Improve F2L

[dv297]

Heh, cross shouldn't take 15 seconds, even without algorithms, 5 seconds max. Work on that first, it'll be easy. And to reduce your times, you might want to consider an extended cross (petrus 2x2x2 added with other cross edges), cuts down on one corner you have to worry about. I personally don't use it, but theoretically it sounds good...

Anyways, really I can't add anymore than what others have said. My personal thought process comes down to finding the easy cases (where it can be simplified to R U' R' or something similar), then speeding through the last hard cases, and I've gotten 30 second averages with that. Just practice fluidity, go play with a metronome, set on 100 bpm, turning one side per beat. This forces you to look ahead or you'll fall behind the beat. Plus it's just fun to do lol. (stolen from Dan K's website)

[amateurguy]

Extended cross sounds good...but it might be a tad bit too advanced for beginners I guess.

It's good that you do intuitive F2L for the easy cases. For the special cases, try to look up the alg for it. But instead of memorizing it, try to understand how it works and why it cuts down the number of moves. This way everything can be intuitive with little or no memorization!

It'll be slow at first, but (sorry for the cliche) practice and when you see the cases repeat itself and how you solve them, everything will click into place.

[roinuj2]

Well since yesterday i've managed to improve alot, I've cut off roughly 16 seconds in under 48 hours. This is what worked for me.

A) take a day or so to improve the cross, what took me 15 seconds now takes me 8 - 10 secs, the trick here is if you look carefully you find that most of the cross cubies can be inserted soooooo easily and really quick but i needs a hell lot of practice to get it right. I got my advice from Dan Harris' page www.cubestation.co.uk

B) I peeked at some algs for the F2L positions that took me ages to put in and i found that the algs i was doing on my own added another unnecessary 3 - 4 moves!! so i learned those algs and practiced them (Just make sure they fit your style of twisting & turning and make sure you understand why they're faster and preferred.

C) I 've been having a problem with recognizing the pairs and i've found that my new cube has stickers that are rather dull (to me at least) and when im moving at that speed sometimes it takes me an extra second to make sure the piece is correct. at first i thought i was making an excuse cuz i was slow but my older CHEAP cubes from a crappy store turned like **** BUT it was sooooo easy to recognize the pairs!! The brain can determine PURE BASIC colours very easily but when your red is dull and almost maroonish like mine then it can take a split second to recognize it. normally you would never notice it in day to day activities but when you're trying to cube really fast it can be noticed!!


D) OMG i've read this over and over but never really spent the time to try to do it as i've been concentrating loads on just doing the algs faster but prediction in F2L helps sooooo much! It takes loads of discipline cuz me and im sure thousands of you out there just like i do are tempted to *flick* those pairs in the right slot before you can blink but ya know what, that's just crap cuz it takes even longer to find another pair, get it prepared then do the alg. Instead, move at a steady pace, as soon as you're performing the last move, look for another corner piece, twist it to its right spot slowly (not slug slow obviously but instead just fast enough to the point where your eyes won't miss the other edge piece ) when you see it, bring it up to where it should and by the time you have your corner piece in place all ya gotta do is perform the alg and wham!!


Right now i'm getting just under a minute like 57s, 58s and 59s, this isn't lightning fast but a major improvement in just a day and a half especially seeing that i was stuck at this point for weeks (I don't count the ones where i get to a PLL i don't know, obviously cuz they need practice, the main focus for me right now is F2L.

Well the above worked for me, (Hope it works for other people around my speed) and i've managed to cut about 16 seconds. I'm now going to concentrate a bit on more PLLs and OLLs by the end of the month if should be down to 40 seconds ( thats my goal any ways)


Thanks to everyone, i used all your advice and picked pieces from each advice and made my own solution to my problems.

When im stuck again i'll bug u guys hehehe.

[Jason]

One extra tip that's probably blindingly obvious: Choose a particular colour for your cross, and stick with that colour for all your solves in future. that way you'll learn to recognise the colour patterns dead fast for f2l. In Budapest, you could see most people's top face was systematically yellow,cos they mostly started off witha white cross.

[Johannes91]

Choose a particular colour for your cross, and stick with that colour for all your solves in future. That way you'll learn to recognise the colour patterns dead fast for f2l.

Have you actually tried to be color neutral? If not, then you really shouldn't be giving advice like that. For me, recognization is actually faster when I concentrate on the patterns and don't care about colors, because I can solve the pieces I see first instead of looking for some specific ones.

[Jason]

It' not because you're dealing with a smaller set of colours that you cannot recognise patterns and that you have to look for specific pieces!

[Johannes91]

I'm not sure if I understand that... But have you tried being color neutral? It's not hard at all.

[chue.hsien]

its hard when u are too used with the same cross colour for like.. a few months?

[roinuj2]

I'm thinking it's good to mix it up so you become a good all rouder but its better to stick with one colour??

[chue.hsien]

if u wan cross of another colour, i would say go with the opposite colours of ur normal.. for me, my standard colour is white, but if i see a bad cross setup during inspection time, i use yellow instead.. easier to adapt.