Outline of Your Speedcubing Method, Tricks, and Techniques

lol, yup, technically he did respond to the topic that I posed. So it was sort of like a sub-topic response. :)

If you use Cross, F2L, ELL, CLL, please respond. I would love to see your techniques and tricks. Also everyone who supposedly uses Roux and Petrus: where are you? It will be cool if we can have everyone just post so we can see how we all solve.

EDIT: I just realized: props to Lucas for posting an outline of a non-Fridrich method! Someone else posted a non-Fridrich method as well but I forgot his username and am too lazy to check...
 
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....can't answer.... must stay on topic..... must not hijack thread....

(I found it quoted that way, so I left it that way.... I'm not sure if it's a misquote, or intentional.)
 
lol, feel free to hijack the thread! I don't mind but I first want someone to post their outline and techniques for a cool method like Roux.


EDIT: I think whoever made that quote just did not know how to spell. Change it or I'll send the spelling police at you!
 
Speedcubing.com report:
"In a tragic turn of events, a speedcubing forum went off topic. Thread #3666, en route from Fridrich to Roux (while passing over MGLS), with a purpose of comparing method outlines, was lost in a huge storm of side conversation precipitated by the critical Hurrycane Lucas. With the pilot absent, several members of the forum proceeded to hijack the conversation. The pilot, Daniel Chan, has acknowledged his little influence, and agreed to let the hijackers to continue. Unfortunately, the conclusion of his unfortunate hijacking is currently uncertain."
 
I think I'm worse than anybody else about hijacking threads. I'm especially bad about hijacking the competition threads. I've recently vowed to try to be better about not hijacking threads in the future.

So, in the spirit of that, here's my method - very boring:
Cross
Intuitive F2L
OLL
PLL

Pure Fridrich, I'm afraid - really no extras. And despite knowing all the OLLs my typical average is still over 30, although my best average of 10 is 28.61 and my best nonlucky single is 22.59.

I'm just really slow with fingertricks and such. My best ever prepared solve (using typical moves for the solve, not an optimized solve - about 60 turns) is now 16.52 seconds, and that was with about 100 tries. Pathetic. It seems like I'm really the wrong kind of person to be using Fridrich.
 
dChan said:
shelley said:
One of my friends learned to cube, but never wanted to learn any new algorithms or techniques beyond the beginner method. I don't know about his average (any cuber who cares enough to take an average of 12 times probably cares enough to try learning PLLs), but he gets times in the 30-40 second range regularly. He even holds cross on top during his F2L.
Click to expand...

That's interesting, shelley. I havn't tried an average with the beginner's method in a while but I rememer that I used to get around 40 second averages(this was when I already was averaging in the upper 20s). I wonder what the absolute limit is with that method. Maybe someone here uses it and knows, lol.
Click to expand...

I agree, he's an interesting case. He's been cubing almost as long as I have (I've got maybe half a year's experience on him) but after all this time he still insists on using the beginner method. Because he holds cross on top during F2L, he's developed a neat way to flick the D layer really fast with his ring/pinky fingers. It's like upside-down fingertricks.

His detailed method is this:
1. Cross
2. First layer corners
3. Second layer edges
4. (flip cube over) Orient LL edges using F R U R' U' F' or F U R U' R' F'
5. Permute corners using R U' L' U R' U' L
6. Orient corners using Sune
7. Permute edges using Allan

Because he permutes corners before he orients them, he can use R U' L' U R' U' L which is shorter than other corner permutation algs taught with beginner methods. When I teach beginners I teach them to orient everything first and then permute, because that transitions more easily into Fridrich PLLs and other more advanced methods. But since he's not interested in advanced methods, this works for him.

As for myself, my method's quite boring. I use straight Fridrich: cross, F2L, OLL, PLL. All my weird tricks and techniques are mostly in the BLD department.
 
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@shelley: I think you made a mistake on step 2 shelley. It should be First-layer corners right?

This has gotten me so interested in the beginner's method again I think I am going to try it out today in between practice.

No special techniques for speedsolving though?

@Lucas: All I can say is "ROFL." Do we have any information on the survivors?
 
1, Basic cross combined with dual solving, xcross and if there are blocks to start from I use 2x2x2 or Hise as start for an xcross, xxcross or even xxxcross. In some cases where there is an easy 2x2x2 but one of the F2L edges becomes fliped I still use it for an xcross and solve the last edge and orient LL cross in one alg after F2L is done (2 cases, 1 or 3 LL edges fliped).

