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MadFurai

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May 2, 2013
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I Need tips for improving F2L portion of the solve..

I have several practice sessions per day and my times are improving, but the F2L portion is definitely the weakest/slowest part of my solve. I have watched several videos on F2L, but most of them simply show alg's or discuss how to solve specific cases. I'm looking for more of a "strategy" on how to improve scanning and pair recognition.

Right now I scan for corner pieces in the top layer first. If I find one, then I scan for the corresponding edge in the top layer, moving to the bottom layers as needed. Do you normally solve the first pair you come across, or do you look for the "easiest" pair to solve first? Any specific tips are appreciated.. Thanks.
 

yoshinator

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Right now I scan for corner pieces in the top layer first. If I find one, then I scan for the corresponding edge in the top layer, moving to the bottom layers as needed. Do you normally solve the first pair you come across, or do you look for the "easiest" pair to solve first? Any specific tips are appreciated.. Thanks.

It seems that at the moment you're not particularily comfortable with all of the F2L cases, which can only be resolved with practice. Just do tons and tons of solves. Once you get your F2L under 20 seconds, and can do the F2L pairs without looking at them, try looking for the next F2L pair while solving the one at hand, which is called lookahead.
 

NazeWatashi

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I presume you're still at early stage in speedcubing. I used to use metronome to practice look ahead, but for me it only provide little benefit, if not at all. So I stopped using it. I suggest that you keep practicing and be patient. You have to train your eyes and get used to the mechanism of the cube such as the color scheme of the cube, how each piece move if you perform certain sequences of move, etc. You can achieve it by practicing regularly.

As for color scheme, stick to one color or maybe two opposite color (such as white and yellow) for cross to make F2L easier. Again, with constant practice you will get the hang of the color scheme of your cube and will find F2L pair easier.

One more. Don't be too hasty when solving. Do not aim for 'fast' time, aim for 'smooth' solve. The 'time' will take care of itself.
 

MadFurai

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Yes, I'm at an early stage of speedcubing - less than 2 months. My PB are 1/5/12/100 - 38.33/51.06/53.86/58.01. I've definitely been steadily improving. My F2L is much smoother this week than it was last week, but every once in a while, I still struggle to find the next pair. I guess that's normal at this stage. Sounds crazy to experienced cubers, but this weekend I was pretty stoked that I started getting sub-60 solves regularly. My next short term goal is a sub-50 average. I like the suggestion of "smooth" solving.
 

BaMiao

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It's completely normal to struggle finding pairs in the beginning. It really just takes practice. Soon you'll notice that the pairs start jumping out at you. Over time, you can "see" more and more of the cube at once, and you can worry about look ahead and stuff.

But for now, it is best to just keep practicing, and trying to find efficient ways to do each case. Don't even worry about look ahead. Really explore- try to do thing in different ways.
 

applemobile

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Soon you will stop looking at individual pieces, and ind you self sort of, staring at the cube an not focusing on any part in particular, and you will just sort of 'see' the pieces. But this can only come after thousands and thousands of solves, once your brain is conditioned.
 

Pi

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First, let me point you here: http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?27870-How-to-practice

This link will help you structure your progress. Now for your F2L, there are many things you can do. You can use a metronome, and make one turn every time the metronome beeps. Slowly increasing the speed as the days go on will help your look ahead. Practice inserting two pairs blindfolded. This will help you track pieces when you do real solves. You can also do really slow solves, that you want to take as close to a minute as possible. This helps your look ahead. Keep decreasing the time and you will soon find your averages going down. Hope this helped! If you need to know anything else, just PM me.
 

pipkiksass

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I have watched several videos on F2L, but most of them simply show alg's or discuss how to solve specific cases. I'm looking for more of a "strategy" on how to improve scanning and pair recognition.

Right now I scan for corner pieces in the top layer first. If I find one, then I scan for the corresponding edge in the top layer, moving to the bottom layers as needed. Do you normally solve the first pair you come across, or do you look for the "easiest" pair to solve first? Any specific tips are appreciated.. Thanks.

Yesh - some good F2L 'tactics'. Firstly, learn to solve in the back slots. Mirror your F2L cases (i.e. learn how to solve them in all 4 slots) Bob Burton's Cubewhiz site has an excellent page on solving cases from all 4 corners.

Secondly, and this complements the first point, use process of elimination. By this I mean:

> There are only 12 edge pieces on the cube
> Of these, 4 are already solved (cross edges)
> This leaves 8 edge pieces which might be the one you need (for the first F2L pair)
> 3 of these are on the F (front) face, so you can easily see both colours
> 2 more are on the UR (upper face, right side) and UL (upper face, left side), so you can glance at these to see both colours
> the remaining 3 edges are on BR (back right), BL (back left) and BU (back/upper face), so you can only see one colour on each of these edges

So what? OK, let's say you have the red, blue, white corner in UFR. You can see that the blue and red edge isn't on the F face, or in the UR or UL positions. This means it must be one of the 3 edges on the B face.

