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How to quickly decrease solve time?

Stingray970

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Apr 8, 2012
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Greetings cubers!
I am currently faced with a minor dilemma that I'd like some advice on.

Rather than restating the title, I'll give you a bit of background information.

I have a speech I must give this Tuesday about a topic of my choice: Rubik's cubes.
While I'm giving my introduction, I'd like to solve the Rubik's cube for my class.
The speech cannot be even a second over 5 minutes or I'll lose 10% of my grade on the project.
If I REALLY stretch it, my introduction could be a minute and 30 seconds while still fulfilling the other required elements.
Ideally, I'd like it to be >1 minute.

My current averages of 20:
Rubik's brand cube: 1m 30s
Dayan Zhanchi: 1m 10s

I'm sure you can see what I'm getting at.

I'd like a somewhat quick (and short term) way to improve my solve time before Tuesday.

Any tips?

Also, I've been told MANY times by some fairly upset youtubers that I should NOT be using a Zhanchi at my skill level. They're telling me it'll make me worse in the long run and that I should force myself to use a crap cube until that point. Is there any truth in that?
 

qqwref

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I say prepared solve too. But make it look realistic: memorized cross, sexy move F2L, and your fastest LL algs. Don't do the RULD thing that some people do.

Also, I've been told MANY times by some fairly upset youtubers that I should NOT be using a Zhanchi at my skill level. They're telling me it'll make me worse in the long run and that I should force myself to use a crap cube until that point. Is there any truth in that?
I don't think you should force yourself to use a worse cube, but if you're going to use a really good cube from the start, you have to be aware of that. You're probably going to be turning faster than someone at the same speed for quite a while, and having a good cube encourages you to rely on turning fast. However, lookahead is really important if you want to get good times. So you'll have to put more conscious effort into practicing lookahead and recognition, because it won't be quite as obvious to work on it if you can just turn as fast as you want to.
 

A Leman

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Jan 22, 2012
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I don't know if this will help your method but you could make a 3gen scramble by freely twisting the U,R,L,D faces but restricting your self to only F2 AND B2 on the F and B layers. This makes all of your edges oriented so A CFOP solver that uses f2l that does not affect orientation(no rotations or quarter turn F or B moves) will have a rotationless cross and f2l and the edges will be preoriented on the last layer(a sune case).

also use your dayan. I learned a lot from making my rubiks brand a sub 20 cube but it took forever to wear in and slowed down the learning process of cubing to teach me the importance of good hardware. once i got my guhong and ghosthand, i realized how stupid it was to use my storebought alot.
 
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Jan 16, 2012
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but anyway, the best way, like everyone said, is to do a prepared solve. Just do an easy scramble, and know what you're gonna do. You don't have to memorize the whole solve, just know which OLL and PLL cases you'll get, and what you'll do for the cross, etc.
 
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retep

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Feb 21, 2012
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Waterloo, Ontario, canada
Well everyone is saying prepared solve, so I will offer something else in case that is not what you want to do. Honestly, at your time to improve quickly just do a lot of solves, I found that when I was at your time if I just sat down for like 2 hours and solved my time would drop like 10 seconds by the end, however this often does develop bad habits easier and is probably not as good in the long run as focusing on improving/changing things each practice session. Often some of the things that will make large differences and make you much faster like a week later make you much slower now (ie. switching from beginner method to fridrich, the f2l step will probably slow you down and make your times worse initially but you will get far better in the long run).

Anyway, ya I recommend (if you aren't doing a prepared solve) to just sit down and do a lot of solves. It will improve your recognition time and familiarity with the cube and different cases in your method, which is probably the biggest contributor to your solves at those times, especially if you already have a cube like a Zhanchi. This is because there are two factors that affect how long it takes you to solve the cube: 1. Execution time (how long it takes you to perform the turns/algs and stuff) and 2. Inspection/recognition time (How long it takes you to figure out what you need to be doing or recalling what alg to use).
The second is likely a large part of your times where you sit with the cube looking for pieces (rotating/twisting the cube) and the delay between seeing the piece(s) and executing the algorithm.
 

Kirjava

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Also, I've been told MANY times by some fairly upset youtubers that I should NOT be using a Zhanchi at my skill level. They're telling me it'll make me worse in the long run and that I should force myself to use a crap cube until that point. Is there any truth in that?

This is the worst myth in speedcubing, perpetuated by people who do not know what they're talking about.

Use whatever cube you prefer.
 

costello

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Mar 2, 2012
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I'd record the solving of the cube and have it playing behind me on an lcd display while I gave my introduction, but that's so I could focus on my speech.
 

applemobile

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Jan 8, 2012
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exeter uk
Start with a solved cube, scramble it whilst Saying your speach backwards for 30 seconds then start talking forwards as you solve it. People will think you have mastered time travel and probably give you money to show them your secrets. Get an A on your assignment an recieve free money. Win.
 

MWilson

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Joined
Mar 19, 2011
Messages
288
Do the prepared solve, but when you solve it just pretend you're a little surprise and remark that you did it faster than you usually do. That way you've got your ass covered if someone approaches you afterwards and asks to scramble it for you.

A tip for the prepared solve: Design your own solve backwards, using your favorite/most comfortable LL, F2L, and a simple cross. Maybe even make the cross only three moves or something.
 
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