If you were to invite Usain Bolt for coffee (or Roger Federer or Sachin Tendulkar) and he were to accept the invitation at 'your' time and convenience, how would you feel?
Pretty much the same as I did when Feliks Zemmdegs accepted my (more accurately, my son Jaadoo's) invitation for a meeting over coffee.
Who is Feliks, you might ask?
He is the world's fastest 3 X 3 Rubik's cube solver, holds the world record for the fastest average time to solve the cube. He is someone who does it faster than you can count 10, consistently, every time and has been doing it for many years now. To put it in perspective, it is like running a 100m sprint every time in less than 9.6s, or consistently pole vaulting around 6.15 meters.
The Rubik's cube has long been one of the most popular puzzle games in the world, invented by Prof Erno Rubik from Hungary in 1974. Soon, the (magic) cube's popularity spread worldwide, and it achieved cult status in the 80s. Legend has it that offices banned employees from getting the cube with them to work because it was distracting them from their jobs. When i started doing the cube, as a child in the 80s, i had a small blue book which had solving instructions. Midway through the book was an instruction which said- "congratulations on getting this far. You can now put the cube in your office drawer and go to lunch, and resume when you are back"
Feliks started solving the cube at the age of 12, about seven years ago. In one year's time, he was able to solve it about 15 seconds. From then on, he has been steadily improving, and in the last six years, has improved his average by about 6 seconds, on an average an improvement of 1 second every year. He still keeps practicing it, and while the world record he holds is for 6.54 seconds, there are times he has done the cube in less than 4 seconds while solving at home.
I ask him what goes through his mind when he gets a cube in hand. He says, "You look at the cube for a few seconds, decide what to do and get going. This planning helps in the first two steps or so, and the rest of it, you have to observe, plan and execute as you move along".
To me, this is more remarkable than, say, a sprint or a jump, in which the broad plan is to run as fast or jump as far as you can once you have seen the conditions. Here, you might need to do one set of moves, or another, during the course of play, depending on how one of the multiple combinations stack up, and thus, improvise and plan for the next steps along the way, while simultaneously executing the previous steps.
I am curious as to how far this can go. I ask Feliks, "Now that you are at this level, how much better can the timing get ? Can it keep improving ad infinitum ? Is there is a physical threshold to solving a cube, and whether a 1 second solution could ever be possible.
He smiles gently and believes it is very unlikely. But he keeps practicing every day. Every single day. About 45 minutes to an hour every day. And that helps him shave off a few fractions of a second every year.
What else, other than the 3 X 3, I ask him.
Feliks says that more challenging the 3 X 3 is the 4 X 4 cube. And then the 5 X 5. He believes that beyond a 5 X 5 cube, no matter how many more the squares keep increasing, the broad principles remain the same. There is also some more stuff with the 3 X 3 cube, like blindfold solving and one handed solving. He is a brand ambassador for speed cubing and makes a few trips a year to popularize speed cubing. He also participates in 8-10 championships every year.
I ask him of life beyond the cube. There is a clear well thought out plan that Feliks has. He's taken up a commerce course at the university in Melbourne, and is keen to do engineering next. Feliks' achievements are stupendous.
But there is something more stupendous than that which strikes me.
It is his ability to be a soft, humble, smiling and friendly young man, at the wonderful age of 19. To be someone who explained a number of things to a child like Jaadoo with patience and respect, and treat him like a peer even though Jaadoo is currently at an average of 1 minute plus. Then, like a buddy, he spoke to Jaadoo about his school in India and whether children bring cubes to the class and stuff like that. He demonstrated a few things which he thought were important moves and which could help Jaadoo get better at solving the cube.
Feliks also spoke of other world level speed-cubers (and in a way his competitors) with a great degree of respect and admiration, for example Mats Valk of the Netherlands and Bhargava Narisamhan of India. He gave an autograph for Jaadoo on an Australian flag, and drew a Rubik's cube just below his signature.
To me, that is the stuff of champions. Be the best at your game, keep practicing consistently to get better, respect and admire your peers, and share your insights with youngsters who admire you and want to learn from you.