Now there are only 3 remaining edges on the cube that will have any blue on them. These will be blue/red (the one you want), blue/orange, and blue/yellow. There is a chance, albeit very low, that the 3 stickers you can see on the B face edges are all blue. With my basic knowledge of probability, I'd say 1/8 or 12.5%. In that case, a 1/4 turn cube rotation (y or y') will show you where the blue/red edge is. However, there's a pretty high probability (87.5%) that you will be able to see a red edge. As you already know all 3 blue edges are on the B face, being able to see that one red sticker will tell you this is the edge you need. Even if you can't see the red sticker, you might be able to see the yellow sticker and the orange sticker, meaning you'll still be able to work out which one the blue/red edge is without rotating.

Now you're on the second F2L pair. This time you go for blue/orange and, once again, you find the corner in UFR position. If your already-solved pair is in the FR or FL slot, there are still 3 possible 'hidden' edges on the B face. So this is where the first tactic comes in to play - if you've placed your solved pair in the BR or BL position, this means there's only 2 potential 'hidden' edges on the B face. This means there are 7 remaining edges, of which you can see both sides of 5/7. You have a 5/7 (71%) chance of already being able to see the edge you need, and only a 2/7 (29%) chance that you can only see one sticker on it. Again, there's a chance both the stickers you can see on the 'hidden' edges will be blue - I believe this is only a 25% chance.

In other words, after solving your first F2L pair in one of the back slots, you have a 71% chance that you will be able to see your next target edge straight away. If you can't (only a 29% probability), you will still have a 75% chance that you can see at least one non-blue sticker on the 'hidden' B face edges, which will immediately tell you which one your target edge is. I.e., if you know both remaining unsolved back (hidden) edges are blue, one will be blue/yellow, the other blue/orange (the edge you're after). If you can see a yellow sticker, the edge you need is the other one. If you can see an orange sticker, you know that's your edge.

If you solve your second pair in the other back slot, you can now see both stickers on all remaining edges, except BU. If you can't find your edge among the visible pieces, that's where it's hiding. There's a 100% chance you can now find your remaining 2 edges with absolute certainty, and without rotating the cube.

Cube-rotations, although generally frowned upon, aren't as bad as all that. Reducing rotations will make you quicker, but my point is more that you can find your target piece without rotating, rather than that you shouldn't rotate.

It seems that at the moment you're not particularily comfortable with all of the F2L cases, which can only be resolved with practice. Just do tons and tons of solves. Once you get your F2L under 20 seconds, and can do the F2L pairs without looking at them, try looking for the next F2L pair while solving the one at hand, which is called lookahead.

Agreed - lookahead is the single thing that will make the most difference to your solves, once you get to about 30 seconds. Until then, I'd work on recognising cases and finding pairs quickly. Hopefully the advice above will help a little with this.
 

jayefbe

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You practice enough, and become familiar enough with the cube, all of this^ is done intuitively and automatically. When I'm solving, I use process of elimination, but I'm not thinking, "ok, I'm looking for the R/G edge, and it's not in the U layer, so it should be in one of the open slots....hmm...ok, well I see a yellow edge in this slot, so it has to be in the other one". Somewhere in the recesses of my mind, something like that is happening, but it's not a conscious process. It's completely intuitive and automatic, and it only comes with lots of practice and familiarity with the cube.
 

pipkiksass

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Things can only be done intuitively if your brain first understands them conceptually. Things can only be done automatically (i.e. subconsciously) if you first do them consciously. A lot!

So I explain the concept, as requested by the OP. Its all well and good just telling him to practice, he specifically asked for tactics.

(reason for edit: autocorrect on my phone ruining my grammar!)
 
Last edited:
Joined
Mar 27, 2013
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Look Ahead F2L

I need help in looking ahead i am trying to look ahead both corner and edge together and mostely i fail
do you look ahead by tracking both corner and edge togeter?
if not please do tell me what u do plz.
 

aznanimedude

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Feb 23, 2012
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you lookahead by tracking/predicting where the pieces you want to do next will end up after you complete the insert of the current pair you're working on
 
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my averages are around 30 seconds mostely i get sub 30
how can i practise look ahead other than using a metranome
 
Last edited:

ahmfast1

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Look-Ahead is only can be improved by solving over and over,When you solve cube over and over, you will be good at familiarity of "movement of pieces"... That's why Worldclass cubers can solve 2 pair at 1-look :)
 
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