Blindsolving Discussion and Help

Yes, I also use U2 for 5BLD - I just can't do 5BLD because of my poor memo.

Slot: Ur
Default target: Ul

A few examples for setups (do Setup U2 Setup' for solving):
Fl: E l E' l'
Fr: l' E2 l
Fu: y M u' M' y'
Fd: y' M d' M' y

Dl: l B2 E2 B2 l'
D*: setup to Dl with some D move

Ub and Uf:
r' E' r U r' E r U r' E' r U2 r' E r U2
or
r' E' r U' r' E r U' r' E' r U2 r' E r U2
Depends on the ordinal numbers of the targets. Use the first one for Ub if it is the first, third, etc. target, and also the first one if Uf is the second, fourth, etc. target. Other: the second alg.

Parity: U2

I think you can figure out the rests based on these.
 
Quite a simple question, but: Do most people usually solve the twisted corners/flipped edges first or last (if there are any)? I used to always do them last because I tend to look for them after I'm done with my memo, but I'm starting to find it easier to do first now (mostly because I freestyle/TuRBo now, meaning if I memorised parity and then have a flipped edge, parity changes a little).

Also, I've started using BH by figuring out/learning (referencing this) the 18 commutators that are ULB-RDF-(other), and set up for each of the 18 comms as I would in OP (unless the case is easy enough to just do). Is this a good way to transition into full/"proper" BH?
 
Phlippieskezer said:
Quite a simple question, but: Do most people usually solve the twisted corners/flipped edges first or last (if there are any)? I used to always do them last because I tend to look for them after I'm done with my memo, but I'm starting to find it easier to do first now (mostly because I freestyle/TuRBo now, meaning if I memorised parity and then have a flipped edge, parity changes a little).

Also, I've started using BH by figuring out/learning (referencing this) the 18 commutators that are ULB-RDF-(other), and set up for each of the 18 comms as I would in OP (unless the case is easy enough to just do). Is this a good way to transition into full/"proper" BH?
Click to expand...

Doing flipped/twisted pieces first is fine as long as you know to flip/twist the buffer piece and not the buffer location.

As for your second question, that's a good way to learn BH as far as I can tell, given that I learned that way. Just make sure you understand all the commutators you're using and not blindly applying them. I learned BH corners without memorizing any algs because at a certain point it was all intuitive. I'm not saying that you shouldn't be memorizing anything, I'm just saying that the more "free" algs you can get from intuition, the better. Best of luck to you.
 
Ah, yes, that makes sense. Should be simple enough to do, too. Which is more common to do, though? (First or last, or pretty much even)

Thanks, and, yes, what I'm doing is finding my own solution to a case and writing it down, then I look at the previously mentioned page and if mine is significantly inferior to the commutator there, I try to understand and learn the one on the page (I understand all 18 so far). Good to know I'm not the only one to have taken this route, then. :)
 
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Phlippieskezer said:
Ah, yes, that makes sense. Should be simple enough to do, too. Which is more common to do, though? (First or last, or pretty much even)

Thanks, and, yes, what I'm doing is finding my own solution to a case and writing it down, then I look at the previously mentioned page and if mine is significantly inferior to the commutator there, I try to understand and learn the one on the page (I understand all 18 so far). Good to know I'm not the only one to have taken this route, then. :)
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure after is more common. It might even help to choose which one you want, so that the flipped/twisted pieces are in the most comfortable position.

That's a pretty common way to learn BH. I even made a guide for it if you want to check it out: http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?36963-Guide-to-Transitioning-to-3-Cycle-BLD
 
I didn't find that table very useful either. What it is trying to do is show you that you can rotate a comm to get another comm (basically taking advantage of symmetry). You can do all of that intuitively. What is important is that you recognize pure comms and can conjugate to them. Worry about A9's later.

Switching buffers would be rough on my lettering scheme but the same principles can be applied to any buffer.
I use the UBR buffer, but this is designed for the ULB and could be helpful
http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?23965-My-3x3-Corner-Cycles-(Please-Contribute!)
 
Chester and I were talking about that table right before our seminar at Nationals, and he was mentioning that, now that he thinks about it again, maybe it really wasn't that useful after all. To our knowledge, no one has ever actually tried the approach that he was suggesting there.

If I understand it correctly (and I might not, although I think I do), the idea was that you would construct images for your letter pairs based on the groupings in the chart, and by seeing what category your particular image was, you would know what category of commutator it was. So for BH edges, you'd have 27 different categories of images, one for each isomorphic case, so as soon as you recalled your image, you'd know which one to apply, and all you'd have to do is remember how it's positioned (or perhaps, how to reposition the cube).

