like, yeah, this is not happening. I'm not gonna be able to figure this out. It's too hard, whatever. But that urge to figure it out is still there. So I think I'm just like playing around with the cube every now and then for a few weeks. And then at some point, a few weeks later, I'm like, okay, I need to actually sit down, focus and work my way through this. I, when I, the day I actually purchased my first cube, I don't remember specifically. It was either, it was some point in the end of June or early July of 2015. And my day of actually first solving the cube was July 30th. You know, so the day I remember very distinctly, because it was just such an impactful milestone for me. That kind of just led to, it had a very strong impact on the course of my trajectory throughout the following 10 years, even to this day. It's interesting to always look back and think about how different my life would be had I never learned to solve a cube. So, you know, shout out to my friend Jonathan, who actually inspired me to get into this whole world of speedcubing to begin with. And then, yeah, so I think when I actually started, you know, pushing through, just like finding a tutorial that I could actually understand reasonably well and just, you know, rewinding and pausing the video many times to actually get down the algorithms, I, you know, I guess within my first day of like actually solving the cube, I think I did it a few times later that day to just like get it down. I still had like all the algorithms written down on a piece of paper, so I hadn't actually fully like internalized the process. That kind of just like took a few more weeks to actually get to that point. But then from then on, I was, you know, super, super eager to just get faster and faster. And, you know, yeah, I think that that as far as how I started, though, that's that's, you know, the gist of it.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. So you kind of see up here with the Rubik's Cube, you're kind of enamored by that. You decide to give it a try and then then you you solve it. Right. And then that that kind of again, there's always a sense of like accomplishment helps one want to like do something. Right. And so you had kind of that milestone, if you will. And I'm always interested whenever talking to a guest, the flip between, you know, doing something and then competing at it, because those are very different things and they require a lot, like a different level of commitment. So what made you want to get into competitive speed QMB? And how does that, how does your journey get to there?
Tommy Cherry:Yeah, so I think my transition for this was relatively quick. I, from a young age, have always been like, I've seen myself as a competitive person and just like challenging myself to do better. And, you know, at times the mindset can be a bit unhealthy if you start to get into a mindset of like comparing yourself to the performance of others too much, to the point where like, jags you down if you're not doing it as well as others. But something great about the Cuban community as a whole, and I know I'm going on a little tangent here, but I'll get, I'll circle back to your question soon. The, you know, it's like, I think the Cuban community is unique in that like, competitions are largely social events. You know, it's a relatively small hobby still, so prize pools aren't usually too, you know, too great in magnitude. But, you know, there's a bit of a market for that, which I'll kind of explain a little bit more about later. But there's just so much I have to talk about that I'm going into like all these different directions, but I'll try to keep this centralized as much as I can. Yeah. So, yeah, I think cubing for a lot of people is just like a gateway to, you know, having friends will always like a common hobby that you're really able to relate about and be excited about like exchanging ideas through. And I guess, you know, essentially what I'm saying is that cubing is like the community that of cubers that has kind of formed over the years has largely just promoted an atmosphere of camaraderie. And I think like that is something that has really been helpful to like having a, you know, healthy mindset, at least healthier than I would have had otherwise in terms of like the the attitude I have towards like competing with other people. Like a lot of cubers I know have like described, you know, competing in cubing competitions as not a matter of like just trying to like rank as high as you can, but just trying to like beat your own personal records. And I think that's actually a driving force for the vast majority of cubers, much more so than just like getting a top three finish or something like that. I think, you know, because just your personal records like go on your profile as like, you know, kind of like the home page of like your profile as a competitive cuber. And I guess circling back to my transition between actually solving cubing, being competitive at it. I feel like I might have had another small detail in there that I wanted to elaborate on, but it's not coming up by now. And I think I'll just circle back to the question now so that I don't get too scattered in my thoughts because there's a lot I want to say. But yeah, just as soon as I solved the cube, I knew that there was a competitive world for this from that rabbit hole I had gone down prior with watching YouTube videos of huge competition and stuff. I was just so fascinated how they had large conventions for this nerdy, what's the word, esoteric type of activity. But it also seemed like a really cool, vibey atmosphere with just everybody being all friendly and stuff. And I feel like, I mean, I guess I hadn't really seen too many other communities and how that would compare at the time. But with what I know nowadays, it's a much more friendly atmosphere than a lot more serious mainstream hobbies or sports. Generally speaking, there are acceptance to every rule. But I guess, yeah, I still kind of went on another tangent. Wow.
Dylan Carnahan:You're all fine.
