How to be sub 20

Got my first sub 20 average of 5 this thread has helped get my times much faster in a short amount of time

i know full pll and 2 look oll and i have got sub 10 thrice once was reaaaaally easy f2l the other two were pll skips i usually average abt 20 and i get sub 20 all the time so u dont need to know all these algs to be sub 20 but u should learn pll

waffle=ijm said:

cool story. Now let's see what Roux, ZB, and ZZ solvers have to say about that.

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As in the 10 ACTUAL ZB solvers.

How can I get faster at lookahead?

PJKCuber said:

How can I get faster at lookahead?

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You have probably already heard this, but practice. Seriously, practice is the only thing to help you improve greatly among most puzzles.

PJKCuber said:

How can I get faster at lookahead?

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Search the forums. In fact, just reading it should be enough, if you don't know how to search. This topic gets discussed pretty much every week.

PJKCuber said:

How can I get faster at lookahead?

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Try it while doing slow solves, then work up to being able to do it at higher TPS. After that, just incorporate it into your solves and practice. The rest should come naturally.

I have problems doing the cross without looking at it. If I plan it out I still need to look at it. I tried doing it with my eyes closed, but it is not doing it for me. I am still concentrating on the cross pieces and where they need to go and where they are on the cube when I am turning to solve the cross. It would be helpful for some tips on this. I would also like to show some practice solves, but I am not sure how to set up my phone to record at a good angle so you cubers can see.

GLgamer10 said:

I have problems doing the cross without looking at it. If I plan it out I still need to look at it. I tried doing it with my eyes closed, but it is not doing it for me. I am still concentrating on the cross pieces and where they need to go and where they are on the cube when I am turning to solve the cross. It would be helpful for some tips on this. I would also like to show some practice solves, but I am not sure how to set up my phone to record at a good angle so you cubers can see.

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Guess im not alone

Hey Guys, I average just sub 30 currently and am trying hard to be sub 20.
I have broken down my problems here. Can anyone give me tips
Cross- Highly inefficient. I want to learn advanced cross but having problem memorizing the color scheme because I am CN.
F2L- I get Cross+F2L done in 19 seconds on average. How can I improve lookahead?
OLL- 2LOLL
PLL-2LPLL, currently learning full PLL
What can I do to improve?

GLgamer10 said:

I have problems doing the cross without looking at it. If I plan it out I still need to look at it. I tried doing it with my eyes closed, but it is not doing it for me. I am still concentrating on the cross pieces and where they need to go and where they are on the cube when I am turning to solve the cross.

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Try to track an F2L corner piece while you solve cross with eyes closed. Concentrating on that forces you to not concentrate on the cross (and makes it 10x harder IMO ).

GLgamer10 said:

I have problems doing the cross without looking at it. If I plan it out I still need to look at it. I tried doing it with my eyes closed, but it is not doing it for me. I am still concentrating on the cross pieces and where they need to go and where they are on the cube when I am turning to solve the cross. It would be helpful for some tips on this. I would also like to show some practice solves, but I am not sure how to set up my phone to record at a good angle so you cubers can see.

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For practicing BLD crosses, if you can't do all four edges, just try doing two, then three until you are able to do all four quickly. It just takes some practice.

Hi guys,
My averages Ao5 to Ao50/100 are currently between 23-26 approx. I'm trying to get to sub-20 Ao12/50 and not just "once in a while sub-20".

I have read almost all this thread and it is full of good advice (look ahead, etc.) but I want advice in a particular issue.

