Older cubers discussions

[EvilGnome6]

Your cross + 1 included a really big pause (~2 sec) so try to spot your first pair whilst executing the cross. Don't look at your cross pieces during execution (or check them afterwards) and this usually allows a pair to be spotted, near-eliminating the pause.

Thanks for the critique. I'm still pretty bad at cross and half the time I can only plan out three edges with good confidence. When I see the full cross solution, I get so excited that I forget to look ahead at the first pair. It's hard to drill in that focus but I'm slowly getting there.

 

[Jason Green]

Thanks for the critique. I'm still pretty bad at cross and half the time I can only plan out three edges with good confidence. When I see the full cross solution, I get so excited that I forget to look ahead at the first pair. It's hard to drill in that focus but I'm slowly getting there.

Same with me on cross. I've just recently started timing my inspection time. Most of the time it's no issue, sometimes I can tell I would have used a lot more with no timer.

 

[mafergut]

I ordered the YuPo and Yuxin 2x2 at the same time. After 4 days of comparison I must say, the Yuxin is pretty much perfect and a complete level above all 2X2's that I have (and I have all of them ). Really fast, really smooth, no lock ups what so ever. The YuPo keeps locking. Minor locking, but locking none the less.

I already have a LingPo and by what I have watched / read the YuPo is either very similar or a marginal improvement over it with the same internal catching issues that make me mad at times so, definitely a no go. But what you say about the Yuxin 2x2 is a real eye opener. I bought a Dayan to have the best 2x2 and I'm very disappointed up to now. After getting tired of trying to break it in, this weekend I will resticker, lube & tension it and, if it keeps being garbage I will abandon it so, I might want to try yet another 2x2 and that might be the Yuxin. I also have a CB stickerless with is marginally better than the LingPo but for sure not "a complete level above" and also catches a bit.

 

[Logiqx]

Thanks for the critique. I'm still pretty bad at cross and half the time I can only plan out three edges with good confidence. When I see the full cross solution, I get so excited that I forget to look ahead at the first pair. It's hard to drill in that focus but I'm slowly getting there.

Give yourself unlimited inspection time to plan all four cross pieces. It gets easier and faster with practice.

Planning the final adjustment of the D-layer can be done with simple maths... work out what is required prior to executing your cross (e.g. D / D' / D2) and then keep a mental note of how it needs to change for every D turn you do during cross execution. Eventually you'll be able to work out the final D turn(s) during inspection.

 

[Rastinha]

These are all pretty useful tips! I've been trying to learn 3BLD in little snippets of time between work and other things keeping me busy over the last few days, but I need to do a bit of practice of regular 3x3 to work on my F2L.

I watched Collin Burns' F2L algorithms everyone should know video because I'm pretty sure my problem is doing the cases where the two pieces are right next to each other in a really inefficient way. Does anyone know of any other good 'Improve your F2L' videos?

Also, I was wondering for 3BLD whether you're supposed to time your memo and execution, or just the execution? Like when things say "once you're sub xxx then you can..." do they mean just execution or memo too? And in competitions are both stages timed?

 

[muchacho]

I know nothing about F2L, but I think there were more F2L videos from Collin Burns in Cubing World.

Also Chris Olson:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRZHt_6umybxv_9KUEBhI-UwNbONqC6ya


In 3BLD you should time both times (total time, as is done in competitions), but maybe is a good idea to keep track (video tape some of the solves) of the time of each of the parts to see where you can improve more.

 

[SpeedCubeReview]

Cool to see so many Dream Theater fans around. Used to be a huge fan, had signed posters of John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy above my bed as a teenager.

Got the Yuxin 5x5 on Friday. I haven't read or watched any tutorials on larger cubes yet, but played around a bit with it yesterday to see how far I can get with 3x3 knowledge and logic. Did several solves from scratch, but every time I ended up with this:

View attachment 5647

I solved the centers first, then tried to group all the edge pieces together and finally solve 3x3. But always in the second step I'd end up with a situation where I had all the edge pieces grouped, except 2 edges had the middle piece swapped. I'm assuming this is some kind of parity thingy, or? I should probably look up some tutorial for how to get around this problem, and for how to be more efficient with the previous steps. What would be a good tutorial for learning 5x5?

Do you know how to solve a 4x4? It is the same as the 4x4 OLL parity.

Since you have two edges like that just put the in front on the left and right. Move both the top and bottom slice to the right and do the edge flipping algorithm (R U R' F R' F' R) and slice back. It will flip one center and the two edges of the other side making both perfect.... Hope that made sense.

