Advice on Learning and Improving Needed

[SimplyOrange.]

Sorry if what I have to say is repetitive, boring, tedious and annoying to answer, but it would be useful for me to have some personalised advice to assist me on my way.

To avoid repeating myself, here is a link to my introductions post where I illustrate my current position : http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14315

I am considering purchasing a type F DIY cube, and welcome any last minute advice on this choice, including advice as to where to purchase this for good delivery etc - is ebay a good idea or should I stick to a specialist site?

As for my cubing techniques, seeing as I have already learnt a 2 look oll and a 2 look pll, I have decided for now that the Fridrich method is probably my best bet for improving, and have set about learning an intuitive f2l - is there any better way at improving case recognition etc or is it all just a matter of practice practice and more practice?

I feel extremely daunted by the amount of algorithms and the time it would take to learn these if I were to go ahead with learning the full fridrich, and so will probably practice my 4 look last layer combined with my f2l until i get sub a minute - is this a viable idea ?

Also, are there any good tutorials for finger tricks for different algorithms, or is it just once again a matter of working out what's best for myself? At the moment my times for my beginners method are far faster than my times for 2 look oll and 2 look pll method, partly because my execution of the algorithms is particularly slow (e.g. the two D2 moves in the cw corner 3-cycle corner permutation)

Finally, any advice for solving the cross quickly is welcomed - it takes me nearly 20 seconds on some occasions to solve it. I currently solve it on the front face, and have difficulty in memorising and picturing the layout of my cube in order to solve the edges relative to eachother.

Sorry to waffle on about myself,
any advice or tips welcomed.
thanks.

 

[4Chan]

Lol, dont worry, if you pace yourself, once you get to full PLL and OLL, it wont seem like anything reallie.

You have the right idea though, just keep practicing.


EDIT: Perhaps look up the VHF2l algs, theyre for the last slot, and theyre super fast and easy to learn. You can have a 1 look OLL pretty darn fast if you use VHF2l to always orient 4 top edges. I like it, and i have a 16 average (17 in competition). (Instead of using 51 OLLs, you can use just 7, or the 42 or so COLL)

 

[Daniel Wu]

As for my cubing techniques, seeing as I have already learnt a 2 look oll and a 2 look pll, I have decided for now that the Fridrich method is probably my best bet for improving, and have set about learning an intuitive f2l - is there any better way at improving case recognition etc or is it all just a matter of practice practice and more practice?

Yes. It's just a matter of practice. Lots and lots of practice. Intuitive F2L is good and with 2 look OLL and 2 look PLL you should be able to get times at least sub minute with a bit of practice.

I feel extremely daunted by the amount of algorithms and the time it would take to learn these if I were to go ahead with learning the full fridrich, and so will probably practice my 4 look last layer combined with my f2l until i get sub a minute - is this a viable idea ?

I felt the same way. The pages of algs I printed out scared me. I never thought I was going to learn all of them. One year after that, I learned them all. I practice with 4 look last layer for a long time. Then around 40 seconds, I started learning PLL. Around 25 seconds, I started to learn 2LLL (full OLL and PLL). So yes, keep practicing 4 look.

Also, are there any good tutorials for finger tricks for different algorithms, or is it just once again a matter of working out what's best for myself? At the moment my times for my beginners method are far faster than my times for 2 look oll and 2 look pll method, partly because my execution of the algorithms is particularly slow (e.g. the two D2 moves in the cw corner 3-cycle corner permutation)

You kinda have to work out finger tricks for yourself. I believe there's a video by Dan Brown (???) on youtube if you search. For the cw corner cycle, the D2s can be turned with your whole hand. I use my left hand. A perms are pretty fast. All it takes is practice.

Finally, any advice for solving the cross quickly is welcomed - it takes me nearly 20 seconds on some occasions to solve it. I currently solve it on the front face, and have difficulty in memorising and picturing the layout of my cube in order to solve the edges relative to eachother.

Just keep practicing. If you have extra stickers and an extra cube, you can take all the stickers off except those needed for the cross and you can practice the cross without the distraction of other pieces.


Anyway, I hope this helps.

 

[teller]

Badmephisto has two of the best cross videos out there:

Rubik's Cube: Cross (Advanced)

Rubik's Cube Cross on bottom: tips and fingertricks

If you browse, you'll also find some nice F2L fingertricks in his library.

<--- I'm slowly posting a few fingertricked-out algs on my YouTube as well.

Enjoy!

 

[brunson]

All of your questions have been covered again and again and again. I would recommend you spend a few days perusing the old postings and learning to use the search function. More specific questions on specific topics are fun to discuss, these general issues have been covered ad nauseum.

 

[SimplyOrange.]

I apologise profusely Brunson, and I will most definitely heed your advice in the future, I just feel for I am fairly new to this, having my initial questions covered to help me on my way before having further more spcific issues really helps with my confidence, knowing that others can empathise with my situation, even if the questions may have been answered before.

Thank you everyone for your help and links, I will be sure to follow up any further queries using these and the rest of the forum.

 

[brunson]

I'm not sure if you're being facetious or not. There is seriously a ton of information to be learned from the old postings on here, you should read through them. It's probably good advice before posting on any new forum.

 

[SimplyOrange.]

I am not being facetious, and am sorry if it appeared so - as is one of the misfortunes of communicating via textual means on the internet.

I certainly understand what you are saying and will definitely use the search function to find previous discussions on what I am wondering about before making a new thread as a last resort if this information cannot be found.

Thank you for your advice.

 

[brunson]

You're right, which is why I *try* to always give the benefit of the doubt (though it's hard to do all the time).

Welcome to the forum!

 

[eragg0]

For techniques: start learning lookahead before fridrich. It is easier to add 1 extra piece than starting right away with 2 pieces (or more)

 

[Rikane]

There are certain videos I've seen for finger tricks for algs. I just hope no one forgot about those yet.

http://www.youtube.com/user/CUTEXcuber - TONS of algs, not limited to 333, I've looked into some PLL's from here before. Did help my Jb perm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW4TYyHH-1s - Erik's PLLs, maybe he doesn't use some anymore, who knows. Improved my H, and M perms, I can't seem to get the slices fast enough for the U-perms, so I didn't pursue it any further.

http://www.youtube.com/user/CUBESNote - Harris' videos for OLLs and some other stuff. I'm currently learning from here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKthBCko2-8 - I didn't learn from here, but it may help a bit.

Again, it's quite important to go through a few algs for each given case and figure out which ones feel the best for you. As an example, I just the M-perm that Erik provides, but I've seen more people use the 2-gen M-perm.

Also, I haven't really seen a lot of people use their ring finger to do some algs, but I seem to use them quite a bit in my
F-perm (R' U R U' R2 F' U' F U x R U R' U' R2 B' )
And OLL 5 (r' U2) (R U R' U r)

Hope this helped.