[Help Thread] 3x3 Cross Help and Discussion

[y3k9]

I'm still wondering what most people look for during inspection.

 

[Andrew Ricci]

I'm still wondering what most people look for during inspection.

The 4 edges... but for serious, just pre-plan the cross and the moves you will do in your head. This will keep you from watching cross pieces while you insert them, which really slows you down. Also, you can easily find the first F2L pair. IMO, average cross and fast first F2L> fast cross and average first F2L.

 

[cyoubx]

There are good edges and bad edges. Good edges are ones that can be positioned correctly in one move (they have correct orientation). Bad edges require two-gen moves. While solving a good edge, such as doing an R2, do not get greedy and immediately place it. Instead, try to orient a bad edge while inserting a good one (say a U in this case), so that your next edge will be easier to place.

Less moves = faster cross (...usually)

 

[freshcuber]

1. Go to youtube
2. Search "badmephisto"
3. Click on his cross video
4. Kick back with a snack and learn
5. Practice
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until speedy
7. Enjoy your speedy cross

edit: Step 4 rhymes

 

[Kynit]

Look for an edge that you can place in one move. Then look for an edge that you can't, and line it up with the first edge. Repeat until you're done the cross.

It's a start, I guess. Just practice.

 

[bluedasher]

Yeah, pretty much what everyone else is saying. Just locate the 4 edges. Plan out how you are going to place them and do just that. Practice counts. The more you practice the more your subconscious mind picks up on certain cross situations.

 

[Cubezz]

Watch badmephisto's tut.
Learn.
Practice for an hour JUST cross. That's what I did, reduced my cross average from about 6-7 seconds to 4 seconds.
Keep practicing. Learn more, practice more, get faster.

 

[noahk]

First Post Ever

I took my cross from 12-15 seconds to around 7s in a week when I made a practice cube with stickers only only on the centers and 4 edges to form a cross. It made it a bit less distracting plus it forced me to practice only the cross and not get bored and keep solving the whole cube. I still have a long way to go, but it got me over the hump and my cross improved by leaps and bounds. I'm working on Dan and Macky's advice of being able to do the cross without looking at it, but that's a work in process.

I might do this as well with one of my new cubes, and I would also do one edge pair so that I can easily look ahead for that pair while doing the cross. I'd try smooth turning, and get faster and faster, until my times were something like 3-4 seconds, then add another edge pair and practice with that, until I finish F2L.

I also did this for the cross. I found this thread by internet searching the idea of a practice cube for the cross to see if anyone else has thought of it yet! I got some $3 cubes direct from china and just sanded them down and painted them the way I wanted them. Some I made into gifts with original art work.

I made one with just the white cross pieces and the other 4 non-white centers. I've thought about getting rid of the centers too just to get out of the habit of referring to the cube to determine which order to put them in. This basically allowed me to compartmentalize my practice routines. I'll shuffle a regular cube and just practice spotting the 4 white pieces as a separate exercise, a favorite of mine to do when I'm stuck standing on the bus. (For you trust-fund cubers who've never been inside a city busy, when yer standing on the bus you need one hand to hold on and I am mainly focused on improving my 2handed solve time.) I find practicing these two separately allows me to really focus on the task at hand and improve it, then combining the too just entails ignoring all the other pieces. The practice cube really lets me see where things go when I execute fast turns, I imagine that I will quickly retired it but I'll keep it in the closet when I start blindfold solving.

I even made an F2L practice cube. I ground away all the color from the yellow layer and the green/red edge and the green/red/white corner, sanded them slightly rough and painted the blanks with chalkboard paint. Then with a piece of chalk I could just draw on any F2L pair, practice, erase, and repeat. That way my practice wasn't interrupted by undoing the move. Basically meant I could get twice as much practice in any given amount of time and I didn't fill my brain with memorization of undoing every F2L pair as well as solving them. Just needed one color chalk at a time. I would just mark which sides were red, since I knew I was dealing with the the green and red (and one white) pieces you could know if you got it right or not.

I reckon I'll make one like that for 1-look OLL when I get that far. I would maybe make one for 1-look PLL. I'll just paint the F2L tiles in dimmer colors.