Tommy Cherry:Good, good. Yeah. The gap between when I first learned how to solve a cube and my first competition was less than a month and a half. I think within a few days. Yeah. Within a few days, I had already started looking on the World Cube Association website, which is the website that, you know, the organization that governs the vast majority of Cuban competitions around the world. It's kind of seen as like the standard for that. And so, yeah, I lived in New Jersey at the time, registered for a competition in Connecticut. It was like a four-hour drive away from where I lived. I guess I signed up about a month and I had a time, you know, because usually with these competitions, you have like, you have to register by like at least a week in advance or whatever. But like as soon as I saw the competition and convinced my parents to make this trip work out, I registered as quickly as possible. And I guess I'll just give a bit of an anecdote as far as like how my first competition went. So yeah, we had a four-hour road trip the night before I stayed in a hotel, you know, woke up the next morning, headed over to the comp, competition, you know, what we call a comps, because it's just an easier way to refer to it. Like we use the word so commonly in the realm of Cuban. I mean, I guess, you know, they're in other realms used to, but anyways, I was only competing in two events that day. It was two by two and three by three, you know, three by three is like the most standard cube that everybody knows about, even people who aren't within the realm of Cuban. And then, you know, these competitions have like, at the time, 18 different events you could compete in. Nowadays, they only have 17 because one of them got removed. And, you know, perhaps I could talk a little bit more about later. I'm kind of, I'm kind of hinting at a lot of different things without actually expanding up on them because I feel like if I, you know, go too deeply into it, I just will forget so many things. So I'll take a step back here. Yeah, I was competing in two by two and three by three. My only, the only cubes I owned at the time for those were Rubik's brands. And contrary to what people outside of this domain might think, Rubik's brands are generally like not as good as most other brands. The, you know, like mechanism quality just makes it so that it's like hard to, you know, turn these puzzles effortlessly. And I knew speed cubes existed, but I just didn't own any. And I ended up doing like really bad compared to what I was hoping for. I used my Rubik's brand in two by two and I don't know, I was like near last place. I don't think I was quite last place, but I wasn't far from it. And this was a competition of about 100 people. So basically in these competitions, we do like five solves for most of them and you take the average of them to determine how you rank. With the slight added condition that like, well, you're actually only taking the mean of the three middle solves when you order them closed to fastest, you cut out the slowest one and the fastest one. And the thing is, if you get two solves that are invalid, which in Cuban we refer to that as a DNF or did not finish, then your whole average is an invalid one or known as DNF. So what happened was that actually in 3x3, I used a speed cube from a friend I had met that day. And in one of my solves, it had a pop. And since I had not really used any speed cubes before, I wasn't experienced and didn't really know how I was supposed to put it back in. So I had to stop the timer right then and there and DNF that solve. And then on a later solving the average, I was on a really fast pace, about to be one of my fastest solves ever. I stopped the timer thinking the cube was solved. And my dad was recording me from the audience or whatever on his phone. And then as soon as I was happy with the reacting, he's like, no, it's not solved. And then I look at the back. It was a moment of shock where I realized there was a corner twist in the back of the cube that had happened toward the end of the solve that I just never picked up on. And that excitement quickly turned into disappointment. But since I had two invalid attempts, it was the DNF average. And I ended up getting last place out of like 126 people. So that was discouraging. But at the same time, just being in that atmosphere of what I had seen on YouTube of this convention of over 100 people, just like this common hobby, it just felt kind of surreal to actually be there. And I remember that day I met Colin Burns, who had actually had the world record for solving the 3x3 at the time. So, you know, like the kind of the peak of Cuban records, 3x3 single. Like, you know, when I guess when people think about cubing, it's like, well, what's the fastest anybody's solved that? So like the 3x3 single is just that, like the fastest singular attempt of 3x3 in any competition. And yeah, at the time it was 5.25 seconds. And I was just super in awe seeing him in real life. And, you know, got him to like autograph one of my cubes. So it was a really wholesome moment. I actually also met this guy, Noah Arthurs, that day, who actually had the North American record for solving the cube blindfolded at the time. So, you know, it was a similar situation. I got him to solve one of my cubes. And he actually gave a very useful tip because I was trying to like get them to both give autographs on like different pieces of the same cube. What I didn't know at the time is actually that if we have like multiple autographs on the same cube, autographs are like considered a form of logos. So if you have these like occupying multiple stickers on the same cube, it's not actually valid for competition. Like it can only be on one sticker. So I just ended up having him, I think I still ended up having him sign the same cube. And I was like, I could just have this as a keepsake and actually get a speed cube because I believe the cubicle was ending that day. They're like a really, really widely known cubing store. And I got my first pyraminx as well as my, I think I got a three by three speed cube. I don't remember for certain, but pyraminx is, for those who don't know, is just like we have the triangular pieces and it's a tetrahedral puzzle. I guess it's a little hard to describe without using mathematical terms unless you actually see it. So for those listening, if you don't know what a pyraminx is, feel free to look it up. Yeah, but that competition was a rather disappointing one in terms of my performance because 2x2 and 3x3 were the first events of the day. And after those had finished, I didn't have anything left to compete in. My parents and sister really just wanted to go home and I was outnumbered. I remember I started bursting out crying because I wanted to stay so badly. I met a few friends that day and it was just super fun for me all around. And despite how my competing went, I was so eager to keep going to competitions and stuff. So we ended up making a four hour road trip for a competition. We stayed after like four hours. So props to my parents for making this trip work. I was a bit angry at them for a while for having us leave so soon. But fortunately, as we went to more competitions, they really saw my passion for it. And became super supportive over the years of, not that they weren't supportive to begin with, but the level of support they gave me increased pretty quickly as we started going to more competitions until eventually we were always staying the whole time at all of them. I can't remember the last time I went to a competition at this point where I didn't stay the whole time. Because I'm in college now, but even when I was in high school and needed my parents to take me to stuff, I think basically it's been a long time since they actually weren't willing to stay the whole time. So yeah, I mean, I guess that's the story of my first competition. And then, you know, it just kind of went from one competition to another. I think my next competition, it was like three months later, I just couldn't find one I was able to go to. But yeah, after that, I just went to more and more.
