Going From Average Puzzler to Speed Puzzler - Can I Do It? 

Hi Sandra! Speed puzzling is so much different than casual puzzling... I'm learning it as well. I'm going to take part in the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship in Spain this year so I am practicing for it. I'm also amazed that some people can piece together a 500-piece puzzle within like 30 min. Alejandro is incredible. I have no idea how he does it. But, perhaps, it's because he's been puzzling all his life and has taken part in many competitions, so he's simply good at it. My personal best time is 1 hour and 5 min, but it usually takes me around 1 hour and 17 min to build a puzzle. I'd like to get below 1 hour but that's tough... I'm trying to be realistic, and I think it will take more than a few months of practicing to reach that goal. Of course, it also depends on the puzzle image. I have some tips for you. When you start speed puzzling and you dump all the pieces on your table, while flipping them, arrange them around in a rainbow shape so that you had space in front of you to puzzle. Also, at the same time you can separate the border and/or do a quick sorting. Next, not always doing the border first is the right decision. Try to do several puzzles with border last. Also, when you have a big section of the same colour or texture, do sort the pieces by shape and learn to piece a puzzle together by looking at the shapes of the pieces solely. Now, you can actually practice that with other, larger puzzles. Train your eye to notice shapes. Did you try to build the same puzzle several times to see if you can beat your time? That's actually cool. I did that once and eventually I beat my time for around 30 min. Try it! It's a cool experience. I learnt a lot on it. Do you ever build landscape puzzles? If not, you should build a few... That's a nice practice too, to build a puzzle with an image that is not in your style. Recently, I saw a cool video on how to learn speed puzzling (on "Puzzle with Emilia" on RU-vid), and that girl gave an interesting tip: try to speed puzzle really small puzzles like 100-300 pieces and slowly get to a 1000 pieces. Yes, you should also practice speed puzzling 1000-pieces at one sitting. That will help you develop perseverance. It's not easy to focus on a puzzle for so long, but during competitions you often have to go beyond your comfort zone. I'm sure that the more you practice the better you'll be at speed puzzling 🙂I hope you find my tips useful. Happy puzzling! Marta (from @marta.puzzles on Instagram)

Best of luck in future puzzling endeavours. Thanks for the video!😊 I would like to try speed puzzling as well, I'm sure your tips will be very helpful. Subbed!

I can't wait to meet everyone in October! I totally know what you mean about chaos puzzling, all the CJPA competitions so far I find I get so stressed and anxious when the puzzle pieces are all over the place. I am practising on speeding up my "flipping the pieces over" time and sort time. I need to practice texture puzzling too, things like fur and grass/leaves are always things I seem to struggle with. I am going to have fun and hang out with puzzlers, definitely not in the competitive league!

Just heard about speed puzzling this week and then binge watched all of the world championship vods as my introduction to it. Your's is the first video RU-vid recommended for me to watch after those. Some good inspiration to pick up a puzzle and see how it goes. Keep at it!

I once did a 100 piece puzzle entirely on the back side of the puzzle. I didn't even know what the puzzle was of. It was a surprise once I flipped it over.

Good for you taking that leap to do something like speed puzzling. Sorry I don't have any tips for you. I've never done it, nor would I even think about doing it. I envy those who do speed puzzling, so I just watch. Even watching I get heart palpitations. LOL. I'm a very casual puzzler. My eyes are old and I have back issues, so I'm kind of up and down. I enjoy puzzling so much .I thought you had a nice variety in the puzzles you practiced with. I wish you the best of luck. I love the images behind you.

You are doing great! I wish to see you some day at World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship. I will be there this year not only competing but also as their live stream commentator. They invited me after they saw my ”how to practise for speed puzzle competition” video here in RU-vid ☺️

I don't have any inclination to do speed puzzling and would not enter any competitions. I did enter the BOTYP challenges as they were for fun rather than anything serious. I believe the third one will be in September this year. I admire anyone who is willing to go through that nerve wracking experience. I wish you well in the competition and hope that you will enjoy the experience however you do in it. 😃

I am a pretty fast puzzler but I get too stressed when I'm on a time limit and that takes the fun out of it for me. I've done three speed puzzle competitions and did pretty well. There were small prizes, we didn't compete for money, so it was less stressful and I loved meeting new puzzlers. When I'm speed puzzling, for me, it really helps to sort everything early on to stay organized. If you have team members, everyone needs to have a job so there's no miscommunication on who is doing what section, and the whole puzzle gets worked on at once.

This was very useful. I might watch it again

Yes as Marta said above don’t obsess on the border pieces. I dump them out turn everything over sorting into piles of color first putting pieces together as I’m doing this if possible. My goal is to get pieces together I’m not concerned about doing it in a methodical regimented fashion. I’ll put together all the red pieces, then move on to yellow, blue etc and then when I have all these shapes I’ll start placing them and finding the border pieces that correspond with the shapes that way you’ll mostly have the filler section in between the main subject matter of the puzzle which might slow you down, they’re usually the darker or blue sky pieces. Good luck. 🍀 I might actually be in Canada 🇨🇦 at that time. I’ll find out some time this week.

Don't under-estimate your abilities. I think you're amazing! Love your honesty.❤

Would be a good video topic to show a good strategy in a very similar or gradient color area. When there are cca 100 similar pieces. Piece shape, joint shapes, joint numbers.... Once I make a puzzle with the back side, like a solid color puzzle, rehearsal for shape sorting.

lovely puzzles behind you... good luck at your competition... I puzzle like you I turn all the pieces up and pick out sections.... good luck with the chaos puzzling... I have no interest in speed puzzling but I would LOVE to go to a competition as an observer..... no matter how you do you will have a wonderful time.... glad you will take us along.. oHH I did notice you changed boards that you puzzled on , the green felt looked wrinkled wonder if the different boards effected your time...

I’m definitely not a speed puzzler, but it’s fun to watch 😊

Well done! ❤️ Also my fastest time is 1 h 39 min, so our speed is quite similar. 🙂 But I haven't gotten any better in 6 months!! 🤣 I really have to take a good look at that video of Puzzle with Emilia and start training for real! 💪 Especially because I'm going to the Worlds in September and I'd love to finish my puzzle in time... 😅 Good luck and have fun! 🥰

I’m doing the teams and pairs event. Our goal is to be not last. Lol See you there!

I am so not a speed puzzler. I love to watch it, but I'm not fast. In anything really. However I did get the London Postcard from a local swap and decided to speed run it. I did it in 2.5 hrs. At one point I think I just fell into a good rhythm, but not necessarily a fast one! LOL I think puzzle chess would be fun, but as far as practicing for a competition, I will be a spectator.

Speed puzzling is not my favorite. What I love most about puzzling is getting to know the art/image, and when speed puzzling there's no time to enjoy that 😉. But it's fun to do once in a while, and I would love to try a competition, just for fun, but unfortunately there are no speed puzzling competitions in my country 😔