Here is my video on parity if you only have one bad edge (https://youtu.be/-8iHPCgWFvk)

 

[mark49152]

Also, I was wondering for 3BLD whether you're supposed to time your memo and execution, or just the execution? Like when things say "once you're sub xxx then you can..." do they mean just execution or memo too? And in competitions are both stages timed?

As muchacho said, you time both memo and execution. In competition, you start the stackmat timer and then lift the cover from the cube yourself. The judge does not lift the cover, and there is no inspection time. Once you have memorized, you lower your blindfold and solve the cube. Then you put the cube down, stop the timer and lift your blindfold. You can lift your blindfold before stopping the timer, if you are afraid of missing the timer, but you cannot touch the cube again between lifting your blindfold and stopping the timer.

In practice, definitely time both steps to track your progress. You might be surprised how long your memo takes. If your aim is to get fast, you will probably reach the point where it's a lot easier to shave 10 secs off memo than 10 secs off execution. There's no point learning clever tricks to shave 3-4 seconds off execution if your memo is still at 2 minutes. So practise both separately and have separate plans for making improvements on each.

For execution, sighted solves are a must to get familiar with your method, and that helps get faster. For memo, push yourself by setting a time limit.

 

[MarcelP]

Give yourself unlimited inspection time to plan all four cross pieces. It gets easier and faster with practice.

Practicing blind crosses helped me the most. Also doing timed cross+1 in the early days with Mark in the substep competition really helped me improving.

 

[EvilGnome6]

Practicing blind crosses helped me the most. Also doing timed cross+1 in the early days with Mark in the substep competition really helped me improving.

Hmmm... I may just switch from doing full solves while watching TV to doing blind crosses. I might be able to actually see more of it.

 

[Lid]

Out of nowhere first 12 OH solves of the day: (I still use my old stickerless LingYun )
(20.210), 24.282, 22.729, 24.527, 24.008, (27.805), 21.243, 25.185, 26.851, 23.811, 20.990, 24.162 = 23.779 --> PB by 0.38

Spoiler: scambles

Average of 12: 23.779
1. (20.210) B2 L D2 F2 D2 F2 R' B2 R B2 L2 F R2 D' R2 B2 D' L2 U L'
2. 24.282 L F2 D2 L U2 B2 R' F2 L' U2 R F U' L' D2 L2 D' F L B2 F'
3. 22.729 D B2 U' B2 F2 D' B2 L2 U2 L2 U2 L B L F2 U' B L D R B
4. 24.527 D' B2 L2 U F2 U' L2 U2 R2 U F2 L F L2 D L2 B' L' R B L
5. 24.008 R2 F' R2 B L2 U2 F' U2 B' D2 B2 D B D U2 F R F D2 R2 B2
6. (27.805) F2 U2 F2 U' B2 R2 D B2 U2 F2 L' R2 F' L' F2 R' B' U2 F2
7. 21.243 B F L2 B' D2 U2 R2 F L2 D2 B U L D F2 R U' L U L
8. 25.185 U2 R2 F2 L2 D' F2 D' F2 U B2 U' R' B' U B2 U' F2 U2 L F U2
9. 26.851 B U2 L2 D2 F' U2 L2 F U2 R2 F' D' R' F' D2 B2 D U L' U
10. 23.811 L2 D R2 D F2 U R2 D B2 U' F' L2 B D' B R' F R2 U'
11. 20.990 L' U2 F D2 R F' D' F2 L U' F2 U2 B U2 B' U2 B R2 F2 U2 F'
12. 24.162 D2 R2 D' B2 U L2 U R2 D2 B2 R' D R' D' B D' F2 L D R'

Had a good big cube session yesterday also: 7x7 single PB, 5:35.36, that was my second sub6, love my stickerless cubic AoFu.

And yet another a12 PB on the 5x5 (YuXin SL) also: 2:08.58, one sub2, had a PB a5 in there also: 2.02.65, my single PB (1:55.45) is still from the Vcube days

2:05.45, 2:11.88, 2:08.57, 2:18.74, 2:20.55, (1:59.22), 2:01.18, 2:03.67, (2:26.61), 2:03.11, 2:03.38, 2:09.27

 

[EvilGnome6]

Practicing blind crosses helped me the most.

Here's what I'm trying to practice cross:

Generate scramble
Scramble with white on bottom
Inspect
Close eyes and execute
If solved, generate new scramble
If not, reapply scramble and retry sighted

Anything else I should incorporate? What about move count?