Dylan Carnahan:No, that I appreciate you explaining that in such detail. And again, there's a lot of things within your story that could prompt a question. I will, let's go with something that you alluded to, and I think it's just generally good context, which is what are these various speedcubing competitions? You mentioned how, I want to say it was like 15, I may got that wrong. And how they removed one, you alluded to blindfolded competitions, three by three, two by two, different cubes. Yeah, so what are the very speedcubing competitions?
Tommy Cherry:Yeah, so within the World's Cube Association, we've got 17 different categories. So the reason I say it used to be 18 is because one of them was actually solving the cube with your feet, which believe it or not used to be my main event. So it was pretty disappointing when it got removed around the, I think it was maybe at the start of 2020 or end of 2020. I don't know. I'm pretty sure it was the start of 2020. Yeah, when it got removed. It was for various reasons. Some commonly cited are like the public perception of solving cubes with your feet, it being a bit weird or perhaps unsanitary. And I think some of the points are valid, some of them are a bit blown out of proportion. I do have some thoughts on that. But, you know, just kind of as far as like what the general categories are, we've got like two by two cubes up through seven by seven. So, you know, that itself already occupies six different events. And, you know, World Cube Association competitions don't always have every event. You know, major championships generally tend to like national, continental or world championships. But I should also clarify that like even if you have like a championship for a specific region, it's always open to like people from outside the region. So like, you know, the first competition I went to, I guess it's kind of considered like a local competition. You know, it's not particularly like a ceremonious one or whatever. But, you know, anybody from around the world is allowed to go. And, yeah, so I think, you know, the first competition I went to had like six or seven events. You know, local competitions generally have around that many. But yeah, other categories are different ways of solving the three by three. So like aside from a normal, you know, just solving three by three with two hands, we've also got a one-handed category, a blindfolded category, a few with noose category, which is almost like a standardized test of cubing. It's like you have a piece of paper and a, basically the notation for representing like a scramble configuration is written down on that piece of paper. And you have an hour to find a solution to that configuration as efficiently as possible. And there's a whole new, a whole like separate branch of techniques people use for like finding efficient solutions to that, completely separate from like the techniques used for speed cubing categories where you solve these puzzles as quickly as possible. But yeah, aside from this, there's also one more category that involves three by threes, which is known as multiple blindfolded. Basically, you choose how many cubes you want to solve ahead of time. And then this event always has a one hour time limit. Basically, you have to memorize all of them. Put your blindfold on and solve them consecutively. The world record holder for that has a result in competition of 62 out of 65 cubes in one hour. And the way the scoring works for that, yeah, it's crazy. It's the number of cubes you solve minus the number of cubes you don't solve. So he solved 62 of them, didn't solve three of them. So 62 minus three is 59. So he has 59 points. And that is the world record for that category. So it's pretty insane. And then we've also got some other blindfolded categories. So four by four blindfolded, five by five blindfolded. And then these other miscellaneous puzzles, which I guess you could refer to as like side events. So we've got pyraminx, as I kind of alluded to earlier. We've got a megaminx, which is dodecahedron. So 12 sides. And each of the surfaces themselves are pentagons, but it's composed of like edge and corner pieces. This is another thing that for those listening, if you don't know what it is already, I think it's best to just look up a picture to get a good grasp of that. So just I'll say it again, a megaminx. Yeah. And then we've got a skew. Honestly, I think it's probably best if I don't go too much into the details of what these puzzles are because they're pretty, they're a bit strange. We've got skew, clock, and spare one. So clock, I mean, if you look up a clock online, you'll just obviously see like everyday clocks. So look up Rubik's Clock if you're curious about that. Yeah, so I think I named all of them. Yeah.
Dylan Carnahan:Okay. So Tommy, how do you decide what to compete in and what made you do blindfolded speed cubing specifically?
Tommy Cherry:Oh, yeah. So I think from the start, I was always interested in just competing in as many categories as I could. I just was so fascinated by how we have all these different twisty puzzles, which twisty puzzles specifically are like hand-held puzzle with moving parts. Maybe my definition is not completely precise, but yeah, there's a whole world of these things, like thousands of different types that get mass-produced around the world. I just wanted to at the start, like solve as many as I possibly could. And I remember making all these huge wish lists of like what I wanted my parents to get me for holidays or my birthday, and like including a lot of puzzles that aren't within the World Cube Association. But nowadays, I'm very much focused on just like the competitive categories. I like the ones outside of competition, but I don't exactly spend time on practicing those. But yeah, so I think one thing that was particularly inspirational to me when I went to my first competition, you know, meeting Noah Arthurs, who had the North American record at the time. Just the whole experience made me want to learn blindfolded as quickly as I could. So I think within a few months, I was very intimidated by the idea of doing that to begin with. So I think I actually held it off for a few months. But then either by the end of 2015 or early 2016, I had actually learned and gotten my first successful blindfolded solve. I had to learn like a completely separate method for that. Because it's not exactly very feasible to use like the normal speed-cubing method. I guess the term here is a sighted solving method. Sighted as in like you have sight of the cube while you're doing it. So the process for that too is like a very, there's a very interesting set of distinctions that I could perhaps talk about a little bit later if we have time. But let's see, yeah, so that's how I got into blindfolded and then shoot, I think there was another part of your question that I may have skipped over. Don't remember off the top of my head.
