Caleb Valenzuela
Legend
I saw that a lot of members here are not sub-20, and while i have a compilation thread for a bunch of tips, i’ve decided to make a sub-20 thread so that this reaches as many not-sub-20 solvers as possible. Here’s what you should know before following this guide:
Know 2-look OLL and PLL
Solve cross in 8 moves or less
Know intuitive F2L
Know basic fingertricks
note: these are all in order of what you should learn first to what you should learn last.
1. Learn Full PLL
Get your algs from speedcubedb or whatever yt tutorial you can find (i recommend J perm or CubeHead’s tutorials). Make sure when you are learning an algorithm, you follow the fingertricks if you are using a video, and if you are using speedcubedb make sure to avoid as much regrips as possible and avoid fingertricks that overwork your finger. Train the algorithms in bestsiteever.ru until you completely memorized the algorithm/algorithms. Don’t go and learn 5 algs all at once since you will get burnt out and forget them. I suggest learning around 1-2 algorithms a day. If you struggle with memorizing algs, see this:
2. Learn advanced F2L
Get your algs from speedcubedb or CubeHead’s 42 F2L cases video. Start by learning the cases with the corner and edge in the U layer, then the ones with the corner in the D layer and the edge in the U layer, then the ones with the edge in the D layer and the corner on top, then finally the ones with both pieces in it’s slot but unsolved. Some of these you might already know from intuitive F2L. When learning advanced F2L, don’t just blindly learn the algs, look at how pieces pair up and what it affects on the cube. Being observant like this will help you in the long run.
BrodytheCuber also has some really helpful videos for the harder cases. Afterward, once you’ve fully memorized the front-right slot and front-left slot algs, learn the cases for the back-right and back-left slot. Most of the algorithms are similar to the front slot algs. Some algorithms are not worth it, however. You want to skip those that have both pieces in the slot.
3. Improve your cross solutions
Make sure your cross solutions are 8 moves or less. Watch example solves of faster solvers/reconstructions of WR averages to learn how to solve cross efficiently. CubeHead and J perm have great tutorials on this. Also, as a sidenote, you usually want to start your crosses with the following moves (not a strict flow chart, just an ideal first move to your cross. Don’t go out of the way to have these as your first move. Chronological order) U, D, R, L, F, B. Don’t ever rotate for cross also.
4. Learn good fingertricks and STOP REGRIPPING
Fingertricks and regrips are way too underrated for how important they are, since it’s basically the core of TPS and how fast you can do each case. J perm and CubeHead have helpful tutorials on both lookahead and regrips (which i will link later).
5. Rotate less and do U moves more
I notice that a lot of cubers tend to rotate to find pieces instead of doing U moves, so do U moves instead of rotations. Also, i suggest you follow this rule: “Don’t rotate until you’ve recognized your pair.”
6. Turn fast for cases you already know
During cross, you want to turn relatively fast, for F2L, you want to slow down for lookahead, and then at LL, you want to turn as fast as possible. Here’s a level chart (or smth like that)
Cross: 90% speed
F2L: 60% speed
OLL and PLL: 90-95% speed
7. Lookahead
and lastly, lookahead. Usually, lookahead can be divided into these three parts:
1. Spotting
This basically means to spot an F2L pair and solve it, then proceed to “spot” the next F2L pair and solve it.
2. Tracking
In this step of lookahead, you “spot” the next piece of your second F2L and track where it will be after solving your first pair.
3. Knowing
The third and final step of lookahead. You spot and track both of your F2L pairs, so you “know” exactly how to solve each one and how they move. When you “know” what you are going to do for the next 1-2 F2L pairs, you can do it even without looking!
To achieve sub-20, Tracking should be good enough, but it’s always better to be two steps ahead, so try to improve as fast as you can.
This is just a general guide, so everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. If you are still struggling with improvement, you can DM me or reply to this thread: https://www.speedsolving.com/thread...hen-you-don’t-want-to-miss-out-on-this.94366/
Know 2-look OLL and PLL
Solve cross in 8 moves or less
Know intuitive F2L
Know basic fingertricks
note: these are all in order of what you should learn first to what you should learn last.