I learned full OLL (almost, around 52 cases) and full PLL (21, including Gs) but I fear either or both of the following is happening:
- I am too slow executing OLL / PLL algs
- I have some very bad PLLs

So I timed an Ao15 or so for what I feel are my 3 worse & best PLLs. Here are the results and, hence I seek advice:

3 worst PLLs
Nb: Avg.: 4.00, Best: 3.24, Alg.2: R' U R U' R' F' U' F R U R' F R' F' R U' R
Na: Avg.: 4.50, Best: 3.62, Alg.2: L U' L' U L F U F' L' U' L F' L F L' U L' (mirror of Nb)
V : Avg.: 4.30, Best: 3.59, Alg.5(v3): (y) r' F R F' r U r' F R' F' r U2 R U2 R'

3 best PLLs
H : Avg.: 2.90, Best: 2.24, Alg: M2' U M2' U2 M2' U M2'
Aa: Avg.: 2.40, Best: 1.95, Alg: l' U R' D2 R U' R' D2 R2 (x')
Ub: Avg.: 1.90, Best: 1.73, Alg: R' U R' U' R' U' R' U R U R2

Thanks!!!

First thing: slow down and look ahead; it always helps, even if your F2L is already good.

mafergut said:

- I am too slow executing OLL / PLL algs
- I have some very bad PLLs

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To solve the first problem, drill your algs. Find which ones are slowest and repeat them again and again, trying to get them faster. Look at algdb.net to see if you can find better algs for the cases you don't like.
To solve the second, once again, look at algdb.net. It's a great website where you can see how popular algs are, which makes it easy to see which is best. You'll definitely want to find a better V perm from there; you can look past the first few algs on there too. Even if only one or two people use it, it could be good!

TDM said:

First thing: slow down and look ahead; it always helps, even if your F2L is already good.

To solve the first problem, drill your algs. Find which ones are slowest and repeat them again and again, trying to get them faster. Look at algdb.net to see if you can find better algs for the cases you don't like.
To solve the second, once again, look at algdb.net. It's a great website where you can see how popular algs are, which makes it easy to see which is best. You'll definitely want to find a better V perm from there; you can look past the first few algs on there too. Even if only one or two people use it, it could be good!

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So, do you think my V-perm is bad? I will certainly look for a new alg for that. I have also looked in the speedsolving wiki PLL database and found a new alg for Na that I saw in a video (the guy was doing 1.11!!!). I just learned it yesterday and I'm already in the same times than with my old left-handed Na. The new alg is: (z) (U R' D R2 U' R D')2. I will perhaps change if I see that I can get faster with it in a couple of days.

And regarding whether my F2L is good or not I split-timed some solves and here are the results. The times are a bit bad for me but the fact to think of hitting space bar between stages and taking one hand off the cube was hindering me, I guess. I also removed any solve with OLL/PLL skips to see the real best OLL/PLL solve:

-------Cross----F2L----OLL----PLL---Total---
best: 1.64 11.96 2.66 3.20 22.77
worst: 4.76 17.53 6.23 8.22 30.02
avg: 2.95 14.40 4.14 5.15 26.64
std: 25.9% 11.2% 19.7% 26.9% 7.2%

So any area that needs special improvement or am I just slow at everything?

Hi everyone,

First of all this is gonna be my first post in this forum (and my english is not very good sorry )

I am averaging 17-21 currently and I am trying hard to become sub17 every ao5.
I broke my ao100 with 19.42 yesterday(first sub20 ao100 very happy) ,broke my single (11.48 pll skip lucky solve ) and ao5 with 16.77 great days and solves for me
My problems are cross, lots of rotations and plls
I still don't know the color scheme and sometimes I couldn't see the 4th piece of the cross
At most of the solves I do 3 rotation and this problem slow me down. When I try to do less rotation (2 or 1) things got worse (20-24 seconds)
And lastly I just know 13 PLL I also think some of my algs don't fit to me

I am waiting your suggestions

Thanks for everyting...

Improvement To Sub 20

Hi guys,need help on 3x3 here!I use CFOP method (4 look)and my current PB is 19.8,other than that i average around 30
.However i have seen people solve faster than me with 4 look ,like around 15s.How can i achieve that?Thx!

practice

no seriously
practice your f2l

Any gd vids?

Watch some example solve videos and take note of the cross and F2L stages. There are many tricks to preserving pairs and setting up other pairs while solving a different pair.

While you solve one part, be sure to look around for what comes next so you don't have to pause during the solve. Practice solving with slow turns so you don't stop turning throughout the solve and gradually speed up with practice.