Dylan Carnahan:No, I think, you know, how do you make that commitment to that?
Tommy Cherry:Oh, yeah, yeah. So I guess I just, okay, okay. So once I got my first successful blindfolded to solve, I, as with sighted solving, I was just really intrigued to get faster. And I think for a while, I was stuck at around the six-minute mark, which is enough to allow you to compete within the time limit of a competition and get a successful result. But in the scheme of the Cuban community, it's not exactly seen as a particularly fast time. But I was stuck around that six-minute mark for a while. And it wasn't until I learned about this technique called Roman Runes, which is a very widely used memory method, not only within cubing, but in memory sports. And I think it dates back to the ancient Romans and Greeks. And if you're learning things in general that require memorization. And I've actually used this technique to apply to a few school tests back, like studying back in middle school or something. But yeah, as soon as I learned about this technique, and I guess I'll give a quick rundown of how it works, you convert the state of the cube into a string of letters. And okay, I guess this isn't specifically how Roman Runes works, but I'll just describe it in the context of Solving Cues Blindfolded.
Dylan Carnahan:Okay.
Tommy Cherry:So with the method of Solving Cues Blindfolded, you convert what you see into a string of letters and group these letters into pairs. So for example, if you have the letter D and then the letter G in your memorization, you could think of a dog. And you like make pictures out of these pairs. And with Roman Runes, you can basically put these pictures in like familiar locations within like a room that you have experience with in your life. So like my very first Roman Room in the sequence I like mentally have is my bedroom at that time. So from when I lived in New Jersey from when I was 10 years old, that so I was essentially like it's interesting because I was often doing my attempts within like my imaginary room because I would be like solving at home in my bedroom while thinking about like a set of locations around my room where I could place like two of these images at like each of the locations and you're essentially like creating this visual movie which helps you memorize these things very vividly much more so than if you were just like audit, you know, auditorily tell yourself like, okay, I just let it in this little letter. That's the word dog. Like if you just have a random set of words, like I don't want to try to think of a random set of words, but you get the idea. It's very hard to make associations between everything in a meaningful way. Whereas if you attach them to something, very familiar locations in your life, it becomes a lot easier to think of. There are different styles people have with this, where the number of locations within each room, or the number of images you put at each location. But with what I do, I have two images at each location, so it's pretty easy to make associations between those two things. And one question that might arise in people's heads when they're listening to this is, well, isn't that an extra step if you're thinking of a place and then just putting these things in the place instead of just thinking of the images on your own? And I think that is a very valid point to bring up. But I will say that once these rooms are fixed, they don't depend on your scramble. These rooms are things you just commit to your long-term memory and you're always using the same rooms. I mean, not necessarily always using the same individual room. You have what is known as a memory palace, which is a group of a lot of rooms that you can use and cycle through. Given that, after enough practice, you start to really get the locations down and eventually just becomes pretty effortless to just attach what you memorize to these locations. And the fact that it's attached helps you memorize them so much more easily. The day I learned this technique and actually started implementing it, I think I extremely quickly went down from six minutes to three minutes within a day or two. Because the amount of times with which I needed to review my memorization just cut down so quickly. I don't know if it was exactly that quick of a jump, but I just remember it being very, very quick. It was such a useful thing to implement. And I think that just kind of lit a spark in me where I was just like, okay, this is going to be my thing. This is going to be something I'm super dedicated to. And it just, I don't know, I just ended up naturally progressing with it to like, to the point where I could get to a high level with it, much more so than most of the other events. So yeah, I think there, I don't know, there are like a lot of events that kind of just over the years, like maybe more and more, you know, interested in competing in blind at the top level. But I think just over time, I just, you know, learn more and more things. And I don't know, I feel like if I go into the details of a bunch of specific events, I might start to go on tangents. But I guess there are a few like key ones that come to mind. Like, I guess, well, the first time I competed in blind, I actually got a success on the first attempt. So that was pretty, pretty exciting for me. I guess, I'm trying to think like chronologically what happens. Kind of hard to think about the order of everything, given that it's been so many years ago. But I think the, I don't actually remember which competition it was, where it was like the first time I won a competition. But something that comes to mind right now is my first time solving it blindfolded under a minute in a competition. I think by that point that had placed me in like the top, I don't want to get the number wrong, but it was like a relatively high rank at that time. And the rankings look far different nowadays. People have gotten much faster. But within the next year or two, I had actually won my first like regional championship with blind. I think it might have been my first time getting like a sub 30 in a competition, like under 30 seconds. This was like the Southeast Regional Championship for the United States in 2018. Well, yeah, yeah, I think 2018 was the first time I won it. And then later on, I just like by then, it was like blindfolded. It was already one of my best events. So as I got faster and faster, I eventually went on to like, win, let's see, the first major championship I won with Blind, I think was the 2022 North American Championships in Toronto, Canada. And then, you know, I guess that I'm kind of like, like flash forwarding many years here. Like, I guess I, you know, I'm skipping over a lot of a lot of big gaps, but just, you know, one, I guess one of my most like exciting, notable like achievements in that timeline was like when I actually got my first world record in blindfolded, which was in, I believe, the summer of 2020. It was either, I don't know, like the, all the secrets of events and dates are on, obviously kind of a blur to me. I feel like, I feel like I should remember this specific event more clearly. I'm pretty sure it was 2020, but yeah, I hope I answered your question. I don't know. I'm going off on ten just here. So it's a little hard to remember to get, to collect all the thoughts and the things I'm alluding to.
