jiggy
Veteran
You know, everyone says "slow down, look ahead" but this is an absolute myth. Real speedcubers electrify their cubes so that if they pause for even a second during their solve they get 50,000V pumping thorough their system!! 
I keep on pausing...Any tips?
- Thread starter RubiksDude
- Start date
Dene
Premium Member
Seriously, do you guys really think that slowing down and looking ahead is going to help him? His problem is not that he isn't looking ahead, the problem is that he can't see the piece at all. Looking ahead isn't going to help, it's going to make things worse. Stop trying to act like experts by reciting your favourite top cuber, and start thinking for yourself for once.
negative_earth
Regular
well, I AM thinking for myself. even though i keep on pausing too, but going slow gives me time to think what should i do next and i reduced the pause time
i noticed feliks paused a bit between F2L, also yu nakajima
but his dexterity is high
while i'm not as fast as they are (yet
)and if he really can't see the piece at all, going slow is an option
it works for me
so why not trying to go slow?
deadalnix
Veteran
Yeah. But he have to slow down to be able to look ahead. Slowing down is the condition to begin to train lokk ahead.
It's the same for preinspection : if you limit yourself to 15s, you'll never get the full cross, so never train yourself to preinspect the full cross, and never get it under 15s. If you train to preinspect full cross without time limit, you'll get under 15s for full cross quite quickly.
I see often people saying « training, training, training ! ». That is necessairy but that is also unsuffiscient. If you train yourself the wrong way, you'll never make any significant progress.
The first time people explain me the look ahead concept, I drop from 30s to 22-23 in one afternoon.
D
Deleted member 2864
Guest
I'm kind of with Dene on this one. Looking ahead never helped me until I was borderline sub 20.
vcuber13
Veteran
Are we the only people that see that looking ahead only works if your like sub-45? he averages over 90 sec and he just need to practice to get used to cases and recognition. My advice is like Dene's to just practice and try to be aware of where your pieces might be. Like if your looking for red-white-blue corner and its in FR and you know you've already done the BL then you know your corner is either FL FR DR or U layer. i know this helps me if i don't look ahead right.
chris410
Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2009
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- 394
I am still working on finding the pieces, I believe this comes with practice. I do not know of a technique other than practice to learn how to locate the pieces faster. If there is, please post up because this is an area that I am working to improve so any tips would be useful.
One tip that I gathered from watching Badmephisto's and Erik's videos was learning how to solve from different angles in order to reduce rotations (no speed involved while learning this, simply practicing and understanding is required prior to working on any type of speed in this area *for me that is*). This gave me a better understanding on how to place F2L pairs and helped drop my average a bit because I learned how to position and reduce unnecessary moves, of course efficiency is still an area where I need to improve as well, something that pratice/experience will hopefully yield.
As a fellow beginner, I found that understanding F2L was needed before learning how to look-ahead, if you cannot place pieces "blind" look-ahead will not help. As I gained understanding and learned how to position and place pieces, I was able to start looking-ahead because the "current" pair could be placed without me having to focus on it at all which allowed me to look for the next pair. However, finding the pieces is still a weakness and I believe an area that will improve as I practice and get used to quickly scanning the cube. So, as someone who is only slightly faster than the person asking the question, gain understanding with F2L before working on look-ahead because you will end up pausing if you cannot place the pieces without looking. Once you improve piece placement, slowly start to work on look-ahead and you will notice a more consistent tempo and faster times. Again, these are all things I am currently working on as well so read what the experts have to say!
endless_akatsuki
Veteran
Hmmm....
Get a Haiyan Cube.
Get a Haiyan Cube.
jms_gears1
Premium Member
Id say you are wrong, just in the sense that you put a time max on when you should learn lookahead. From what the OP said it looks like you guys are right. But some people need to practice look ahead >40 and it would just be because their TPS sucks horribly.
Hiero
Regular
I agree with some of the other people that say you haven't practiced enough. I learned Fridrich this October. From my experience I was at 1:03-1:10 with beginner method when I started and I practed F2L for about 1-2 hours a day for 4-5 weeks. I started equaling my beginner times after 4 weeks and beating them after 5. It took about 7-8 weeks of practice 1-2 hours each day to get to 50-55 sec averages.
I was using bad technique and no look ahead and averaging about 50 seconds. My tps was also very horrible. I don't think you need to work on anything but solving. Don't worry so much about technique or anything advanced right now. Solve the cube for a few weeks without the stopwatch, and occasionally time yourself if you like. Figure out how you are going to deal with each case first and work on getting them down second nature. Only when your mind is not so busing trying to remember the rules for breaking up and pairing up pieces will you have time to recognize other pairs faster.
Once I hit about 45 seconds I took a look and realized I wasn't breaking up and pairing up pieces very efficiently and started changing it to make sure I did it the least number of moves. At about 45 seconds I also started trying to insert pieces from different angles and also using my left forefinger. I used to use my right thumb and didn't realize how much slower it was.