1. Learn Full PLL
Get your algs from speedcubedb or whatever yt tutorial you can find (i recommend J perm or CubeHead’s tutorials). Make sure when you are learning an algorithm, you follow the fingertricks if you are using a video, and if you are using speedcubedb make sure to avoid as much regrips as possible and avoid fingertricks that overwork your finger. Train the algorithms in bestsiteever.ru until you completely memorized the algorithm/algorithms. Don’t go and learn 5 algs all at once since you will get burnt out and forget them. I suggest learning around 1-2 algorithms a day. If you struggle with memorizing algs, see this:
Don’t memorize an algorithm move per move because that is slow and hard to remember. Look for triggers (eg. R U R’ U’, R’ F R F’) inside the algorithm. Let’s take a J perm for example, the algorithm written down looks like this:
R U R’ F’ R U R’ U’ R’ F R2 U’ R’
If you are new to learning algorithms, this will probably just look like a long string of letters with apostrophes and numbers (and it is actually just that), but if you rewrite it like this:
(R U R’) F’ (R U R’ U’) R’ F (R2 U’ R’)
it turns the algorithm into groups of smaller triggers. As mentioned earlier, the first three moves are R U R’ which is the first three moves of the R U R’ U’ trigger (aka a sexy move (i absolutely hate that name)), then the sexy move reappears again in the second bracket/parentheses, then R2 U’ R’ is inserting the pair (pretty much R U’ R’ but with an R2). So i suggest that when you learn algorithms, find the triggers inside the alg, then group them into parentheses. This should make the memorization process easier. Type/write the “grouped” version into a notebook or even a progression thread on speedsolving.com
R U R’ F’ R U R’ U’ R’ F R2 U’ R’
If you are new to learning algorithms, this will probably just look like a long string of letters with apostrophes and numbers (and it is actually just that), but if you rewrite it like this:
(R U R’) F’ (R U R’ U’) R’ F (R2 U’ R’)
it turns the algorithm into groups of smaller triggers. As mentioned earlier, the first three moves are R U R’ which is the first three moves of the R U R’ U’ trigger (aka a sexy move (i absolutely hate that name)), then the sexy move reappears again in the second bracket/parentheses, then R2 U’ R’ is inserting the pair (pretty much R U’ R’ but with an R2). So i suggest that when you learn algorithms, find the triggers inside the alg, then group them into parentheses. This should make the memorization process easier. Type/write the “grouped” version into a notebook or even a progression thread on speedsolving.com
Get your algs from speedcubedb or CubeHead’s 42 F2L cases video. Start by learning the cases with the corner and edge in the U layer, then the ones with the corner in the D layer and the edge in the U layer, then the ones with the edge in the D layer and the corner on top, then finally the ones with both pieces in it’s slot but unsolved. Some of these you might already know from intuitive F2L. When learning advanced F2L, don’t just blindly learn the algs, look at how pieces pair up and what it affects on the cube. Being observant like this will help you in the long run.
BrodytheCuber also has some really helpful videos for the harder cases. Afterward, once you’ve fully memorized the front-right slot and front-left slot algs, learn the cases for the back-right and back-left slot. Most of the algorithms are similar to the front slot algs. Some algorithms are not worth it, however. You want to skip those that have both pieces in the slot.
3. Improve your cross solutions
Make sure your cross solutions are 8 moves or less. Watch example solves of faster solvers/reconstructions of WR averages to learn how to solve cross efficiently. CubeHead and J perm have great tutorials on this. Also, as a sidenote, you usually want to start your crosses with the following moves (not a strict flow chart, just an ideal first move to your cross. Don’t go out of the way to have these as your first move. Chronological order) U, D, R, L, F, B. Don’t ever rotate for cross also.
4. Learn good fingertricks and STOP REGRIPPING
Fingertricks and regrips are way too underrated for how important they are, since it’s basically the core of TPS and how fast you can do each case. J perm and CubeHead have helpful tutorials on both lookahead and regrips (which i will link later).
5. Rotate less and do U moves more
I notice that a lot of cubers tend to rotate to find pieces instead of doing U moves, so do U moves instead of rotations. Also, i suggest you follow this rule: “Don’t rotate until you’ve recognized your pair.”
6. Turn fast for cases you already know
During cross, you want to turn relatively fast, for F2L, you want to slow down for lookahead, and then at LL, you want to turn as fast as possible. Here’s a level chart (or smth like that)
Cross: 90% speed
F2L: 60% speed
OLL and PLL: 90-95% speed
7. Lookahead
and lastly, lookahead. Usually, lookahead can be divided into these three parts:
1. Spotting
This basically means to spot an F2L pair and solve it, then proceed to “spot” the next F2L pair and solve it.
2. Tracking
In this step of lookahead, you “spot” the next piece of your second F2L and track where it will be after solving your first pair.
3. Knowing
The third and final step of lookahead. You spot and track both of your F2L pairs, so you “know” exactly how to solve each one and how they move. When you “know” what you are going to do for the next 1-2 F2L pairs, you can do it even without looking!
To achieve sub-20, Tracking should be good enough, but it’s always better to be two steps ahead, so try to improve as fast as you can.
This is just a general guide, so everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. If you are still struggling with improvement, you can DM me or reply to this thread: https://www.speedsolving.com/thread...hen-you-don’t-want-to-miss-out-on-this.94366/
I talked about the voidlord
