[Help Thread] 3x3 Cross Help and Discussion

[TinaIsAwesome]

Well if it's your cross that's troubling you then I would focus on just that during inspection. Find your four cross pieces and then start your solve. You can worry about your F2L pieces later when you're comfortable with your cross. It takes time to get better at forming your cross though meaning it takes a lot of practice but the general consensus is that it can always be done in 8 moves or less, ideally 6. Most people would recommend watching badmephisto on YouTube for cross/F2L help.

 

[manstrong]

Don't limit your inspection to 15 seconds. Instead, inspect your cube until you are sure you can build a cross in an efficient way.

 

[xlmmaarten]

Don't limit your inspection to 15 seconds. Instead, inspect your cube until you are sure you can build a cross in an efficient way.

Thats my problem, I cant see how you can solve the cross efficient.

Well if it's your cross that's troubling you then I would focus on just that during inspection. Find your four cross pieces and then start your solve. You can worry about your F2L pieces later when you're comfortable with your cross. It takes time to get better at forming your cross though meaning it takes a lot of practice but the general consensus is that it can always be done in 8 moves or less, ideally 6. Most people would recommend watching badmephisto on YouTube for cross/F2L help.

I watched his videos, but still it takes me between 4-7 seconds to do the cross

 

[TinaIsAwesome]

Thats my problem, I cant see how you can solve the cross efficient. I watched his videos, but still it takes me between 4-7 seconds to do the cross

All you need to do is practice. Over time your cross will become intuitive and you will be able to do it without looking. Which is actually something you could try to do. Some people say doing the cross blindfolded helps. I know you say your cross is inefficient but efficiency also comes with time. Usually when I make my cross I find the pieces and try to see how many pieces I can solve in as little moves possible. Then I'm usually left with one piece and I just insert that one while I'm looking for my first F2L pair.

 

[jeff081692]

http://www.cubesolv.es/ look at how fast people solve their cross and you will get some ideas on what efficient actually looks like. Then with practice you will see those patterns come up again and again.

 

[Majikam]

Advanced Cross Help?

Hello, I am new to this forum but I really love cubing. I have always wanted to solve a cube at least under 20 seconds but I am struggling. I just picked the cube yesterday and spent all day learning to solve the cube off by heart the begginers way. I was able to complete it in one day and know the basic way of solving...But of course with my best result at the time of 2:15, I felt I wanted to get into the seconds so I started with learning the advanced cross (at the bottom) I have looked everywhere for tutorials on this but as I try to attempt it I give up because I simply dont get how people can do it so quickly. I find it really confusing. Someone please help me.

 

[Petro Leum]

step 1: force yourself to hold the cross at the bottom

step 2: try to plan it out in the fewest moves you can achieve

step 3: practise

step 4: ???

step 5: profit

 

[TinaIsAwesome]

Hello, I am new to this forum but I really love cubing. I have always wanted to solve a cube at least under 20 seconds but I am struggling. I just picked the cube yesterday and spent all day learning to solve the cube off by heart the begginers way. I was able to complete it in one day and know the basic way of solving...But of course with my best result at the time of 2:15, I felt I wanted to get into the seconds so I started with learning the advanced cross (at the bottom) I have looked everywhere for tutorials on this but as I try to attempt it I give up because I simply dont get how people can do it so quickly. I find it really confusing. Someone please help me.

This is just me but I think that it's a bit early for you to start learning advanced cross and it probably wouldn't visibly help your times at this point. By all means though, you can go ahead and learn advanced cross on bottom if you want because the sooner you start doing cross on bottom the easier it is to learn. However, I suggest getting familiar with the beginner method before trying to learn something more advanced. Usually I recommend people wait until they can solve the cube in about a 1:00 to 1:15 before learning a more advanced/intermediate method but it depends on the person. I think at this point you just need to practice. You will improve naturally over time, especially at your speed. I mean, you just started yesterday. It takes many months of practice for people to become sub-20. You just need to practice and if you haven't already, also start looking into other methods.

