How to be sub 20

[Betoso330]

To begin with you should have a moderately good cube. Moyu RS3M 2020 and Moyu R3SM 2021 Maglev are good options, for quality and price.

Now let's talk about the method. there are many methods you can learn, like CFOP, Roux, Petrus, ZZ... But definitely if you want to be under 20 you can't use the Beginners method. On youtube there are thousands of tutorials of many methods. Learn the one you like the most!

I understand that not many have a lot of time to cube, but it doesn't matter if you have a lot of time or a little, you should take advantage of your practice sessions. Not only should you practice, you should also learn things. For example: if you know reduced Fridrich you can learn a PLL or OLL that you don't know.

I assure you that if you follow all these tips, in time you will be able to be under 20.

 

[crazykitten499]

What about Roux?

 

[Garf]

What about Roux?

Roux is a more of an intuitive-based method, with not a whole lot of algorithms. If you can get good at it at an early start, then that's great. Lookahead isn't the best because there are always places that you can't really see.
However, CFOP has a more algorithm based approach and requires less lookahead as you continue.
It is certainly a battle between the Fridrich method and Roux, but while Roux has potential, CFOP is just easier to go off of if you learned how to solve the cube lbl.

 

[Scrollo]

so i have been cubing in like 2-3 months i have been practicing alot for sub 20 but i cant seem to get it consistently fullstep

feel free to ask questions

 

[Rubuscu]

What happened in my case for a really really long time (about 5 months) was that I would go through phases of sub-20 and over-20. I got my first sub-20 ao5 about 5 months before I got my first sub-20 ao100. So, what I really mean is that, for a long time, it may seem you are sub-20, but in reality, this is just superficial. You would need a lot more practice and time before you can be sub-20 on a long scale and only then can you call yourself to be sub-20.

Good luck to everyone!

 

[abunickabhi]

sub-20 in 3bld is super doable, L' U' S U L F2 L' S' L F2.

 

[lefty2shoes]

Need some advice please. I'm getting so close to sub 20 (ao100), but progress seems to be stalling at around 20.5 to 21s for ao100.

I'm wondering where I would get the most benefit from focusing on?

I use CFOP 3LLL. I just finished learning the last of my PLLs a couple months ago, but my typical ao100 has only improved by about 1.5s in that period of time. I average about 400-500 solves per week, almost all are timed speed solves.

Typical splits:

cross: 2.46s (7.6 moves)
F2L: 10.86s (32.5 moves)
OLL: 3.58s (15.6 moves)
PLL: 3.92 (14.5)

total: 20.9s (70.3 moves) for a recent 119 solve session. The full splits from cubeast using a GAN smart cube are attached.

I don't know or do any edge control or keyhole (not even sure what it is), etc. And I don't always have my cross fully planned out, usually the first 3 at least, sometimes all 4, but never all four and the first slot... I've tried that a little bit but it seems VERY hard.

I don't really do any specific practice or drills. Mostly timed solves for fun or random slow solves. I'm not sure if my recognition time is my downfall? or if it is normal... or if my tps for OLL and PLL are just plain slow. And I'm not really interested in learning another 50+ algs just to cut a second off of OLL (doesn't seem commensurate with the effort), but I suppose i would if absolutely needed to. Or do I just need to solve for another six months or more?

 

[Garf]

Need some advice please. I'm getting so close to sub 20 (ao100), but progress seems to be stalling at around 20.5 to 21s for ao100.

I'm wondering where I would get the most benefit from focusing on?

I use CFOP 3LLL. I just finished learning the last of my PLLs a couple months ago, but my typical ao100 has only improved by about 1.5s in that period of time. I average about 400-500 solves per week, almost all are timed speed solves.

Typical splits:

cross: 2.46s (7.6 moves)
F2L: 10.86s (32.5 moves)
OLL: 3.58s (15.6 moves)
PLL: 3.92 (14.5)

total: 20.9s (70.3 moves) for a recent 119 solve session. The full splits from cubeast using a GAN smart cube are attached.

I don't know or do any edge control or keyhole (not even sure what it is), etc. And I don't always have my cross fully planned out, usually the first 3 at least, sometimes all 4, but never all four and the first slot... I've tried that a little bit but it seems VERY hard.

I don't really do any specific practice or drills. Mostly timed solves for fun or random slow solves. I'm not sure if my recognition time is my downfall? or if it is normal... or if my tps for OLL and PLL are just plain slow. And I'm not really interested in learning another 50+ algs just to cut a second off of OLL (doesn't seem commensurate with the effort), but I suppose i would if absolutely needed to. Or do I just need to solve for another six months or more?


View attachment 18873

Do slow solves to where you can be able to look away from what you are solving, mainly F2L, and be able to find other pairs as you solve. That will get your times down by about 3-4 seconds, I am sure of it.