Dylan Carnahan:No, you did a good job, Tommy. And in fact, there were many things within what you said that I'd like to elaborate on with you. And if you wouldn't mind, let's, because again, there's just so much context, right? There's just so much context. So, let's do a quick banter, if you will. I'm going to throw some things at you. And I just want to just give context, because you have to think, Tommy, there's going to be people that are listening to this that are going to go, yeah, you know, I went to Target and I saw Rubik's Cube. That's about my experience level, right? Like, I saw it in store. That's all I got. So, I'm going to throw some things at you. But the first thing I want to do, Tommy, is I want to dig into that method you talked about, this Roman Rooms method. And I want to clarify. I'm going to paraphrase, and I want you to tell me if I'm on par or from way off. What you're saying is that you look at this cube, and you are assigning letters to it, okay? You're inspecting it prior to being blindfolded, you're assigning letters to it, and then you're using that combination of, you're combining two letters, making a visual image, and then putting it in a room, and then blindfolding yourself, and then recalling those images, and using that to solve the cube. How close am I?
Tommy Cherry:Yeah, my explanation was a bit incomplete, I guess. So once you actually memorize this sequence and blindfold yourself, you have a set system, when you're solving blindfold, you have a set system for what your images mean. Well, I guess as a beginner, your images are kind of like, you improvise them on the spot, but basically as long as you know what letters those images represent, then you're good to go. So you're basically converting everything in these reverse steps once you actually blindfold yourself. So you're like, think about what letters that the image actually means, and then different letters correspond to different algorithms or sequences you have to do to manipulate certain parts of the queue without messing up other things. So yeah, we just have different letters representing different algorithms. And yeah, so I think you were pretty on point with that.
Dylan Carnahan:Okay, good. I just wanted to be sure, 100% sure. Something else, Tommy, just for the, you know, you talked about your personal journey, right, with your blindfold time specifically. Could you help contextualize for everyone? What are some of these just general speedcubing times just in general? Like what's impressive? What's a world record? Just to throw some numbers out to maybe contextualize things. And I understand maybe an exact number may be hard to recall off the top.
Tommy Cherry:Yeah, so are you specifically asking about sighted solving, blindfolded, or do you want me to just like go into a little bit of both?
Dylan Carnahan:Just a little bit of both.
Tommy Cherry:Okay, so for 3x3 sighted, so like, you know, just the main category, currently the world record single solve is 3.08 seconds. I really hope I'm not getting that number wrong. Yeah, 3.08. It was actually just very recently broken by Wang Yiheng in China. He's like, he's very young. He's like around the age I was at when I first started cubing. So he's really impressive. He also has the average world record, which this is honestly a bit embarrassing. I don't confidently remember the exact decimal point, but I think it's 4.09. And I guess like, you know, he's actually quite a bit ahead of everybody else. Well, I guess the top five people have averages under five seconds, but then like, you know, past that, I guess, you know, like there's a lot of other people within like the five to six second range. And then I guess for blindfolded, you know, I'm fortunate to currently hold the world records for single and mean. The reason I say mean instead of average is because in blindfolded, you actually only do three attempts in a competition. So we don't have this thing where you like take out the best and worst time and average out the three middle. You just, if you get a mean, it means like you're all three of your solves are successives and you just average out those times. I will say in blindfolded competitions, you're like ranking of that competition is determined by single. And I think that makes sense because it's pretty hard to, you know, solve the cube accurately blindfolded on all three attempts. It doesn't happen too often. So, yeah, people are generally ranked by their best singular time. My current world record single is 12.00 seconds. Really hoping to, you know, break through that 12 second mark sometime soon. Actually, around two years ago, I solved it in 11.88 seconds in a competition, but when it hit the table, it actually overturned one of the sides that ended up resulting in a plus two penalty. Basically, when you're one turn away, two seconds are added to your time. So unfortunately, that was not a sub-12 world record, but rather a 13.88 second attempt. And my current mean is 14.05 seconds. Actually, I feel like, you know, blindfolded times have progressed pretty decently over the past few years. My first world record single, you know, back like four or five years ago was 15.27 seconds. So it's actually slower than the average is now. So, you know, there have been like some good developments in terms of like solving technique over the years. And I, yeah, I think it's just, you know, interesting to see how that plays out over time.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. No, I appreciate you throwing some numbers out there just to help people grasp, you know, the competitive nature and the time of these things.
Tommy Cherry:Yeah, sorry, there's actually one more detail I didn't mention that I think is pretty important. In blindfolded competitions, your memorization is considered part of your time. So what you do is the cube is placed under like a cover, like a very small box type thing, and you have your hands on the timer. So it's like a touch sensor timer. So as soon as you lift your hands off, then you have to uncover the cube by like taking the box off, memorizing it, put on your blindfold, solve it. And then as you put the cube down on the table, you put your hands on the sensor to stop the timer. So that is essentially like what the process is, like the start to finish, what you're actually timed on in the blindfolded category. I just thought I'd clarify since I think for a lot of people, not within cubing, it might not be immediately intuitive.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, no, I think that's a great clarification to make, and I'm glad that you did that. And again, that goes back to the memory techniques being so important because that's a way to reduce time. I think just generally speaking, competing at something like, competing at anything, there's a lot of emotions that come through, and especially at a very high level, like what you're doing, speed cubing. How do you prepare for an event? What's your preparation look like? Or, you know, just, I'll leave that open-ended because I...
