[Help Thread] 3x3 Cross Help and Discussion

Try practicing the cross blind and take your time. Of course, make sure you are using the relative cross instead of trying to solve your cross entirely via inspection.

Also, make a list of your moves, the cross should only take you 8 moves 99% of the time so that will point out where your move efficiency is.

Badmephisto has some cross tips on his youtube channel so that's a good one to watch along with thewestonian. There's no magical solution other than working on efficiency and perhaps practicing the cross blind.

Good luck!
 
chris410 said:
There's no magical solution other than working on efficiency and perhaps practicing the cross blind.
Click to expand...

Well, he could switch methods ;)
But seriously, what everyone said is pretty much correct- taking unlimited inspection time, and gradually working yourself down to 15 seconds is a good approach. Do the same with solving the cross blind- take as long as you need, then close your eyes and solve it. Your inspection will be down to 15 seconds soon, and once it is (as in, once you can plan your entire cross in 15 seconds), you can just practice your cross by doing solves.
 
I'm having the EXACT same problem lol....it helps to watch babmephsto's video and fazrulz's video...and like someone said before....practice blindfolded and do about 100+ SOLVES A DAY.... it soulnd hard and unusual...but it helps loads!! :) good luck
 
Cross help

Hi. I usually average 30 seconds, But 10-12 of that is cross solving. How do I improve this? It is basically downfall of my whole solve! Please give me help!
 
I never got these people. Cross is like F2L but easier.


...what ianini said, just work out the optimum way to do things like you (should) do in F2L.
 
If you're still having trouble, maybe you should post an example solve of how you would solve the cross- that'd make it easier to find where the problem lies.
Then again, the video will probably help you a lot.
 
In some beginner's methods, there is a daisy step in which all cross pieces go around the opposite centre.
If this is what you do, instead match them with the white centre in relative location.
What this means is that if you're solving white cross with green in front and white on the bottom, to the right of the green centre is red, and therefore the white-red cross piece goes to the right of the white-green cross piece.
Make sense?

Additionally, a lot of practise and some experimentation helps considerably, I've found. Personally, I strive for optimal yet speedy crosses.

One quick note: plan out the whole cross during inspection. If you can't do this, try planning one edge and work your way up to all four edges.

--Ranzha
 
Cross Help Videos

Any good and easy to understand cross videos out there? I know how to solve the cross but am really slow at it and i have learned the beginner way (white edges around yellow center then doing a 180) so because im used to that its really hard to do it the better way so is there any good videos out there that will help me out? I average like 1:10 using 2 look oll + pll and full f2l. The cross is a major problem for me and takes me a long time.

Cross time (beginner) 11 seconds
Cross time (proper advanced way) 16 seconds (actually was a pretty good time for me)
 
Sounds like you may be better off with some plain old practice for now.

There are some cross videos out there but they typically cover advanced techniques. perhaps a bit too much for now. But if you want to: just do a yt search for cross techniques.

Just try to be aware of your color scheme:
Opposite colors (typically green- blue and orange -red)
Adjecent colors (typically, when building the cross on D the "color wheel" is green-orange-blue-red)

Knowing these relative positions by heart enables you to build the cross without having to align the cross edges with F R B L centers in between.

My daughter has just switched from the 180° or "daisy" method to a direct cross and what she does is:
- place first edge
- place opposite edge
- then position U layer correctly
- look for the 3rd edge and where it needs to go
- place 3rd
- place 4rd in remaining slot
- position U correctly again
- and continue with corners

I see this as an intermediate step to building the relative cross.
The 3rd step shows very clearly where 3rd and 4th edge need to go and in time ( I hope) the sense fro the relative cross will develop.
 
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Hmm, i have to think the most when doing the cross, even more then F2L, when people say it should take 2 seconds i find that impossible! I need more mental practise i think, i know how to solve every case just cant process it fast enough. In inspection i can normally pick out 2 peices.

This video is good in my opinion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJPVziqccIA
 
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If you can only plan four pieces during inspection, you need more practice. Practice without a time limit first, that is really important. Once you can get the whole cross planned, start doing it blindfolded. You eventually want to be able to make this automatic. I can solve the cross sub3 90% of the time if it's on top, but not on bottom (I really need to work on that), but ultimately you need to be able to solve the cross blind without thinking about it, so you can start watching for F2L pairs.

Something I just started doing earlier today is influencing the first pair during the cross (and it usually only takes one or two extra moves), which makes for a fast and seamless cross to first pair transition. Once you start executing that first pair you need to be seeing that 2nd pair so by the time you are done with the first you know how to execute the second, and so on.
 
Isn't Justin Adsuara 13?

Anyway, if you want to work on cross, make sure to plan it out every time. It doesn't matter how long it takes to plan, but you should know a solution in (say) 10 or fewer moves when you're done. Don't do any turns while planning. Eventually you will be able to do this in under 15 seconds. Once you can do that, you shouldn't have to look back at your cross during the solve - you will always know exactly what moves you are going to do. Then you can execute it all at the start and move on to something else.
 
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