Any advice for a new cuber?

[quinnhj]

Hello cubers, I just got into speedsolving about 3 weeks ago. I'm having a blast with this so far, but I really look forward to getting faster. So far, I've gotten to an average of around 1:20 with a slightly modified beginners method. I'm also expecting a nice white DIY next week, so hopefully that will help.

Right now I'm working on advancing to the Fridrich method. I watched badmephisto's videos (great videos btw if you see this) and I have the 2 look PLL's memorized, and working on the speed of execution/recognition. More importantly however, is the F2L. I'm solving it intuitively like badmephisto said, and it's going much smoother than I expected.

I was just wondering, do any of you have some advice for a beginner? Particularly, tips on speeding up my F2L. Any other advice, such as look ahead, general tips, memorization, and solving the cross on the bottom would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Cube_Noob]

Well, I can't give you any tips on solving the cube, but I can tell you that I used Silicon for the first time today (I'm new at cubing too) and my cube is awesome!!! It's insane how much easier it moves now, so I can take a whole new approach to solving it

 

[quinnhj]

Actually, I did silicone my cube a few days ago. It turns pretty smoothly, but still locks up... Oh well, at least I'm getting that purty DIY in a few days .

 

[hawkmp4]

My advice:
Practice, time yourself, and search the beginners forum and read EVERYTHING.

 

[TimMc]

Take what you currently know and practice! Your look-ahead and algorithm execution time will improve significantly with a lot of practice. You should get your times down to 30-40 seconds with any beginner method.

You can either learn all the Fridrich algorithms or just a few and figure out the rest as you go.

I'd recommend learning how Sune and Niklas work. I think that they're fundamentally important algorithms to know before transitioning from a beginner method to an advanced method.

Cross
- practice solving it with the fewest moves possible
- use ANY turn available, i.e. M or u' or E, (don't limit yourself to FBLRUD, especially U2)

F2L
- practice corner/edge pairing on any and every face (avoid turning the cube around its axis to *setup*)
- you need to practice this a lot, not only that - learn from your mistakes. if you think what you're doing is slow, then you should use another algorithm

Memo
- read the notation of the algorithm and think of each step
- play an applet/video of an algorithm a few times while mimicking it
- recall the notation you've memorized and attempt to execute it
- go back to the video or look at the notation again if you forget it

/rant

Tim.

 

[NickNack]

Hello, apart from what everyone else has mentioned, definitely learn fingertricks! They are quite vital for speed. I'm new to this forum myself.

 

[blgentry]

You should get your times down to 30-40 seconds with any beginner method.

Are you saying those times are *possible* with a beginner's method, or are you saying that he should aim for those times with a beginner's method before moving on?

I know they are possible, but I think it's totally unrealistic to try to get to those times before going to a more advanced method.

This isn't aimed at you Tim, but I find it very strange that so many of you advise to get down to 50 seconds, 40 seconds, etc before using a method like Fridrich. I think that once you gain proficiency with a method, and are ready to learn more, you can move on at that point, irrespective of your times.

Brian.

 

[hawkmp4]

That's true- sure its possible to get down to 30 seconds with a beginner method. But I'm struggling to get below 35 with a 3 1/2 look LL and intuitive F2L. And I've been cubing for...*scratches head* 6 months now. Its not easy and not even realistic to tell a beginner to get down to 30-40 seconds with a LBL method.

 

[Neutrals01]

It's possible to reach 30~40 seconds with LBL...but with dedication, I stopped LBL 1 month+ after learning it. I think learning fridrich at an average of 1 min is already ok. I learned fridrich when I reached sub 60 on avg. Before that, my first two layers for LBL method was around 30~35 sec on avg , once switched to intuitive f2l immediately dropped to 20~25 sec for f2l within a week+ of practice. I think it's better to learn fridrich f2l than spending 3~6 months of dedication just to practice a LBL method to reach 30~40 seconds =.=" . Learning 1 look pll is quite a good option too, u just need an extra of 14 algos to reduce 10 turns(half turn metric) on average.

 

[quinnhj]

Thanks for all the advice guys. So apparently its just one of those things that comes with time. Thanks for the advice on the Cross and F2L, Tim! Somehow during the cross I never thought of using slices.... Also, one of the pieces of advice I hear most is to solve slowly, in order to make my look ahead better. I think I will work on that. Furthermore, I am deciding to progress to Fridrich because I don't see the point in perfecting a method that is substandard in every way. I might have waited till a sub minute average, but with my cube, I doubt it will be easy.

 

[MistArts]

My advice is to not do 3x3....I just hate it sooo much except for FMC and BLD.

anyway, if you want to do it, just don't rush. And watch the piece of your next step so you move on smoother.

 

[quinnhj]

Why would speedcubing a 3x3 be a bad idea?

 

[Neutrals01]

maybe because speedcubing a 3x3 is very common and even u get up to average 20+sec u r still ranked 500~1000+.(lots of competitors)

 

[TimMc]

maybe because speedcubing a 3x3 is very common and even u get up to average 20+sec u r still ranked 500~1000+.(lots of competitors)

It's still a lot of fun

Tim.

 

[MistArts]

maybe because speedcubing a 3x3 is very common and even u get up to average 20+sec u r still ranked 500~1000+.(lots of competitors)

It's still a lot of fun

Tim.

Nope. 2x2 and 4x4 are though. (-:

 

[envy253]

wait until you get the diy, then start learning fridrich on your brand new cube