Tommy Cherry:Yeah, yeah. So I think by now I've gone to over 100 competitions, so my routines become pretty streamlined. I think just in the few days leading up to a competition, I usually try to practice as much as I can. It kind of just really depends on like what event I care most about as far as like breaking my personal record for that competition or just something specific I want to accomplish. And my practice routine nowadays is mostly just a matter of like doing hundreds and hundreds of solves to really like hone in on the algorithms I know and implementing them in a wider variety of situations. There's also the aspect of finger tricks, which is like the precise way you're actually holding the cube and the different pieces with your fingers to make sure you can optimally do sequences of moves really quickly. So there's a lot of technique and theory that goes into that. But I guess when it comes to actually the day of the competition, I should clarify, before competitions, I don't tend to get more sleep than I did before. Not intentionally, but it's just because there's very often a wide range of emotions. There's a lot of adrenaline and excited feelings about going to contests and seeing all my friends. It's always exciting, don't get me wrong, but I think nowadays it's more of like a process I've just gotten used to so much. So maybe it's more a little bit more of like a, you know, I'm like a bit more like stable when it comes to like the night before and able to like, you know, get a decent amount of sleep, I think, usually. But yeah, I remember especially in the early days, I would like barely be able to get any sleep and just thinking too much about like how excited I was to like go to my next competition and how, you know, how nervous I was for the day, but also like how excited I was to just like not only compete, but see everybody there and make friends, you know, hang out with friends old and new and just learn so much about cubing. But I guess, sorry, I'm drawing a bit of a blank. Yeah, so as far as preparation for competing goes, on the day of, generally for me, it's just a matter of like doing as many solves as I can before whatever round it is in the event I care most about for that day, or events, plural, it's not always necessarily just a single event I want to do good in. I just kind of try to find the right balance between doing that and just relaxing and hanging out with friends on the day of the competition. But yeah, that just widely varies depending on my mood and depending on the competition. And then as far as when I actually go up to compete, my routine nowadays is pretty much just like do some solves while I'm in the waiting area between each attempt and when I actually go up and do the attempt, I just take a few deep breaths and then get started. There's a whole branch of I guess, sports psychology that also applies to cubing a lot of scenarios. And honestly, I never really looked too deeply into resources for just getting used to the whole cubing psychology, the whole mindset thing when it comes to competing. I think I've been pretty fortunate to just generally have a knack for competing well in competition scenarios, often even better than I do at home. I think just something about being there with the adrenaline running and being in the moment has generally been pretty helpful for me. I think with most cubers, it's not like that. And it's very hard to pinpoint why. I think it really depends on the person. But yeah, I think my routine in terms of what I can tangibly identify and describe is just like what I've already described. I think the kind of series of thoughts that goes through my head is much more convoluted, where you're almost lying to yourself, that you don't care about what you're about to compete in, and you're just going in circles with yourself, trying to convince yourself that it doesn't matter or whatever, and it just branches off into tons of random lines of thinking. Almost like how with my explanations to your questions now, it's like I branch off into all these different things. I just think there's just an interesting comparison there. But yeah, hopefully, that gives some good insight into what my preparation is like.
Dylan Carnahan:That's a good explanation. I appreciate you being candid and kind of talking about your experiences, especially like the night before. Something I feel like a good bit of context to give people, and again, you alluded to it by name dropping some of the events that you participated in, but how does the professional circuit of speedcubing work? You talked a little bit about the scoring. You've mentioned some events you go to. What is that circuit like, you know, as far as events that you attend, and how does that all work together?
