Blind Cross

[TheHedghogCuber]

(couldn't find a thread)
So, I hear people consistently talk about solving the cross blindfolded, but how do you practice that?
I can't ever seem to remember the moves when I try to solve it blind. Any solutions?

p.s. I use fridrich method, so I am trying to speed up my F2L.

 

[JianhanC]

What do you average now? For blind cross, plan it to be 8 moves or less, however long it takes. You'll get faster with practise. Experiment with how moving a piece affects others and just eventually close your eyes and execute your cross, that's it, really.

 

[Zane_C]

It can be extremely difficult to solve the cross blindfolded in the beginning, but if you be patient you'll get there.
Perhaps start small, by planning and solving the cross in two steps instead of one. Solving the cross without looking may seem like a tedious task of tracing and memorising moves, but after you've done more solves the tracing process will become very natural, this will also make memorising much easier (since you won't really be memorising individual moves, but rather how it all works as a whole).

I imagine there are many cubers who haven't seriously practiced solving the cross blindfolded, instead they started out by just planning whatever they could during inspection, and got better and better until they could plan the entire thing.

 

[speedpicker]

Ensure you are solving the cross on the bottom. Make sure you have your colour scheme thoroughly understood and memorised. Make sure you understand the principle that you can place cross pieces relative to each other and correct at the end with D/D'/D2.

Try to practice moving cross pieces down to the D face with the correct orientation in as few moves as possible. Just get them down there quick, in whatever order or position. This helps you to develop the ability to see how the pieces interact to change their orientation on the way down, and moves you away from solving them independently. Next do the same, allowing yourself a D turn in between each to queue up the correct slot as you go. This will hopefully help you to really firm up the relative position concept. Now you have a good feel for the elements, start trying to plan cross solutions that have less than 10 moves.

When planning the moves required to place a piece/pieces, take as long as you like to work out the moves you need to execute. As you practice more and more, this time will come down. Do not force it. Just take as long as you like to be sure you have it right. Secondly, make sure you are figuring out the moves you need to execute, not just memorising where the pieces are and working it out in your head as you execute. This is an easy trap to fall into, plan movements, don't just memorise positions.

Identify 1 cross piece. Figure out the moves required to place that piece. Close eyes. Place piece

Once you can do this 10 times in a row within 15 seconds of inspection without an error in position or orientation of the piece move on to:

Identify 2 cross pieces. Figure out the moves required to place those pieces. Close eyes. Place pieces.

Once you can do this 10 times in a row within 15 seconds of inspection without an error in position or orientation of the pieces move on to:

Identify 3 cross pieces. Figure out the moves required to place those pieces. Close eyes. Place pieces.

Once you can do this 10 times in a row within 15 seconds of inspection without an error in position or orientation of the pieces move on to:

Identify 4 cross pieces. Figure out the moves required to place those pieces. Close eyes. Place pieces.

If you are having difficulty with that fourth piece, try to figure out where it will be after you have placed the other three, so in your minds eye you know which layer/orientation it will be in. Confirm you are correct when you open your eyes. It is a small jump from there to planning placing it individually at the end before you open your eyes. Once you have this sense of the movement of the fourth piece whilst the other three move, you can then incorporate its solution in a move efficient way, and you are basically done with eyes closed basic cross solving.

Once fluent at this, if the whole process is taking more than 8 moves, do some cross solves and compare to Jarcs/Prisma solutions to find more efficient ways to solve the pieces. There are some mini-algs on Macky's site which some people find useful, but they are pretty intuitive. Don't forget you can use wide turns, sometimes they make the solution much more logical in your mind, even if the overall movecount remains the same. If they don't work for you disregard them until speed becomes your thing.

Once you have done all this, you can move on to planning x-cross (to practice: basically the same thing but with 6 pieces in play [practice 4 cross + corner, then 4 cross + corner and edge], easier to find setups if you are colour neutral, there are certain groups of pieces that lend themselves to this, if you don't spot one, forget it, but if they are there you should take advantage. Chris Hardwick has some good stuff on his site, but basically try to make a 2x2x2 block then place the other two pieces.) Whether you can see one or not, during cross you should have your eyes on the next pair you are going to do after the cross completes, so you can track them around and have no pauses prior to insertion. Trying to practice x-cross (by extending the steps above to six pieces) makes you very good at tracking these pieces, to the point that you know where the first pair will be at the end of the cross during inspection. Then you are into uber (Fazesque) lookahead territory and can spot another pair during execution, and place the easiest first knowing where both pairs will be, and then be one more pair ahead. If you also train yourself to one look two pairs during f2l by a similar inspect/close eyes/execute method, you can two or three look the entire cross+f2l. This is world class awesome.