 

[Llewelys]

You can gain that half second on your cross. You said it yourself, you don't always plan it in its entirety.
You should work on that first, edge control isn't necessary to get sub20 (and keyhole is an f2l technique for when a corner or an edge is already solved).
The cross should take about 10% of your solve, so if you want to average sub20 you should get it to sub2.
Also don't worry about cross+1 until you can plan your full cross comfortably in under 15s

 

[lefty2shoes]

Do slow solves to where you can be able to look away from what you are solving, mainly F2L, and be able to find other pairs as you solve. That will get your times down by about 3-4 seconds, I am sure of it.

Thanks. I will try to work on this more. When I did a few over the weekend, with a one second glance at the cube and then look away to solve the F2L pair, I end up being able to successfully solve a little more than half. With a longer look before looking away I can get most F2L pairs (+80%) without looking, but I can definitely work on this... and that doesn't require me to learn 50+ more algs!

And the cross.. @Llewelys , yes, I have no real excuse for not planning it fully. I'll work on that at the same time since they go hand in hand.

Edit: I'll focus most cube time on just slow solves and work on looking, then looking away to solve (cross and F2L pairs). that will be a change for me as I have always just practiced timed solves (because they are fun) where I'm trying to go as fast as I can. I only have limited time that i can commit to the cube each day, that's why I was asking where my practice time/methods would be best spent, but I'll work on above and report back in a month or so if I get any progress and can finally break sub 20 ao100. I set that goal over almost 2 years ago (wow, covid was that long ago already...) when I stopped beginner method and started learning F2L and more LL algs with the goal of sub 20 in mind.

 

[Doug Cannon]

Practice your last layer algorithms with this OLL and PLL trainer. It's better to practice recognizing the pieces instead of spamming the algorithm, since you'll be able to improve your recognition instead of seeing the piece come back after spamming the algorithm.

1. https://bestsiteever.ru/oll/
2. https://bestsiteever.ru/pll/

 

[sDLfj]

I currently average 29-30s. My F2L takes about 17-18 seconds. I am practicing more efficient F2L and I'm going to start practicing lookahead. When finding F2L pairs, do you look for the edge and then a matching corner, or the corner and then matching edge and why?

 

[OldSwiss]

And I'm not really interested in learning another 50+ algs just to cut a second off of OLL (doesn't seem commensurate with the effort), but I suppose i would if absolutely needed to. Or do I just need to solve for another six months or more?

It's not that hard to learn OLL. Most OLL algs are not so long and quite similar.
A lot of them are just sune or reverse sune with some wide moves or sexy/reverse sexy with some additional moves
You don't have to learn them all at once, just learn a couple of similiar ones and if you can do these, learn the next ones.

Cubehead has a good Video and PDF (Download in the description) about it.

I never used a alg trainer but I've trained them in groups.
For example if you do sune on a solved cube, you get an antisune.
So you can learn those to together. The same counts for most of the oll in some way. You will see it if you try it.
"Ligntning" which is just a sune with wide moves gives you "Righty Square" which is just a wide antisune.
This way, most oll are quite easy to learn.

If you encounter one you don't know, just do 2 look oll, if you get one you know, you saved a second
If you save the second in 2 or 3 out of five solves you have your sub20

 

[Deleted member 36445]

how to be sub20 in 2 steps:

requirements: be sub10

1st step: solve under 10 seconds
2nd step: YOU JUST HAVE 10 SECONDS TO STOP THE TIMER

 

[Jorian Meeuse]

how to be sub20 in 2 steps:

requirements: be sub10

1st step: solve under 10 seconds
2nd step: YOU JUST HAVE 10 SECONDS TO STOP THE TIMER

Wait so you're telling me that I could have been world class all this time just by being sub 2???

 

[Deleted member 36445]

Wait so you're telling me that I could have been world class all this time just by being sub 2???

yeah, you could of beat the wr single by waiting 1,48 seconds : (
hope you can do it now

 

[Jorian Meeuse]

yeah, you could of beat the wr single by waiting 1,48 seconds : (
hope you can do it now

I'll try. First I'll have to figure out how to become sub 2.

 

[Deleted member 36445]

I'll try. First I'll have to figure out how to become sub 2.

I'll post a sub1 tutorial next, so you can do it.

 

[joshisbored]

im still not sub 20 yet, but i like using the blink method for f2l and cross practice (inspect, close your eyes, solve cross and if you are good enough first pair, open your eyes, close your eyes, do second pair, close them, etc)

 

[Jorian Meeuse]

im still not sub 20 yet, but i like using the blink method for f2l and cross (inspect, solve cross and if you are good enough first pair, open your eyes, do second pair, close them, etc)

you might have gotten the order of open/closed eyes wrong.