Be honest — how long would it take you to solve a Rubik’s Cube? A few minutes? A few hours? Days? Never?
Looking not only to finish one of the perplexing puzzle cubes but to do so in less than a minute, a club formed recently at La Jolla Elementary School to practice “speed cubing.” During weekly Wednesday-afternoon meetings at the La Jolla/Riford Library, students get together to practice cubing, teach others, exchange advice and tips and watch videos about it.
The club generally is for two types of Rubik’s gamers, according to La Jolla Elementary fourth-grader Shareef Khan, the club founder: those who are brand new to the cube and those whose skills are more intermediate. But once everyone is able to solve a cube, Shareef plans to change things up to focus on speed, he said.
“We’re doing everything cubing,” he said. “It’s fun and it’s a challenge. The satisfaction of getting a new record on a cube is really fun, and then it can be challenging to learn new methods. It’s also cool to be able to solve it fast.”
Members of the speed cubing club based at La Jolla Elementary School gather at the La Jolla/Riford Library. (Ashley Mackin-Solomon)
Shareef said one can learn algorithms and hand placement to help solve a cube, which he became familiar with while watching videos about speed cubing.
“When I started watching the videos, it looked so fun and then I remembered we had a Rubik’s Cube in the house that had been scrambled for years and I wanted to solve it,” Shareef said.
When he first started, he got to where he could solve a cube in about a minute and 20 seconds. But then he started practicing more and even entering competitions (his next one is March 1 at UC San Diego). His best time at a competition is 20 seconds, and his overall personal best is 12 seconds. His goal is to complete a cube in less than 10 seconds.
“It gives you an instant hit of dopamine,” Shareef said, and he wants to share that with others.
A 9-year-old club member who started playing with puzzle cubes two years ago said “It took me awhile at first to pick it up. … It took me about three days to learn every step in the process. Then I realized you could learn new methods to get faster and faster.”
He, too, started watching videos and joined the club to learn some of the methods and strategies for improving.
“It helped me a lot,” he said. “I got way faster. I went from a 50-second average down to [an average in] the low 20s.”
His goal is to solve a cube in under 20 seconds.
Local kids practice puzzle cubes at the La Jolla/Riford Library. (Ashley Mackin-Solomon)
Developing cubing skills also has benefits in games such as chess or other puzzles, Shareef said.
For Daniel Higgins, a 10-year-old La Jolla Elementary student, the shared interest he has with “the cubing community” is another bonus.
Daniel currently can solve a cube in about two minutes, but he wants to get closer to Shareef’s average.
“It can be sometimes hard and it can be frustrating, but you get over it with your friends,” Daniel said. “So it’s pretty fun.” ♦