 

[TheHedghogCuber]

Thanks spedpicker, but I've been cubing for about 1 year now. I average around 18-22 seconds(3x3) and I would like to improve my cross/F2L.
Right now with Fridrich I can get a 14 second F2L. I can(sort of) solve the cross blind, but only on the very best cases. I've always just planned a couple of cross pieces in inspection, then go with the flow as I'm solving. I know all PLL's but two G's, and no OLL's. I know 'll get better if I just practice, so I'll try speedpicker's method. I just have a hard time remembering where the pieces are. I CAN"T solve 3x3 BLD (if that helps). thanks a lot guys!

 

[Goosly]

You don't need to be able to do 3x3 BLD for this exercise. It's a totally different method.

 

[speedpicker]

As with most things, if you break up cross learning into individual achievable chunks and don't move on until you master the previous step, you will accomplish more, quicker. If you can perfectly plan two pieces in 15 seconds, then you can probably plan 3 with no time limit. Concsiously and mindfully practice that until its 3 in 15 seconds, and that feels pretty easy. Then you will find that you can do four with no time limit (I mean take 60-90 seconds, maybe longer if you want....). Practice that, neurons get connected together, pattern recognition is sharpened, and you steadily improve.

Most if not all rapid cubing improvement is basically getting a very specific and clear idea of exactly what you can/can't do, and then reducing the amount of can't systematically and incrementally. The main reason people don't improve is not because they don't know what to do to improve, but that they just don't do it. There are two reasons for this usually.

Either 1) its boring. Lets face it, most things you can do with a cube are not as fun as doing an average of 12 as fast as you can. This wins out over real mindful practice, and as a result time is spent practicing what you can do and not what you can't.

2) People are unrealistic about their can/can't boundary. Instead of ensuring they have really mastered 3 pieces (10 times without an error in sub 15 inspection), they get lucky twice and go "I've got that now, whats the next thing", and get out of their depth working on X-Cross technique when they can't plan 3 pieces efficiently and accurately. Imagine the weightlifter who went "I can finally bench 40 kg, no problem. Now lets try 100." No dude, try 45, maybe 50. Incrementally is the way forward for real, tangible gains.

I know what you mean about going with the flow when solving, but that way you are going to have a real hard time reducing your cross to F2L transition, which is one of the hardest things to reduce if you get deeply ingrained bad habits. I guarantee if you spend just a few short hours practicing as I have outlined, your cross ability, and thus F2L potential will increase massively. Even if it is a bit tedious. One step at a time wins the race.

 

[TheHedghogCuber]

It's only been merely hours and I have got my cross now in 3-7 seconds when I memorize it during inspection. Thank you all for the support and encouraging words(speedpicker)!!!
I'm on my way to becoming a better speedsolver.

 

[uvafan]

As with most things, if you break up cross learning into individual achievable chunks and don't move on until you master the previous step, you will accomplish more, quicker. If you can perfectly plan two pieces in 15 seconds, then you can probably plan 3 with no time limit. Concsiously and mindfully practice that until its 3 in 15 seconds, and that feels pretty easy. Then you will find that you can do four with no time limit (I mean take 60-90 seconds, maybe longer if you want....). Practice that, neurons get connected together, pattern recognition is sharpened, and you steadily improve.

Most if not all rapid cubing improvement is basically getting a very specific and clear idea of exactly what you can/can't do, and then reducing the amount of can't systematically and incrementally. The main reason people don't improve is not because they don't know what to do to improve, but that they just don't do it. There are two reasons for this usually.

Either 1) its boring. Lets face it, most things you can do with a cube are not as fun as doing an average of 12 as fast as you can. This wins out over real mindful practice, and as a result time is spent practicing what you can do and not what you can't.

2) People are unrealistic about their can/can't boundary. Instead of ensuring they have really mastered 3 pieces (10 times without an error in sub 15 inspection), they get lucky twice and go "I've got that now, whats the next thing", and get out of their depth working on X-Cross technique when they can't plan 3 pieces efficiently and accurately. Imagine the weightlifter who went "I can finally bench 40 kg, no problem. Now lets try 100." No dude, try 45, maybe 50. Incrementally is the way forward for real, tangible gains.

I know what you mean about going with the flow when solving, but that way you are going to have a real hard time reducing your cross to F2L transition, which is one of the hardest things to reduce if you get deeply ingrained bad habits. I guarantee if you spend just a few short hours practicing as I have outlined, your cross ability, and thus F2L potential will increase massively. Even if it is a bit tedious. One step at a time wins the race.

The part that I bolded is very well said. In the book "The Art of Remembering Everything," Josh Foer describes how the people who are the best at a task practice things that they can't do yet, while amateurs practice things that that they can do. I believe that this can be applied to cubing very well.