 

[10461394944000]

Hello, I am new to this forum but I really love cubing. I have always wanted to solve a cube at least under 20 seconds but I am struggling. I just picked the cube yesterday and spent all day learning to solve the cube off by heart the begginers way. I was able to complete it in one day and know the basic way of solving...But of course with my best result at the time of 2:15, I felt I wanted to get into the seconds so I started with learning the advanced cross (at the bottom) I have looked everywhere for tutorials on this but as I try to attempt it I give up because I simply dont get how people can do it so quickly. I find it really confusing. Someone please help me.

dont bother learning anything new until you average around 1:00

 

[tikhung01]

Need some helps with my cross building

Recently, I learned some tips to do the cross on the bottom from badmephisto, and basically what I understood is that I have memorize the color scheme of the cross and have to come up with the best solution each solve.
So I tried, it does improve my time a little, but whenever I do a solve it just feels too hard to think of optimized moves.
Any tips?

 

[Schmidt]

Use all the time that you want to find a solution that is 8 moves or less. You could use the same scramble more than once to find the best cross. You could use JACS or cstimer to find the optimal solution a few times until you understand the fundamentals. Look through the "Easy.... scramble" thread for inspiration.

EDIT:
White up, green front

scramble: U' L' B F2 D' L2 D B' D F L2 D2 U' F' D' R' B' R2 L2 D' B' L' D L F'

z2 y (yellow up, orange front)
D' R' D F' R' F'

 

[mark49152]

Recently, I learned some tips to do the cross on the bottom from badmephisto, and basically what I understood is that I have memorize the color scheme of the cross and have to come up with the best solution each solve.
So I tried, it does improve my time a little, but whenever I do a solve it just feels too hard to think of optimized moves.
Any tips?

The three things that helped me most with cross:-
1. Memorize the colour scheme by having a front, left, right and back colour, rather than trying to remember "red is to the right of blue" etc. For me, green is front, orange is right, etc., even when rotated. (Assumes you're not CN of course.)
2. Blind practice. Take as long as you want to inspect, then try to solve the whole cross with eyes shut.
3. Study example solves, and optimal solutions from JARCS, to learn how to get your cross move-efficient.

 

[guysensei1]

Use all the time that you want to find a solution that is 8 moves or less. You could use the same scramble more than once to find the best cross. You could use JARCS or cstimer to find the optimal solution a few times until you understand the fundamentals. Look through the "Easy.... scramble" thread for inspiration.

sadly, JARCS isn't working...

 

[Myachii]

Can someone help me out a bit here?
I average ~17-18s using CFOP, and know full PLL.
The only problem I have is that I solve my Cross on top.

Has anybody got a help guide or cheat sheet to assist me in solving the cross on the bottom?
I can do it, but I'm fairly move-inefficient.
I know this is a horrible habit and I can't break free from it unfortunately.
After solving for nearly 2 years, I should probably know better than this.

 

[Hypocrism]

Never stop thinking about your cross, I'm always finding new motifs even though I normally have an easy sub-7 move on dual colour neutral. Here is one I got in a solve today:

L2 D F2 R2 F2 R2 D2 B2 R2 U L2 R' F' L R' U B2 F' U B U2
(desired cross colour on U)

Solution:
z2y
D2 L D' F L


If I wasn't on form and thinking about it, I would have gone on autopilot and done this:
z2y
L B L' U2 L u' R

So today I learnt this motif where you leave a cross piece until later to make it more efficient. Never thought about it before, and just today I've seen it several times since.

 

[Animorpher13]

3x3 Cross stage Help

I have been having lots of trouble lately with the Cross stage on 3x3 (I use CFOP P.S.). I am almost full PLL and I am right at the 20 second mark. I feel like i could be below sub-20 if I do better crosses, as that is my weakest stage by far. Is there a cross-training program (like there are PLL and OLL trainers) or any particular videos that helped you see new ways to do the cross? I've tried practicing just cross but I just can't see efficient ways to do it.

 

[obelisk477]

http://net13.net/Cube/Cross/

select '0' table columns and however difficult you want the cross to be (in terms of moves), and practice it over and over with the cross on D. plan it out and do it with your eyes closed. Then increase the difficulty of the cross, and repeat

 

[jamessorsona]

practice practice practice imagine solving the cross on d during inspection time so you just DO it and don't have to worry if you messed up and look for the first pair also during inspection. You can also do extended cross if you wish. That's how I got sub-20's.

 

[ChaozCubing]

How do I plan out the entire cross during inspection??

I can only plan about half the cross in inspection. 3/4 if I'm lucky. Are there any good tutorials that can help me? I can only do the cross on yellow or white. Thank you in advanced!

 

[CubeWizard23]

Almost Sub 20 Windering how to Solve Cross in <2 Seconds?

The Title Says all, it takes me on average 4-5 seconds and thats with white on top. =( Any tips will be appreciated thanks! :tu