This brought me down to 42-43 seconds. Then I just did some slow solves and minimizing pause times. I also started realizing quickly what colors were where no matter how I was holding the cube. For example, if green is in front and orange on right, that the red/blue pair needs to be inserted to the back left. Getting this down fast helps a lot when you are at this speed. This has brought me down to about 35-36 seconds. I still have some pieces that I break up with horrible technique. There are some things that are not very efficient intuitively and I will have to learn some algorithms and watch some f2l walkthroughs.
Anyway,sorry for the long story, but maybe it will help you figure out where you are and what you need to work on. Even at 35 seconds my tps sucks horribly and, as I said, I am breaking up and inserting some pairs in a really ineffective manner. Also I do a lot of cube rotations, sometimes 5 or 6 during f2l alone.
You really don't need to do any special training until you hit 45 seconds. Then you might want to evaluate your f2l and see what you need to work on.
I was using bad technique and no look ahead and averaging about 50 seconds. My tps was also very horrible. I don't think you need to work on anything but solving. Don't worry so much about technique or anything advanced right now. Solve the cube for a few weeks without the stopwatch, and occasionally time yourself if you like. Figure out how you are going to deal with each case first and work on getting them down second nature. Only when your mind is not so busing trying to remember the rules for breaking up and pairing up pieces will you have time to recognize other pairs faster.
Once I hit about 45 seconds I took a look and realized I wasn't breaking up and pairing up pieces very efficiently and started changing it to make sure I did it the least number of moves. At about 45 seconds I also started trying to insert pieces from different angles and also using my left forefinger. I used to use my right thumb and didn't realize how much slower it was.
This brought me down to 42-43 seconds. Then I just did some slow solves and minimizing pause times. I also started realizing quickly what colors were where no matter how I was holding the cube. For example, if green is in front and orange on right, that the red/blue pair needs to be inserted to the back left. Getting this down fast helps a lot when you are at this speed. This has brought me down to about 35-36 seconds. I still have some pieces that I break up with horrible technique. There are some things that are not very efficient intuitively and I will have to learn some algorithms and watch some f2l walkthroughs.
Anyway,sorry for the long story, but maybe it will help you figure out where you are and what you need to work on. Even at 35 seconds my tps sucks horribly and, as I said, I am breaking up and inserting some pairs in a really ineffective manner. Also I do a lot of cube rotations, sometimes 5 or 6 during f2l alone.
You really don't need to do any special training until you hit 45 seconds. Then you might want to evaluate your f2l and see what you need to work on.
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Dene
Premium Member
Well, I would say roughly this:
Until sub40, the only thing that will really help you is getting used to seeing the pieces faster. This does not mean looking ahead. It means you finish the moves you are currently doing, and then afterwards you can quickly scan the cube and see what pieces you next want immediately.
Sub40-sub20 is simply turning faster.
Sub20-sub15 can simply be learning new tricks, more algorithms, and getting more efficient at what you are doing (lowering move count).
I get sub15 and I still have atrocious lookahead. It is the thing that I am finally working on.
Until sub40, the only thing that will really help you is getting used to seeing the pieces faster. This does not mean looking ahead. It means you finish the moves you are currently doing, and then afterwards you can quickly scan the cube and see what pieces you next want immediately.
Sub40-sub20 is simply turning faster.
Sub20-sub15 can simply be learning new tricks, more algorithms, and getting more efficient at what you are doing (lowering move count).
I get sub15 and I still have atrocious lookahead. It is the thing that I am finally working on.
Cride5
Premium Member
Certainly not the only one! All too often I see folks jumping on the "go slow, look ahead" bandwagon when someone complains not making progress, without any consideration of their specific situation.
When a cuber is in the 90 second territory, there's no way they will be able to solve the current pair while looking for the next. It requires an ability to solve the current pair without thinking, using just muscle memory. Only once this is possible can attention be focused on searching for the next pair. There is no way a 90sec cuber can do this. Can folks please think about what lookahead actually involves, before using it as a standard response to someone looking for help.
EDIT: To the OP, I would try to turn faster so that solving each pair becomes engrained into your muscle memory. After solving each slot there will be a pause, but concentrate on reducing that pause - not by looking ahead - but by improving your ability to quickly scan around the cube. Basically what Dene said
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CharlieCooper
Premium Member
It seems obvious to me, quit hitting the "pause" button by accident and tape down the "play" one.
Sorry 
jms_gears1
Premium Member
It seems obvious to me, quit hitting the "pause" button by accident and tape down the "play" one.
Sorry
lol win.
I think someone should make a 'guide' that would tell people stuff like this, About roughly what time they should practice what.
EDIT: i see Dene kinda has, i just meant a stickiyable post.
CubesOfTheWorld
Veteran
i usually just practice. i never slow down. it works for me
jackdexter75
Veteran
Think about what you are doing when you "hide" pieces. It helps a lot to just simply understand why the alg puts certain pieces together. Most of the comments on here might have confused the original thread person... ( forgot name) because everyone just jumped in one their own arguments. I just think he needs more practice and "alone time" with the cube. It took me forever to get sub90 but after I did I started understanding what was happening, and understanding why I was getting faster and what I was doing during solves.
Innocence
Veteran
It seems obvious to me, quit hitting the "pause" button by accident and tape down the "play" one.
Sorry
I was seriously considering saying this. I think you should get out of my thoughts.
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