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Beginner, don't know what to practice next

everclear

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Jun 17, 2015
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Hi, I've been cubing for two weeks. Been progressing steadily, but for the last few days my average is stuck, and I don't know what to study next. Been looking into finger tricks, but I don't know how to apply them as I'm constantly re-gripping, especially in F2L. Or, should I be learning new algorithms for OLL and PLL instead? Basically, I don't know what the next steps in my progression should be. Please help. :)

What I do currently:

Average about 1.5 min/ solve

Cross (about 20 secs)
F2L (use 3 insertions, time varies)
OLL and PLL beginner methods
 
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NeilH

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If you average 1.5, for now I would just say to to use normal beginner's method and keep solving again and again. Before you know it, you will easily be sub-1:00 or sub-50
 

everclear

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If you average 1.5, for now I would just say to to use normal beginner's method and keep solving again and again. Before you know it, you will easily be sub-1:00 or sub-50

Thx for reply. At sub1, what things should I start changing?
 

Animorpher13

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choose one side to always start solving on (for me that is white). Then, practice locating all of the cross pieces of that color during inspection. It seems that you find and then solve each piece individually, and to get good at that you just need practice. So basically choose a color and stick to it. Advanced tip: solve the cross on the bottom, not the top.
But definitely wait till sub-1:00 to start that. Use beginners method and work on just locating the pieces faster.
 

guysensei1

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choose one side to always start solving on (for me that is white). Then, practice locating all of the cross pieces of that color during inspection. It seems that you find and then solve each piece individually, and to get good at that you just need practice. So basically choose a color and stick to it. Advanced tip: solve the cross on the bottom, not the top.
But definitely wait till sub-1:00 to start that. Use beginners method and work on just locating the pieces faster.

nononononononono

be color neutral. Start on any cross color you want.
 

everclear

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nononononononono

be color neutral. Start on any cross color you want.
Yes, I've been rotating cross colors from day one, for when I get better at F2L I could take advantage of it.

But for now, I'm just stuck. My average hasnt changed much in the last week, and I don't know what I should be incorporating next into my newbie solves.
 

everclear

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If you average 1.5 minutes, try to work on turning faster. Do you have a decent speedcube?

Yes speed cube, check. Guess I'll work on getting faster at the cross, try to visualize more moves during inspection. Should improve by a few seconds.
 

NeilH

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Thx for reply. At sub1, what things should I start changing?

First, definitely solve cross on bottom. You can watch walkthrough solves to see how others do the cross, but it will naturally get faster as you practice. I've been doing cross on bottom for 6 months and have only started seeing my entire cross solution in the past month. I'm not color neutral, but I STRONGLY recommend it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icbjhGUDxYE
Skip to 7:58

Next, I would learn 2-look OLL because it saves alotalotalot of time. Then, I would learn F2L, but do look into other methods. Roux, ZZ, and Petrus are all efficient methods and you will be able to find something that you like and learn more about the cube.

I myself haven't even started learning PLL, OLL, or advanced F2L and am still getting faster, so it just comes down to practice. I got down to a 55 second average with beginner's before learning F2L, but now I average 30-35 with beginner's just because I've practiced so much. Good luck, hope this helps.
 

TheMachanga

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I wouldn't worry about really going out of your way to improve something drastically until you're at 50ish seconds with beginners method. You'll get faster just from solving over and over and over again (which I recommend at first) just from being able to turn faster and (more importantly) recognize cases better.
 

SixSidedCube

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Learn all the f2l cases in this guide - http://www.kungfoomanchu.com/guides/andy-klise-3x3x3-speedcubing-guide-v4.pdf
I went from sub 40 to sub 20 after learning and practicing them.
Also buy a speedcube like moyu aolong and learn fingertricks.

There is no need to learn the algs for F2L, in any case, just do untimed solves where all you do is focus is Cross - F2L. Take as long as you need to learn how to do F2L cases that come up. Sooner or later they become natural. Algs for F2L are ALMOST useless.
 

hkpnkp

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There is no need to learn the algs for F2L, in any case, just do untimed solves where all you do is focus is Cross - F2L. Take as long as you need to learn how to do F2L cases that come up. Sooner or later they become natural. Algs for F2L are ALMOST useless.

i did not ask to learn it as algorithms. the algorithms are only for knowing the moves that have to be executed for the case. Instead we must try to understand how the corner and edge is paired while doing the algorithm. Then it can be solved intutively. And yeah, I agree with you - algs are useless for f2l (except some special cases) and the way to improve f2l is doing unlimited solves.
 
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Algs for F2L are ALMOST useless.
Algorithmic F2L might be harder to learn but in the end it's the most efficient, so I wouldn't say it's ''useless''. Some F2L cases are really terrible when doing it intuitively. Go take a look at algdb.net at the F2L section and compare the movecount/speed to what you would normally do without any algorithms.
 
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Try becoming a color neutral or solving the first layer without cube rotations.For the beginners method my fastest time yet is sub 29 and CFOP is sub 25 ave.You can do it and I'm only speedcubing for 2 months and was able to accomplish this.The key to improving for me is to enjoy cubing.When you don't feel like cubing then don't cube.It's good to take a break from cubing.
 

everclear

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Jun 17, 2015
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Thanks for the info guys.

For moving on from beginner PLL, do you recommend jumping right into learning the 21 algorithms? Or should people ease into them with 2-look PLL first?

Also, is there a place where you could buy a physical cube scrambler? Like you could pop in a cube, press a few buttons and it scrambles it for you? I'm finding it tedious to re-scramble after each solve.
 

Eduard Khil

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Dec 15, 2014
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For moving on from beginner PLL, do you recommend jumping right into learning the 21 algorithms? Or should people ease into them with 2-look PLL first?
Aint beginner 2 look PLL? Permute corners then edges. Get into learning full PLL. Start with the EPLLs, then simple perms (T, J, A,) and finally the G perms


Also, is there a place where you could buy a physical cube scrambler? Like you could pop in a cube, press a few buttons and it scrambles it for you? I'm finding it tedious to re-scramble after each solve.
Lego.
 

everclear

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Jun 17, 2015
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Aint beginner 2 look PLL?

Only slightly different. With beginner's, I use 2 algs that are repeated over and over til you get the desired result. With 2-look, it seems you choose 2 specific algs from 7 or so.

Think I'll get some index cards and try to learn full PLL.
 
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