Tommy Cherry:Yeah, yeah. So definitely some interesting things to touch on here. WorldCube Association governs the vast majority of official competitions all around the world. And I guess, you know, every weekend, there are like, you know, dozens of competitions, you know, that are officiated under the rules of the WorldCube Association or WCA. From here on out, I'll just say WCA, because it's, you know, something I'll say so many times, because it is a very, like, important organization for the sport of speedcubing as a whole. And, you know, there have been other competitions here and there, and there are also attempts at, like, starting, like, separate cubing leagues, which these attempts have actually had some success in China specifically. In other places around the world, not so much, but there are, you know, a few, you know, developments happening, you know, nowadays. The, I guess, you know, one good thing about the world cubization is that, like, everybody's results, like, historically gets entered into the database, so you can always go back and see, like, how somebody progressed over time. They have, like, a lot of very clear statistics that, like, rank people based on the different categories and stuff. So that way, there's, like, a very standardized way of, like, measuring yourself up against, like, the, you know, community of cubers as a whole. And aside from that, so a few different competitions and leagues come to mind. One that happened a few years ago was actually run by Red Bull, like, the energy drink company. So they had a few, like... So this lasted for a few years. They had, like, world championships of their own. I don't remember exactly why they stopped holding it, but they had it for a few years online, where you had, like, basically, like, AI... Just, you had smart cubes, which are basically, like, Bluetooth-connected cubes. So, like, from your own house, you can, like, erase against other people. And yeah, the app just, like, tracks the movements of the cube and, like, instantly gives you, like, a detailed breakdown. Like, they reconstruct every little detail of the song you just did live. So you can, like, look back on it and use this as, like, a really useful tool for analyzing your own solutions and strengths and weaknesses. But yeah, like, through these, like, smart cubes, they have, like, qualification rounds. So if you do well enough in the qualification rounds, then you actually get invited to, like, an in-person world championship where, you know, if you, like, compete at a high enough level, you actually, I'm pretty sure they, like, paid for people to, like, fly out all expenses paid. And, you know, I think it's been in Russia one or two years. It's, I actually don't specifically remember the other locations, but, like, it's, I unfortunately was not old enough to participate in the in-person ones because you had to be at least 16. But the first year I finally was old enough was COVID, so even the world championship was online. So got a bit of a, you know, short end of the stick there. But what I was, you know, to kind of, the silver lining was that in the world championship, which also happened through Smart Cubes, because, you know, the circumstances just kind of made that the only option. I, one of the categories was re-scrambled, which essentially involved, like you take a scrambled, there's a scrambled cube and on a solved cube, you have to like match that, the scrambled that with the other one. So it's kind of like solving a cube in reverse almost. The good thing about that is that the method for doing it is actually very, very, very similar to the methods you use for solving cubes blindfolded. So that really gave me a leg up. And the fact that I was already like competing at a very high level with blindfolded ended up making so that it actually really put me ahead of the pack in that category. And I ended up winning the rescrambled category, which was a really cool experience. I guess that was technically my first major, major competition I won that is like for blindfolded or something similar. And so, yeah, aside from Red Bull also had like a three by three and a one handed category. But then other like cubing leagues and stuff we've got. Something happened here recently, actually, it's called the Premier Speed Cubing League. They actually haven't even had their first competition yet. It's a very recent development. What they're essentially doing is having like a few different like regional competitions around the USA. And it's like really focused on being a spectator event. So they have like a round of like 32 or 64. And then like, depending on like who places in the top eight in that round, they do like a head to head tournament in front of like the audience of whoever attends. Like it's like being marketed to like people outside of cubing too. And you know, they have like spectator fees and all that. So like they're trying to make it into like a huge spectacle that you can watch and like be intrigued by from from like the audience perspective. And you know, another thing is they're like inviting like, you know, top cubers like from, you know, from a bunch of different regions to like hold like autographing sections, you know, really trying to push this to be like, you know, they're very similar to like, you know, more mainstream sports in a lot of ways. I mean, major championships have had similar types of things too. Like, for example, there's often like a like a nation's cup at each world championship, which is technically unofficial because it's not like one of those 17 official world WCA categories. But basically, like, you know, teams like three or four from each nation raise each other in a relay. And it ends up, this like head to head tournament ends up being like super fun to watch, like, and world championships generally have like over 1000 people. So it's like a huge audience. And it's a really hype type of thing. And, you know, major championships also do have those like autograph booths and stuff where people can like, you know, take pictures and stuff with like their Cuban idols or just the people they look up to. And I guess the other kind of branch of this is actually before before I go off into that branch, there's like another thing within the World's Cup within the WCA. And that's they have all stars competition. So they've only had two of these so far. But basically, they set a very strict qualification limit. So that basically only the cream of the crop in that event can compete. I mean, they've only done it for three by three, because it's the most mainstream one. Basically, they set up a full on like really detailed live stream. And I guess I should mention like major championships do that soon. So like they broadcast it to hundreds of people, sometimes even thousands. And you know, I guess all the live streaming groups are trying to make the audience even more widespread over time. But yeah, basically with this All Stars competition, the most recent one was in the Mall of America. I was fortunate enough to actually go there and compete. And it was super crazy. So basically, we had 30 people, a pretty big audience section. And we were basically in the Vrpunda of the Mall of America, where there are multiple floors up above. You're basically in this circular area. People can watch you from overhead. And there was a good, as people walk around the Mall of America, there's a good audience of probably over 100 people just accumulating on the upper floor, just looking down as people compete. And one particularly hype moment was when Timon Koloshinsky, one of the top 3x3 solvers in the world, got a sub 4 second solve. And the whole crowd erupted. Everyone went crazy. It was super cool. And I think it was a really iconic step in the direction of making cubing a spectator-friendly thing. And something else cool about that competition was that they had a huge