(Really having a hard time with the past tense to present tense to future tense transitions sorry)

These kind of tools help me not only practice the algorithms but actually learn what is happening when I preform them, which I find absolutely crucial in memorizing them, particularly executing mirror images of algorithms I already know.

-Noah

P.S. First post eva! (i hoped that worked i tried to use impeccable grammar and then say eva! as a big joke.) I'm not quite sub.... 50. I'm sub 51 tho! I do intuitive white cross->F2L->1look yellow cross, 2nd look OLL is just "sexy move" R'D'RD or LDL'D' over and over again with the occasional U,U',U2 - then 2 look PLL. I'm still mainly mastering the look part of the 4 look F2L, and I'm starting to add 1 look PLLs one at a time. Currently I use unlimited inspection time, but i just figure out the cross. Reckon it's better to finish the task of inspecting for the cross than to limit my inspection time, so that I can get faster with practice.

Okay I'm done, gotta get back to practice. She's gonna make me put it down in 30 minutes and I haven't even picked it up since I got off the bus.

 

[ItsJack]

I have a question, when you pro guys do the cross do you first cheak what moves to do like rbrdlu and then do those or just completely intuitive? Because I find myself when trying to do the cross blindfolded just thinking where the whites are while turning the cube around and I'm pretty sure that's wrong since that's like actually looking :S

 

[bluedasher]

I have a question, when you pro guys do the cross do you first cheak what moves to do like rbrdlu and then do those or just completely intuitive? Because I find myself when trying to do the cross blindfolded just thinking where the whites are while turning the cube around and I'm pretty sure that's wrong since that's like actually looking :S

After a while you get accustom to seeing certain situations and different permutations of the cross pieces and you very quickly figure out how to solve the cross. But no, people don't typically sit there during inspection repeating, R, U, L, B... R, U, L, B, F2... Etc. over and over until inspection is up and they then execute those moves. People generally solve their cross by seeing certain cases over and over and they know the feel of the solution.

 

[ahmedkl]

Cross help :S

Well i am sub-35 now almost ( have nailed many sub-35 avgs still a little in consistent) . My cross takes a lot of time i suppose maybe 7-9sec at times . I solve cross on the top . I think if i improve my cross i can get less avgs too , any help ? and other then that i am slow at recognizing PLL's , i know 20/21 of them

 

[AustinReed]

Take a look at this.

 

[Tyjet66]

Do cross on bottom, that will save the cube rotation for F2L.

 

[~Phoenix Death~]

Try to do your cross BLD.

 

[ahmedkl]

thanks for the video Austin , and for BLD its more like just inspecting and make the cross? or If i say i want to start BLD cubing then how would you teach someone to start with?

 

[Dacuba]

it's not like "Blindfolded cubing", it is just planing a single step before executing it, so you dont have to look at it.
Also very helpful on F2L (-> look ahead)

 

[ilikecubing]

Well if a thread on cross help is here,i would like to ask about algorithms for cross,are there any?

 

[ilikecubing]

I know it is all intuitive,but suppose there is a case where two cross edges on two opp. faces and they are flipped,so it will take some effort in doing that intuitively,so better use an alg for cases like that

 

[Rune]

I know it is all intuitive,but suppose there is a case where two cross edges on two opp. faces and they are flipped,so it will take some effort in doing that intuitively,so better use an alg for cases like that

And where are the two other edges? (There is almost always some co-operation between the four edges. Two opposite flipped edges is normally not a bad beginning).

 

[~Phoenix Death~]

I know it is all intuitive,but suppose there is a case where two cross edges on two opp. faces and they are flipped,so it will take some effort in doing that intuitively,so better use an alg for cases like that

Hmmm. True, I guess.
Okay, set this up.
Let's say your finished cross pieces are on DR and DB.
Your flipped pieces are on UF and UR
I would do R' F R. This brings down the UR and flips the UF at the same time. Then you can finish the cross.
Try to play around and find some useful shortcuts for yourself.
Again, I reccomend to view badmephisto's tutorial, very helpful.