All the very best, Feliks !
Pretty much the same as I did when Feliks Zemmdegs accepted my (more accurately, my son Jaadoo's) invitation for a meeting over coffee.
Who is Feliks, you might ask?
He is the world's fastest 3 X 3 Rubik's cube solver, holds the world record for the fastest average time to solve the cube. He is someone who does it faster than you can count 10, consistently, every time and has been doing it for many years now. To put it in perspective, it is like running a 100m sprint every time in less than 9.6s, or consistently pole vaulting around 6.15 meters.
The Rubik's cube has long been one of the most popular puzzle games in the world, invented by Prof Erno Rubik from Hungary in 1974. Soon, the (magic) cube's popularity spread worldwide, and it achieved cult status in the 80s. Legend has it that offices banned employees from getting the cube with them to work because it was distracting them from their jobs. When i started doing the cube, as a child in the 80s, i had a small blue book which had solving instructions. Midway through the book was an instruction which said- "congratulations on getting this far. You can now put the cube in your office drawer and go to lunch, and resume when you are back"
Feliks started solving the cube at the age of 12, about seven years ago. In one year's time, he was able to solve it about 15 seconds. From then on, he has been steadily improving, and in the last six years, has improved his average by about 6 seconds, on an average an improvement of 1 second every year. He still keeps practicing it, and while the world record he holds is for 6.54 seconds, there are times he has done the cube in less than 4 seconds while solving at home.
I ask him what goes through his mind when he gets a cube in hand. He says, "You look at the cube for a few seconds, decide what to do and get going. This planning helps in the first two steps or so, and the rest of it, you have to observe, plan and execute as you move along".
To me, this is more remarkable than, say, a sprint or a jump, in which the broad plan is to run as fast or jump as far as you can once you have seen the conditions. Here, you might need to do one set of moves, or another, during the course of play, depending on how one of the multiple combinations stack up, and thus, improvise and plan for the next steps along the way, while simultaneously executing the previous steps.
I am curious as to how far this can go. I ask Feliks, "Now that you are at this level, how much better can the timing get ? Can it keep improving ad infinitum ? Is there is a physical threshold to solving a cube, and whether a 1 second solution could ever be possible.
He smiles gently and believes it is very unlikely. But he keeps practicing every day. Every single day. About 45 minutes to an hour every day. And that helps him shave off a few fractions of a second every year.
What else, other than the 3 X 3, I ask him.
Feliks says that more challenging the 3 X 3 is the 4 X 4 cube. And then the 5 X 5. He believes that beyond a 5 X 5 cube, no matter how many more the squares keep increasing, the broad principles remain the same. There is also some more stuff with the 3 X 3 cube, like blindfold solving and one handed solving. He is a brand ambassador for speed cubing and makes a few trips a year to popularize speed cubing. He also participates in 8-10 championships every year.
I ask him of life beyond the cube. There is a clear well thought out plan that Feliks has. He's taken up a commerce course at the university in Melbourne, and is keen to do engineering next. Feliks' achievements are stupendous.
But there is something more stupendous than that which strikes me.
It is his ability to be a soft, humble, smiling and friendly young man, at the wonderful age of 19. To be someone who explained a number of things to a child like Jaadoo with patience and respect, and treat him like a peer even though Jaadoo is currently at an average of 1 minute plus. Then, like a buddy, he spoke to Jaadoo about his school in India and whether children bring cubes to the class and stuff like that. He demonstrated a few things which he thought were important moves and which could help Jaadoo get better at solving the cube.
Feliks also spoke of other world level speed-cubers (and in a way his competitors) with a great degree of respect and admiration, for example Mats Valk of the Netherlands and Bhargava Narisamhan of India. He gave an autograph for Jaadoo on an Australian flag, and drew a Rubik's cube just below his signature.
To me, that is the stuff of champions. Be the best at your game, keep practicing consistently to get better, respect and admire your peers, and share your insights with youngsters who admire you and want to learn from you.
All the very best, Feliks !