projector, and they would have graphics with each competitor with cool statistics and stuff that you can see as they compete. So yeah, really cool stuff with that competition. That was kind of just an upgraded version of the previous All Stars competition, so I'm not going to go into much detail with that one. But yeah, really hoping to see more things like that in the future. The other branch of this is what people in China are doing. So with China, cubing is actually a lot more mainstream. It's like they've got a lot of schools and institutions where cubing is like a dedicated extracurricular. And participating in at least one extracurricular activity is very, very highly valued in China to set students apart when they go to apply for high school or college. So I guess it's kind of similar to the US, but in China, it's much more crucial to have at least one extracurricular activity where you're really set apart. And so we're really head of the pack. And so there are hundreds of schools that teach cubing just as an extracurricular, even though they're not all necessarily competing at a high level. It's just something where you just kind of have this unique skill and being able to develop it ends up being super valuable for a lot of reasons. So they have that and what kind of tends to come along with it is a lot of speed cubing leagues. And I don't know exactly how many leagues they have around it, but from what I've heard, it's really successful. What also happens is that major cubing companies hold their own competitions. So one in particular is Moyu. They're a huge cubing manufacturer, and they have a factory based in China. They've had a huge event where... I'm not completely clear on what the event exactly was, but it was a combination of a competition, autograph signing thing, and just a cubing hangout or get-together convention, whatever you want to call it. And I remember seeing videos from the competition, and they had hundreds, if not maybe even over a thousand people who showed up to the competition just to watch, even if they're not cubers at all. It just goes to show that doesn't really happen in the Western world or really anywhere besides China, as far as I'm aware. And I think cubing in a lot of ways is more highly valued there. This specific competition I'm alluding to only had no more than a few dozen competitors, and they're all really high-profile cubers. So all the audience members are really excited to meet them at all. And it was just really cool to see. And I've been actually learning Chinese myself over the past year and a half. And I'm really looking forward to potentially tapping into that world of cubing leagues and competitions in China. And what also comes along with that is abundant opportunities for coaching. I actually coach part-time currently through a company called Cubing Life Academy. It's online. So yeah, I do that a few hours a week. But I'm actually, it's an interesting timeline here, because I do happen to be going to China for my first time in just four days. So that's gonna be, yeah, yeah, it's gonna be really cool. I'm gonna be visiting MoYu's Factory, as well as meeting up with some people from some of these Cubing teaching, coaching institutions. So I'm really interested to see what that actually looks like and just really get an insider's perspective. I'm really looking forward to that. But yeah.
Dylan Carnahan:Tommy, as a Cubing coach, as someone that's passionate, as someone that has world records, that's been doing this since a very young age, what advice do you have for newcomers for speed Cubing?
Tommy Cherry:All right. So I mean, I think the bottom line is that it's got to be something you like doing. If you don't really like Cubing, then I don't think there's too much of a reason to take it very far. I think just being passionate about something in general makes people much more effective at it. Because then you're just going to naturally happen to spend more time working on things and be eager to actually improve or whatever. And provided that you are passionate about Cubing, I think it's also important to think to yourself about what specifically wants to get out of it. Some people like to be all rounders, or practice every different event. I was like that for a while until eventually I started. So hone in on a few specific events. But some people are in it for the speed Cubing aspect, and just go into competitions and getting involved in the community that way. Some people are more on the side of making social media content through Cubing. It's obviously a very niche thing and there is an audience for it. So some people have actually gotten to the point of making full-time jobs out of making Cubing-related content because they have such a wide audience. And then there's also the aspect of collecting twisty puzzles or even making your own, whether it's through 3D printing or making mods to already existing ones to put cool twists on already puzzles that are already out there. And people have gotten really, really creative with that type of thing. Bottom line is that there are a ton of different ways to get involved in Cubing, aside from this speed Cubing itself. And I think thinking to yourself about what you want to get out of Cubing will kind of help guide what decisions you make when it comes to how you spend your time Cubing. And that can change over time, too. I think you don't have to necessarily stick within one subdomain or another. You can kind of get involved in a bunch of different ones. I think when I was first starting out, I really liked the idea of collecting different Cubing puzzles and by now, I probably own over like 300 or 350 of them. Out of like the ones I've collected over the years. But yeah, I think just making sure you stick to whichever parts you find most fulfilling will kind of allow your Cubing endeavors to be taken to their fullest.
Dylan Carnahan:I think that's very sound advice and I think it's applicable for many things outside of just Cubing as well. Tommy, what's the best way for people to learn more about you?
Tommy Cherry:Okay. So my main form of posting Cubing related content is my YouTube channel. It's mostly competition highlights. But yeah, people often make comments on my videos and sometimes I reply to them if I'm not too busy. That's one way you can contact me. I guess I also have an e-mail. Actually, people don't really contact me through my e-mail, but I guess I'll just say it just in case anybody wants to. It's tjcubing2453 at gmail.com. I used to live stream on Twitch, but I haven't done that in years. My YouTube and Twitch channel are both just my name, Tommy Cherry. Then I guess really the only other platform I use is Instagram. So my Instagram handle is Tommy Cherry11111. And yeah, people can follow me there or send me a message there if they want to contact me. I haven't really posted to Instagram in a while. Honestly, it's primarily YouTube. I've made some tutorials here and there, product reviews. Lately, it's mostly competition highlights or even practicing highlights. But yeah, I think that's mainly those things. Okay.
Dylan Carnahan:Well, I'll be sure to include all of that in the show notes included within this episode for everyone to check out. Tommy, thank you for sharing your time and knowledge today.
Tommy Cherry:No problem. Yeah, I'm really glad to be here. It's been a lot of fun.
Dylan Carnahan:That wraps up our conversation with Tommy. We talked about the memory techniques used in blindfolded speedcubing, the wide variety of cubes used in competition from 3x3x3 to more advanced formats, and the cultural significance of speedcubing around the globe. Go to this episode's show notes to see any resources Tommy mentioned during our episode. And lastly, subscribe to Simple Questions Podcast to get notified when our latest episodes are released. Thank you for listening, and remember to keep asking questions.