CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. -- Being cool takes a lot of practice. The kind of practice that has helped Manchester Middle School’s Rubik’s Cube team earn elite team status in the You Can Do the Rubik’s Cube Speed League.
"Yeah, it makes the cool level higher," 7th grader Sean Fang joked.
Sean is fast at arranging the 26-squares of the cube to match its correctly colored sides.
But he’s not as fast as Nived Sanjay.
"He practices more on recognizing specific things so that he can solve them really quickly," Fang said. "I'm trying to learn that, but I’m not as good as him yet."
Sanjay won the award for being the fastest at last year’s competition.
Nived Sanjay is a Rubik's Cube master.
Not bad for a kid who started goofing around with a Rubik’s Cube on the playground.
"It was really a fun thing that we started in elementary school and we just wanted to transfer it to middle school and get some more people into it," Nived said.
The seven club members meet occasionally in the school library to practice their speed.
"A lot of people think it takes math skills or you need a lot of crazy things to solve a Rubik's Cube," Nived said, “but all you really need is to memorize patterns. "
The team is ready for this year’s battle.
"It's really, really competitive," Nived added. “People talk trash. It's like a competitive sport."
Practice makes perfect.
It’s also a fun way to Build Better Minds.
