I’ve been cubing for about 10 years and I average around 10.5 to 11 seconds. My current goal is to get a sub 10 average in a comp that I’m attending in about a month and I was able to get an 8.85 PB Ao5 last night after getting super warmed up but I can’t consistently get under 10 for even an Ao12. I know about half of the OLLs and 12/16 PLLs but strangely I think my F2L is still proportionally the slowest part of my solve. Obviously I need to finish my last layer algs, but does anyone have any tips or strategies for making F2L faster? It seems like whenever I try to predict the first pair I will most of the time either run out of inspection time or lose track of my cross solution (unless it’s a really easy cross) and I have big pauses between pairs plus way too many cube rotations. I’m also pretty sure most of my f2l solutions are horribly inefficient but TPS kinda makes up for it. I feel like I could be competitively fast if my solves were smoother so if anyone has tips on f2l please let me know!
I swear I need to make a pastebin of F2L lookahead stuff, so I don't have to write something individually each time.
Anyway...
- Slow solves without a timer are very useful, where you just try to find efficient solutions to each F2L pair you come across. You should also be trying as hard as you can to incorporate the following things into these slow solves (and indeed timed solves when you're ready):
- Never look at what you're solving while you're solving it. You should be able to do each pair with your eyes closed, so that you can look around the cube for other pairs while solving a pair.
- One rotation max per pair. If you rotate more than once, try and find a better solution or look at
J perm's F2L doc for a solution.
- Whenever you have to rotate, choose to insert the pair into the back. Inserting into the back removes a blind spot, pushing new info to the front of the cube where it's easy to see. If you ever end up with 2 front slots solved, your'e doing something wrong. This also goes for when predicting first pair, you may want to rotate before starting your solve so that the pair inserts to the back.
Alright now for stuff that applies more to you yourself:
- Don't worry if you can't reliably do cross + 1 in inspection yet. It takes time and practice, use unlimited inspection time and then slowly get faster until you can do it in under 15 seconds each time.
- If you haven't yet tried or are not dual CN (yellow/white colour neutral), I would recommend it. It allows you to choose a better cross solution, so makes predicting first pair a lot easier.
- I know you said that you'll finish your LLs, but I just can't get over the fact that you haven't even finished either set and are still sub-11. This should be really high in your priority list.
Alright well that's all for now, thanks for coming to F2L TED talk #6274638477
Seriously I have to make a pastebin doc on this