Cube Breakdowns + help with improving???

[abr71310]

Hey guys, I know you're all probably sick of my stupid threads ranting on how bad I am, but this time I have video proof to prove it!

I did a quick "study" on my own breakdowns, and came to the following conclusions (posted after the video)

[youtube]aSZrRygewGM&fmt=18[/youtube]

Conclusions:
1. I have no look-ahead past cross during insepction.
2. Unless I can see the next F2L pair in front of me I end up making pointless cube rotations until I spot both pieces of an F2L pair after solving 1 or 2...
3. My LL average is roughly 7 - 9 seconds.
4. My F2L average (total) is about 20 seconds, but I want to break sub-15 F2Ls...

Here's a "raw chart" of what I kept in the Word document that I had up while timing myself:

 

[byu]

"The video you have requested is not available"

My suggestion for you:
Practice doing blindfolded cross, and then once you're good at it, start looking ahead for the first pair during the cross stage.

 

[abr71310]

"The video you have requested is not available"

My suggestion for you:
Practice doing blindfolded cross, and then once you're good at it, start looking ahead for the first pair during the cross stage.

I practice this a lot as well... It seems whenever I do an actual solve my hands and focus is all on the completion of the cross, rather than looking ahead for the first F2L pair...

yeah, I uploaded the video (it finished when...), and posted this thread almost immediately.

 

[abr71310]

UPDATE:

For some reason I just got a 24.30 average, and I have no idea how I did it...
I'm gunna do another average of five before I press "Post", but I'm pretty sure I won't get it again...

Anybody have any ideas what decreases solve times spontaneously? I know my Standard Deviation for averages of 12 and 5 are pretty high, but statistically, does it mean anything??

... 29.90, fastest in that average was 25.01...

I seriously need help... ><

 

[Odin]

I get my cross done in about 3 seconds on average, my average solve time is 35-40 seconds. I recommend you practice your cross more.

 

[JohnnyA]

I get sub-20 consistently, here is a breakdown (not warmed up ) :

Cross 1: 1.94
F2L 1: 8.31
LL 1: 8.11

Cross 2: 1.93
F2L 2: 6.68
LL 2: 7.16

Cross 3: 2.03
F2L 3: 7.59
LL 3: 5.86

Cross 4: 2.81
F2L 4: 9.91 (eew)
LL 4: 13.75 (messed OLL and PLL lmao)

Cross 5: 2.41
F2L 5: 10.53
LL 5: 8.05

Looking at my and your times, it's only really F2L that really needs to be improved.

 

[abr71310]

Looking at my and your times, it's only really F2L that really needs to be improved.

What do you use to practice your F2L?? -- Metronome, cube types, practice types, specific things you work on...?

How many F2L algs do you know? Did you really start in December 2008? I feel really slow

On another note, for OH I just got a 51.55 second average of 5, which is another PR in one day; this is ridiculous!!! (Used white DianSheng + cubesmith bright set stickers)

 

[Vulosity]

Looking at my and your times, it's only really F2L that really needs to be improved.

What do you use to practice your F2L?? -- Metronome, cube types, practice types, specific things you work on...?

Really, to improve on your times is to practice and look ahead.

When solving an F2L pair, I make sure that I know the case and have memorized by heart. This lets me solve it without looking at it after knowing which F2L case it is. Then, I look ahead for the next pair.

 

[abr71310]

But what do you focus on when you're solving the current pair... do you turn the cube slightly so you can try and "cheat" (not really "cheat", but get a nicer look at the next pair) towards the next pair, or towards OLL when you get the last one...?

 

[Vulosity]

do you turn the cube slightly so you can try and "cheat" (not really "cheat", but get a nicer look at the next pair) towards the next pair, or towards OLL when you get the last one...?

That's basically it. Anticipating OLL, in my opinion, is not worth it. You would have to follow both the orientation of the corners and the edges. I'd rather just see which OLL case I have after the final F2L pair and execute the alg from there.
Also, you cross times and LL times are alright. It's just your F2L times that are keeping you from sub 25.

 

[spdcbr]

Oh yeah, I have a question, how can you go through your breakdowns and tell what area you need to work on?

 

[abr71310]

Also, you cross times and LL times are alright. It's just your F2L times that are keeping you from sub 25.

Hmm, thanks so much; I guess I have to work on look-ahead since I just took another "study" of myself now, off-camera, and found my F2L insertion times per pair are sub-3. If I had better lookahead, my F2L should theoretically be completed in ~15 seconds (cross included). With a 9 second LL, that's easily sub-25.... Now to figure out how to improve faster... xD

Oh yeah, I have a question, how can you go through your breakdowns and tell what area you need to work on?

Well, I figure that the longer time it takes me to solve a specific section of the method, the more I need to improve in that area before moving on to improving something else, don't you think??