What should I focus on specifically?

freshcuber

freshcuber

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I set a goal to have a sub-30 Ao100 before October 31st. I'm right around 32-35 seconds right now and I need to know what will help me to get the most consistent sub-30 times possible. I know it'll probably be cross and F2L since algs is just drilling and recognition. I know full PLL and I'm using 2LOLL. I did an average of 50 for my cross F2L and LL and this is what I got.

Cross: 4.36
I had a 1.28 cross but it was three moves. My highest was 8.04 which concerned me greatly.

F2L: 15.54
I had a few sub-10 F2L solve and an 8.76 but also had a 26.72. That too is fairly concerning

Last Layer: 10.22
This mostly depends on if I need to use two algs for OLL or just one.

Added up this would make for a 30.12 average. None of this accounts for transitions though and going from cross to F2L and finding my first pair takes me a bit of time whereas OLL recognition is nearly instantaneous since it's usually in need of edge orientation. PLL recognition is decent but by no means fabulous.

I can't post a video I, unfortunately, don't have a webcam. I've got 21 days to get the sub-30 Ao100. What do you guys suggest I work on? And how should I practice it all? Video recommendations are also welcome. Thanks everyone:D
 
probably the easiest area to get faster on (fast) is F2L, maybe cross. Perhaps you could use intuitive VHF2L for orienting edges while doing the last F2L slot, then your LL times might go down, as well?
 
I wasn't aware that there was intuitive VHF2L I though it was just 32 algs to learn but I also used to that about F2L. I'll search for some tutorials. Thanks, does anybody else have suggestions?
 
I was about your times only 5 days ago because I thought slowing down my turning and looking into the next move in F2L would never work but now that I do it my times have gone down to 26 second averages of 12. Eventually your look ahead will increase so you can increase your speed and gradually get down to good times.

Hope this helps
 
Working on F2L is always a good idea but working on cross also helps. For LL just doing a bunch of solves will speed up recognition and execution. There is no point of specifically practicing one area because you would have to trim a few seconds off of your times and this will be most easily achieved if you improve on all areas. Full OLL isn't necessary to get good times so don't focus on that right now.
 
Cross is ok, but you might want to work on practicing the bad cases. Practice the cases where 3 or 4 cross edges are in a bad position, because those are probably the ones you have the most trouble with.
If you aren't opposite color neutral, you might want to try learning that. 100 or 200 solves on your opposite cross color will probably be enough to get you opposite color neutral.

After that I would work on F2L more. Look at algs and make sure you are doing each case fairly efficiently. Also make sure you know how to insert pairs from different angles. For instance if you normally insert your solved pair in the front-right slot, learn to also use the front-left, and the back. And of course, practice your lookahead.
 
I'm not even gonna bother with full OLL until Christmas Break at the extreme earliest and next summer is more likely. Slow turning through F2L I've just started to touch upon but if you dropped that much time in only a few days I'll commit more time to it. Should I turn slowly through cross as well? Or just F2L? Would working on BLD cross help with my transition into my first F2L pair?

I feel like learning opposite color (yellow on bottom for me) would take a lot of time to do and wouldn't help as much as doing that many slow F2L solves. I'll definitely look at that when I'm around 25.

I can insert from other angles but I'm sure I don't do it all the times it's an option. I'll work on optimizing my insertions as well.
 
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Oh my gosh I'm such an airhead. Literally I stalked every cubers channel I could think of for good vids. All of the fiveawesomecubers' channels and then some but I totally forgot about faz. Thanks for giving me that heads up I'll be sure to take a look at them.
 
That three move cross probably shouldn't have taken you 1.28 seconds, that's pretty slow. Are you using a cube that doesn't lock up / pop?

For the F2L times, is that Cross + F2L, or is that not including the cross time? Regardless if you are averaging 20 seconds for all of F2L, there's no reason LL should take you 10 seconds. How is your PLL recognition? Can you sub5 all of you PLLs? Can you sub4 them? Most people recommend sub3 the harder PLLs and sub2 the easier ones. For a 10s LL with a 3LLL, all you really need is a sub4 OLL (VERY achievable with 2LOLL) and a sub5 PLL. This only leaves recognition at one second, but I was including recognition times in those times really.

If you only want to drop to sub30, work on your PLLs. If you can't sub4 OLL as well, you definitely need to work on that. I admit sometimes my OLL recognition is off, but I also know full OLL and just need to get quicker recognition. All of the OCLL's are sub1-able. If you can't sub1.5 all of these OCLLs, you should probably work on those. Recognition for EO and CO should also be almost instant, since they're quite easy cases to learn.
 
freshcuber said:
I feel like learning opposite color (yellow on bottom for me) would take a lot of time to do and wouldn't help as much as doing that many slow F2L solves. I'll definitely look at that when I'm around 25.
Click to expand...
I thought the same too, but when I actually tried it a few times, I realized it is actually REALLY easy to learn. After only a few minutes, my opposite solves were averaging only a few seconds slower than my normal times. It's hardly any different than changing to different stickers, or getting used to a white cube if you normally use black.
Also, I find that the worse your cross sucks, the more benefit you get from being opposite color neutral.
 
I don't know why everybody only does one or two colour crosses it's so easy to be colour neutral. Maybe it's just me because I could do a 26 second solve a white cube and then if someone gave me a green one I would do a 26 second solve on that too. Maybe it's just me and Feliks cause he does it and he is awesome
 
I haven't timed my OLL but I can sub-3 most of my PLLs and there might be one or two sup-4. I'm using a self modded A-V that I just re-lubed today. The F2L times don't include cross. It was all timed separately.

I originally thought color neutrality only saved you one cross move on average and didn't consider that it can give you an easy x-cross until a few weeks ago. When I get good enough in general with a cube I'll learn color neutrality. Probably when I'm averaging 25 I'll just work on color neutrality rather than just opposite cross color.
 
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cubefan4848 said:
I don't know why everybody only does one or two colour crosses it's so easy to be colour neutral. Maybe it's just me because I could do a 26 second solve a white cube and then if someone gave me a green one I would do a 26 second solve on that too. Maybe it's just me and Feliks cause he does it and he is awesome
Click to expand...

Lol, well if you give me a green cross, it will probably take me about 2-3 minutes to solve the cube :p
I can't figure out which colors are supposed to go where :p
 
Yea the thing about color neutrality that would make it the hardest for me is that once you solve with a green or red cross or something similar it totally changes what colors you're looking at for F2L and such
 
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You could make an extended cross...and study some blockbuilding techniques. It may take a while to get used to, but it could help.
 
Who's got a good x-cross video? I saw a few today but didn't watch any since I was looking at other vids. And seriously guys thanks for the help. I half expected to get with a hundred "use the search function" replies
 
Just for kicks, I did a quick average of 5 being "CN". I'm exluding white cross since it's my native color. I should have an advantage with yellow as well as I'm currently working on becoming opposite neutral.

46.59 (orange), 50.96 (red), 48.11 (green), 39.56 (blue), 19.63 (yellow).

Oddly enough, blue got quite easy for me, but on the last pair I got all twisted up, I couldn't solve it for the life of me lol. After having experimented with that, I kind of want to see if I can become full CN in less than a month's time (this will be after Dayton Open though :P)
 
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