It was a nice concept, but of course what really happens is that once you learn BH well, you instantly see the commutator in exactly the form you need as soon as you recall the image. It takes a while to get there, but once you're there, Chester's method doesn't really help anymore.
 
I like <R,U,L> moves and the table is designed to use only that moves except for few cases like cyclic shift. I liked <R,L,U> concept very much, but is that possible because of that rotations that need to be done on the cube?

When someone says "I solve with BH corner" (doesn't have to be always optimal, but in most cases others commutator based) it means that during the solve person recognizes the relations between stickers that are involved in current cycle, detects the BH case and executes it?

It just looks so confusing when looking at that blue table. o.O

Do guys like Marcell, Aron and Zane recognize the case and think of corresponding commutator/BH in sucha little time, or they somehow assigned one alg/comm with every pair and just execute it? That seams impossible with 378 cases and ~.4K for edges.

P. S. @A Leman, thanks, that might come in handy.
 
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I know that for me, learning BH involved seeing in my head how the pieces moved to solve the commutator. So I didn't just learn the commutator, I understood it. I see how the 3 stickers involved move at each step of the commutator, so I can see how and why it works. After just a little practice, I got where I could see this almost instantly for most cases. Then additional practice led to where I am now, which is that usually I don't even have to see it - I just automatically know what the algorithm is. If I want to go maximum speed, I can do most cases essentially by reflex, but if I want to be really careful, I can spend the extra few seconds (which is really all it is, total, for a 3x3x3 BLD) to see each commutator in my head before I do it. Often this can be done in "thinkahead" mode, while you're still executing the previous algorithm.

If you're going for speed-optimized BH, all you need to do is selectively see cases where you can do better than an optimal commutator, and replace with that algorithm. That just takes practice; eventually just as I do with commutators, you get where you know them instantly when you hit those cases. For instance, I'm mostly BH on edges, but I use <R,U> U perms for a few edge cases, and you can see how that could just become automatic once you learn to see them.

Since there are only a small number of basic types of commutators, it really does work that you can learn to see these quickly once you work on it. You'll be surprised how easy it is to learn them. I know that some people (like Chris Hardwick) liked to learn the commutators by class of commutator and find where that particular class exists on the cube, but I found it easier to learn alphabetically.

What do I mean? Well, with my lettering scheme, my buffer for corners is A. So I first learned the cycle A->B->C, then A->B->D, then A->B->E, etc. all the way to A->B->X. Then I drilled those ("the B's") - I did time attacks on them. That really only took a day or two, after which they were pretty solid - I could see all of them almost instantly. Then I would do the C's next: A->C->B, A->C->D, A->C->E, etc., and drill those too. The nice thing is that, as you go, you get where many of them are just mirrors or inverses of the ones you already know, so they become easier to learn as you go.

I think I probably know BH almost as well as the good people; I think the difference between me and Marcell, Aron, and Zane are:
1. I'm much slower memorizing - I take 20-30 seconds instead of 6-10 seconds. This obviously hurts memorization time, but it also hurts execution time, because it takes longer to recall if it takes longer to memorize.
2. I'm not as good at "thinkahead" - I have too many pauses when executing. It's not really because of not knowing the algorithms; it's because I can't think as well while executing as they can, which holds me back in speedsolving as well as BLD.
3. My recall is often spotty; theirs isn't as much.
4. I'm just plain slower at turning.

I know this is a bunch of text and somewhat aimless, but I hope it might help someone, so I'm going ahead and posting it anyway.
 
Thank you, Mike, your post was useful.
Riffz's table (in the link of A Leman) is sorted by letters, and it also seams to me more natural to go through all the cases that way.
Think-ahead is a big part when talking about speed, that is one of the things that is slowing me down currently because I make too many setup moves even for the cases that are pure comms but are in somehow awkward angle and I try to setup to some "more visible" comm.

So it comes down to getting used to all the cases by practice. By ALOT of practice.

Thanks for the help and tips, but this is going to be pretty painful transition.
 
Another tip on learning BH (most likely, an old idea most people know):
Suppose you have learned all algs A->B->*. Then you also know (or at least it is quick for you to learn) all algs A->*->B.
Now scramble the cube. If you have targets A->x1->x2->x3..., solve it using the following algs:
A->x1->B
A->B->x2
A->x3->B
A->B->x4
...
You will solve the cube twice slower then usual but you will train algs you've just learnt.
Do a lot of solves (1-2 days) and go to the next case A->C->*.
 
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