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Lookahead/Pattern recognition the last frontier?

Arkwell

Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2011
Messages
310
I'm not sure if this is the right place for this post since I don't need help with lookahead so feel free to move.
I was wondering, with fingertricks being optimized and available to everyone, most of the better OLLs & PLLs easily found on Youtube, Macky's site to optimized intuitive F2L. Is lookahead the last frontier to lower times? It seems like the fastest cubers have no pauses which means they must clear vision of the patterns that are going on at high speed(Faz said something like that in NY Times this week)plus it's the one thing(Other than 'turbotracking)that you can't learn directly from Youtube. What do you guys think?
 
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MWilson

Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2011
Messages
288
I think the "last frontier" would be inspecting God's algorithm for the scramble in less than 15s, and then turning at the highest TPS physically possible. Unfortunately, Rubik's Cube omniscience is a pretty unrealistic goal.

As for realistic expectations and sticking to CFOP, I think as look ahead improves for a cuber they become more open to learning more specific tricks. For example, once you're able to do basic look ahead to the next pair while solving another one, instead of mindlessly following the next pair you might notice that you can make a simple U turn at some point and the next pair will end up being a 3 move insertion instead of some awkward case (basic multi-slotting). Unfortunately I'm really not good enough to do anything but theory craft.
 

applemobile

Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2012
Messages
858
Location
exeter uk
I just don't understand why 'look ahead' is a stage. Surely its just a given that if you recognize the pieces for the next move as you are doing the current one then you will get faster. I hear people saying ''my mate is sub 10 and he doesn't use look ahead'' this IMO is noncence, yes they do, they just don't realise they are doing it, because from an early stage it was obvious to them and they subconsciously know where the next pieces are.
 

Rubiksfreak

Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2012
Messages
260
Location
St.Cloud MN
I just don't understand why 'look ahead' is a stage. Surely its just a given that if you recognize the pieces for the next move as you are doing the current one then you will get faster. I hear people saying ''my mate is sub 10 and he doesn't use look ahead'' this IMO is noncence, yes they do, they just don't realise they are doing it, because from an early stage it was obvious to them and they subconsciously know where the next pieces are.
Looking ahead is NOT a stage to solving the cube, there are 7 stages and in some cases 4 if you're not counting each individual F2l pair. Looking ahead is something you should be doing from the time you make the cross till the cube is solved. I average around 13 seconds on my solves and someone who subs 10 and says they dont look ahead is lying through their teeth.

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this post since I don't need help with lookahead so feel free to move.
I was wondering, with fingertricks being optimized and available to everyone, most of the better OLLs & PLLs easily found on Youtube, Macky's site to optimized intuitive F2L. Is lookahead the last frontier to lower times? It seems like the fastest cubers have no pauses which means they must clear vision of the patterns that are going on at high speed(Faz said something like that in NY Times this week)plus it's the one thing(Other than 'turbotracking)that you can't learn directly from Youtube. What do you guys think?

I kind of disagree, yes it is good to be able to look ahead. Although what makes a good cuber is to be able to recognize a case and be able to know automatically without thinking about the moves needed to solve it, and being able to do this without taking breaks to search for pieces!
 
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