[Help Thread] CFOP Discussion

A counter-intuitive idea that somehow works is to quit for a long time (usually half a month to a year, but quitting for a week or two also works) and come back, or at least practice less. This always works for me when I am stuck at a time barrier. Example: Back when I was stuck at 20 seconds (even though I was practicing daily), I decided to take weekly breaks every month, and cube less on weekends where I didn't take a break. Within a month of using this routine, I was at 18 seconds.

I think this method works because every time you come back after a break, you gain new perspectives. For the 20-second me, I finally got the idea of lookahead. For you, it might be a new turning style, or a better method, or something like that.

In conclusion, I think you're practicing too much.

This is the only advice I can give without seeing a video. But I hope this helps.
 
Ok thx no offense but im not sure this will be super affective but im tired of being stuck were i am so im willing to try anything. Thank you especially you for by the looks of it putting some though ito what you said.

molarmanful said:
A counter-intuitive idea that somehow works is to quit for a long time (usually half a month to a year, but quitting for a week or two also works) and come back, or at least practice less. This always works for me when I am stuck at a time barrier. Example: Back when I was stuck at 20 seconds (even though I was practicing daily), I decided to take weekly breaks every month, and cube less on weekends where I didn't take a break. Within a month of using this routine, I was at 18 seconds.

I think this method works because every time you come back after a break, you gain new perspectives. For the 20-second me, I finally got the idea of lookahead. For you, it might be a new turning style, or a better method, or something like that.

In conclusion, I think you're practicing too much.

This is the only advice I can give without seeing a video. But I hope this helps.
Click to expand...

O idk if youll know i said anything but read my other comment
 
Last edited by a moderator:
How long have you been cubing? I know full 1-look OLL and PLL as well as pretty advanced F2L... Why I am not sub 7 seconds is just practice. Take your time and enjoy the act of cubing and not get frustrated that your times are not as fast as you currently want. They will improve with time.
 
Ok I need some advice because I'm tired of being a 25-30 solver with a 14 sec pb it gets old after a few months I am a cfop solver with full pll and two look oll I look ahead during f2l and have a pretty decent cross (5-7seconds) what shall I do?
 
OkinawaSolver said:
Ok I need some advice because I'm tired of being a 25-30 solver with a 14 sec pb it gets old after a few months I am a cfop solver with full pll and two look oll I look ahead during f2l and have a pretty decent cross (5-7seconds) what shall I do?
Click to expand...

I know you said you have a decent cross, but it could be better. What dropped me from 27-24 is my cross. I went from 6 seconds to about 3 for the cross. Make sure you're doing it on the bottom, and spend time to find good solutions. Watching walkthrough solves by cyotheking (Chris Olson), Collin Burns, and Feliks Zemdegs helped me a lot. Another thing that's really weird but worked for me is that I practiced 5x5 for two weeks because I didn't have my 3x3, and dropped 2-3 seconds on 3x3. It might be because turning slower on the 5x5 improved my lookahead or as molarmanful said, being away from the cube allows you to re-approach it with a new perspective. Either way, you might want to just take a break from 3x3, because lookahead is something that can translate between events. Hope this helps.
 
Time your splits. Cross should be roughly 13%, pairs 50%, OLL 16% including recognition, and PLL 21%. Figure out which is your weakest step, and practise it individually.

Most of my gains from 30-20 were due to drilling F2L pairs alone until I was solidly sub-10 with those. Most of my gains from 20-18 were down to cross practice.
 
In actual fact, the main factor is seriously just PRACTICE. Whenever you have free time, solve a cube. I tend to solve on the train a lot, and because there is no timer, I do not feel the need to rush my solves. In the long run, this will improve your F2L lookahead. To improve your LL, drill your PLLs and practice LSLL (there is an option on cstimer and qqtimer). Also, don't learn crappy LL algs and learn to fingertrick them properly.

Also, all the practice you do will eventually pay off. I have experienced this many times; just when you are getting so frustrated with the plateau in your timings, you will break a new barrier. It didn't really happen to me as early as it is happening to you because I progressed pretty rapidly from a minute to sub-30, but I guess different people progress at different rates.

Oh yes on another note, learn to turn properly. Avoid turning with your wrist and learn to use your fingers. Lots of beginners could be a lot faster if they did not use a crappy turning style.