 

[mark49152]

Here's what I'm trying to practice cross:

Generate scramble
Scramble with white on bottom
Inspect
Close eyes and execute
If solved, generate new scramble
If not, reapply scramble and retry sighted

Anything else I should incorporate? What about move count?

Time the execution. The aim is to get faster and the pattern of what kind of solution leads to a fast cross is quite revealing. Also I don't have the patience to retry the same scramble, I just move on .

 

[Jason Green]

Here's an average of 12 for me that is decent. Although I was going to try and film a nice clean session and it turned out very messy, tons of DNFs and stuff. I restarted the camera for this.

Check out at about 5:10, I had back to back 23.59s. Then another 23 later.

It's funny my last video was a month ago and was 38 average. Just two more months and I should be to 8 second average. ��

 

[mark49152]

For the first time got 10/10 successes in a 3BLD session. Average was 2:26. I do all my 3BLD in batches of 10 and delete any session with <5 successes so that it doesn't count towards my overall average. Usually I get about 5-7 successes. The last couple of solves were a bit slow once I saw I was on for a full house; until then I was averaging ~2:20.

 

[Logiqx]

Out of nowhere first 12 OH solves of the day: (I still use my old stickerless LingYun )
(20.210), 24.282, 22.729, 24.527, 24.008, (27.805), 21.243, 25.185, 26.851, 23.811, 20.990, 24.162 = 23.779 --> PB by 0.38

Had a good big cube session yesterday also: 7x7 single PB, 5:35.36, that was my second sub6, love my stickerless cubic AoFu.

And yet another a12 PB on the 5x5 (YuXin SL) also: 2:08.58, one sub2, had a PB a5 in there also: 2.02.65, my single PB (1:55.45) is still from the Vcube days

2:05.45, 2:11.88, 2:08.57, 2:18.74, 2:20.55, (1:59.22), 2:01.18, 2:03.67, (2:26.61), 2:03.11, 2:03.38, 2:09.27

Very nice in all events!

Here's an average of 12 for me that is decent. Although I was going to try and film a nice clean session and it turned out very messy, tons of DNFs and stuff. I restarted the camera for this.

Check out at about 5:10, I had back to back 23.59s. Then another 23 later.

It's funny my last video was a month ago and was 38 average. Just two more months and I should be to 8 second average.

https://youtu.be/9cGpag_Wocg

Tip for embedding videos... change curly brackets to square brackets:

{video=youtube;9cGpag_Wocg}https://youtu.be/9cGpag_Wocg{/video}

Result...

 

[mafergut]

Here's an average of 12 for me that is decent. Although I was going to try and film a nice clean session and it turned out very messy, tons of DNFs and stuff. I restarted the camera for this.

Check out at about 5:10, I had back to back 23.59s. Then another 23 later.

It's funny my last video was a month ago and was 38 average. Just two more months and I should be to 8 second average. ��

https://youtu.be/9cGpag_Wocg

Private video, I cannot watch it. Can you make it public?

By the way, not counting the 1.56 3-mover 2x2 solve I got the other day (because it needs to be a 4-mover to be a legit WCA scramble) today I got a nice 10-move 2.43 single and a 6.00 Ao50 and 6.21 Ao100 with Ortega... with my Zhanchi 2x2. Maybe after all, when lubed and tensioned, it will not be a bad cube. Slowly improving but I don't see how I can get past the 5 second mark with Ortega. Maybe when I reach low 5 average it will be time to learn CLL/EG. Didn't think I'd say this but, I'm starting to enjoy 2x2 a lot.

Here's the single:

625. (2.43) U2 F R' F U2 R U2 R U2

y' R U R' // Face (and layer)
F R U R' U' F' // OLL
U2 // PBL skip + AUF

As most my sub-4 times, it is not really Ortega but LBL. Well, let's say it was "unintended CLL"

 

[h2f]

Lid and Mark - very nice.

I'm gonna try to make a blind session with very fast memo (~30 sec) and see what happens....

 

[mark49152]

As most my sub-4 times, it is not really Ortega but LBL.

Maybe they are skips? Usually I find layers are the slowest solves as the PLLs are longer than other PBLs. In fact if I have choice of easy faces and can see one of them would make a layer, I'll choose the other.

 

[mark49152]

I'm gonna try to make a blind session with very fast memo (~30 sec) and see what happens....

Have you tried putting time limit on memo? How rigidly structured is your memo? I'm wondering whether to force myself to do less reviewing...