2, F2L using all kinds of emty slot tricks and a lot of RdR type of moves (to avoid RUF)

3, VH-F2L and a lot of ZBF2L (see also last part of 1)

4, COLL + a lot of ZBLL but also "half ZB" where I force a U or H-PLL (avoiding Z-PLL). In 1:27 I get OLL from VH/ZBF2L and then I end the solve here using PLL.

5, If I'm not done here I do mostly U-PLL, else Z or H-PLL.

The times for the parts differs a lot from solve to solve because of the many variations I use. My better averages are around 28 seconds, the better singles (mosty when I get ZBF2L/ZBLL solves) are around 20 seconds.

I'm pretty slow in recognition and also when I'm trying to recall the alg to use, that because I know so many cases, it takes time to sort it out from the rest in the mind. I guess about 5 seconds on average is used to do nothing but looking at the cube and thinking :p

Well, a couple of more years of practising and that will probably not be a problem anymore :)
 
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dChan said:
Harris, is there any site that shows how Nakajima solves exactly? E.g. does he use tons of multi-slotting and really advanced F2L techniques? I am very interested in learning about his style.
Click to expand...

He doesn't MS that's for sure. I guess he might use like empty slots etc, just like the ones on Macky's site. May be COLL, but that's pretty much it. Just, turn faster xD
 
Cross- 2-3 Sec
Intuitive F2l-10-13 Sec
OLL-1-6 Sec (yea i suck at OLL don't know many)
PLL-2-4 (Pretty much my LL sucks :P)
Avg ~26
 
cross: 2-4 (on left)
f2l: 10-14 (still on left)
OLLe: 2-3
OLLc: 2-3
PLL: 3-8(8 is when i dont know the perm, and i have do double perm it)
theoretical average: 19-32
actual average: about 26-27

yeah. by the way my f2l is entirely self-taught. i tried learning by algs but it was too boring, so i designed solutions to all the cases myself, and a few of them are better that those on some websites.
 
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I use a lot of different methods, but I suppose I'll just list what I can.

1) *orient edges/start my cross or block (I restrict F and B quarter turns, so that my whole F2L is RUL[D])
2) finish cross or block, and get a good idea for my first pair (I usually attempt to spot and follow an edge that will end up in the U layer after all of my cross is done, and spot the corner after)
3) finish F2L minus a final slot (Because my edges are all oriented, I multislot and use mixed pairs)
4) **use final slot to influence corner orientation (try for T, L, U, or skip)
5) ***COLL, or, if I recognize it, ZBLL (I also know the PLLs except the G perms, which I should learn, and a lot of CLL/ZBLL cases that I use in various situations.)
6) EPLL (With my COLL, I generally aim to fix at least one edge, so that I get 3 cycles, or the H perm. I hate the Z.)

* If the cross is readily apparent, if the orientation case sucks, or if I can see a perfect block start, I just go with that and orient edges using my first three pairs.
** Sometimes, I finish the final pair to get a Heise finish. Those are great.
*** I get a lot of fake ZB cases these days (1 setup turn to make a COLL case into a Y perm, that sort of thing) I also manage a bunch of extra Heise style finishes this way with corner commutators.

This is all assuming I'm going to do layer by layer. I see a fair number of Roux starts that I go with, too. I like the method a lot. Just need more work with it. I really should get my CF solutions up to par...

For Roux solves, I look for a good way to make my first block during inspection. I mix blocks a lot, and very rarely finish one entirely before starting the other. I like to use my pairs to orient edges and corners early if I can, so that I have less to do later. With my final pair, I generally fix the center orientation, so that during my COLL or CLL case (I use COLL to preserve good edge orientation cases, or CLL to get a second chance with ones I don't like) I can recognize edge orientation and be prepared.

When I get to the corners step, I can go many ways. Often, I'll have F2L done, and finish with a CLL/OLL case and go from there. Sometimes, I'll notice a nice way to make a block, and finish with Heise. Generally, I use COLL to keep my edges the same and finish corners.

For edges, if I have DB or DF done early, I know the cases to orient the edges, and I know a fair number of L5E algorithms. Special cases are great. If I have a normal orientation, I keep an eye on UR and UL while I'm flipping, and try to finish my alg with those as near to solved as possible.

Once those are in place, it's just an M slice edges alg finish.

Rarely do I start a solve and not switch methods at least once during it.
 
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I do a pretty standard Fridrich style solve, but I use a full compound LL (compound OLL and compound PLL) inspired by Mr. Garron's page on compound OLL. I also try to do an extended cross when I can.
 
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