EDIT: This is mostly directed at Thecuberlife, but the tips (except perhaps the one about turning) can be applied to anyone (myself included).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I'm pretty fast at 3x3, but some days I do really badly. For instance, yesterday most of my times were sup-14 and more than I would have liked were sup-15. Most of the time this stops happening in one or two days, but it always lasts at least one day. I think a 0.5-0.7 second rise in times for someone who averages sub-15 is just really bad. Does this happen to a lot of people? (Is it normal for cubers to be really slow for a day?)
 
Thecuberlife said:
Like the title says I want to know why you guys think im not improving. I put soooo much effort and hard work into improving on 3x3 but im getting no where! Im just so frustrated. I learned 4ll, I learned advanced f2l, learning advanced cross getting good enough to incorporate it in my solves, and Im learning rotationless f2l im on a scale of 1-10 a 7 at it. I know all of this and Im stuck in like 40-60 sec solves, but average like 45 secs.�� Thats NOT where I want to be. Lastly i practice about an hour every day I fluctuate between 40-60 mins. The question remains why am I stuck here. I know that was long but i wanted to be detailed for those of you who read all this I thank you soooooo much.
Click to expand...

As others have asked you... how long have you been cubing? To let you compare, I started speedcubing around August-Sept 2013. I learned F2L, full PLL and 2-look OLL. By the end of the year 2013 my PB was 33.68 and my times were around 40seconds. It wasn't after many more months (like mid-2014) that I started to understand F2L better, started to insert into back slots and rotate less, search for more efficient pairing + insertion for some cases, and also drill my PLLs and started learning some nice OLL cases (it took a very long time to learn full OLL) and with practise all that started to pay and my times dropped. But, I've been cubing for almost two years now and I'm still barely sub-20 so, I'd say I'm progressing more slowly than many other cubers around here. That's the way it is, I just try to enjoy cubing.

In my case I didn't have a significantly long plateau until I reached the 22-25 second mark but others might suffer this at different time marks. My advice would be:
1) don't obsess over being faster, try to relax, enjoy cubing
2) do some untimed solves where you try to... yes, I'll say it, move slowly (during F2L) and lookahead
3) watch videos of walkthrough solves and try to copy the F2L technique (and turning technique as well) of other good cubers
4) tell us more about you and your cube, which one you have/like and why, how it's set up, how long you've been cubing... maybe we can help you better if we know more about you
5) practice other events, like 2x2 and 4x4 and, most importantly... take 1) seriously. Whenever I obsess too much over my times it is counter-productive and my times are worse.

JustinTimeCuber said:
I'm pretty fast at 3x3, but some days I do really badly. For instance, yesterday most of my times were sup-14 and more than I would have liked were sup-15. Most of the time this stops happening in one or two days, but it always lasts at least one day. I think a 0.5-0.7 second rise in times for someone who averages sub-15 is just really bad. Does this happen to a lot of people? (Is it normal for cubers to be really slow for a day?)
Click to expand...

I'm just somewhat fast (barely sub-20) and the exact same thing happens to me. The difference being that, as I'm slower than you, my variance is higher. Usually after a PB Ao50/100 I have one or two days where I try to push too hard and I get times that are 1 or even 1.5 seconds slower than the PB. It sometimes takes even a week to progressively get to more "normal" times, but in short, yes, it also happens to me and I'd say to most cubers out there. Of course for a top-10 cuber which is sub-8 it probably won't be more than .3 or so but for me it's around those figures I mentioned.
 
Last edited:
TDM said:
9-6 is good for 15 seconds. I think I was about 8.5-9 for F2L and 6-6.5 for LL when I averaged 15.
Click to expand...
Really? Wow. Right when I averaged 15, I did a lot of LSLL stuff and I think that was around 6.5 at the time, so I would think LL would be right at 5.
TDM's probably right tho:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

DANrulz81
[Help Thread] 3x3 Cross Help and Discussion
28 29 30
Replies
588
Views
111,329
Stock_Fish109
Stock_Fish109
D
[Help Thread] F2L Discussion and Help
101 102 103
Replies
2,056
Views
369,048
hyn
hyn
Kevencito
I vibecoded a cubing app so you don't have to:)
Replies
0
Views
37
Kevencito
Kevencito
C
[Free App] Cube Trainer — CFOP + Roux algorithm trainer with timer
Replies
0
Views
117
cellonty
C
T
New method idea: Using Pinkie Pie roux variant with CFOP instead
Replies
4
Views
408
theail03
T
Back
Top