Color Neutral Persons: How do you choose your cross?

[Eppley12]

I look for the easiest looking cross then find the solution and track the easiest looking edge and corner pair.

 

[tx789]

I look for cross pieces and see paired f2l slots

 

[cubersmith]

I look for the most pieces which probably isn't the best thing to do.

 

[Schmidt]

(yes I mean completely color neutral i.e. no I do not have any color baises)

(I normally default to blue).

I do not live in an English speaking country, so could you please tell me the difference between baises and default.

For CN, it depends on the situation. I normally take the one with the most correct pieces on one side. So if there is 3 blue on green side , I make blue cross, but if there is 3 blue on red I look for something else.

 

[jskyler91]

I do not live in an English speaking country, so could you please tell me the difference between baises and default.

For CN, it depends on the situation. I normally take the one with the most correct pieces on one side. So if there is 3 blue on green side , I make blue cross, but if there is 3 blue on red I look for something else.

Baises mean I prefer or do better on a particular color, default means I make it my backup cross in case there aren't any good crosses that way I don't spend too much time frantically trying to find a cross.

Thanks for your input guys, it seems that many of you do basically what I do, but possibly faster. I really like Emolover's safe cross idea, I used to do something like this, but for some reason I stopped and I think it took away some of the stress to have at least 1 cross planned. Oh, btw I also plan out all crosses too 5BLD, it is good to see that others do this too, because i was worried I might be wasting time. I think the cross is your key to a good solve, if you have a good cross everything else flows.

I am also curious how long it takes you, on average to find, plan out and finger trick your cross? If you could do a breakdown that would be awesome. My breakdown looks something like this:

Find cross: 2-3 seconds
Plan cross: 3 seconds
Finger cross: 3 seconds
Find first pair/preserve pair: 2 seconds

Total time including first pair: 10-11 seconds

This is for a moderate cross, however, some crosses take a bit longer and I can't even begin to find my first pair. Thanks again.

 

[Akash Rupela]

@Jskyler91, I m not color neutral, but thanks for this thread, I m really a fan of(inspired by) how fast you have improved and how you look at everything in such an organised manner. Personally, as my cross is slower than my oll and pll(execution wise in time, not just tps), I would mention all those people who just do the cross without thinking that much are a bit lazy(dont mind Feliks , i know you have practiced too much to get to a stage where u dont need that much inspection). Almost all the time, i find the optimal cross in 2-3 seconds(or maybe 1-2 more) , think a little about the starting grip and start solving it. And I know, my cross is slow, only because I was too lazy to stress out that much in every solve. Of course, I will be doing this now. And In any form of art, an extra push is needed to break the plateau, with repeated forced stressing, I m sure anyone can keep improving at the cross until he becomes very good at it. As Kirjava says, after some time intuitive f2l becomes algorithmic, same is the case here. One must constantly be using majority of his inspection time, efficient hand movements, nice finger tricks, and patient look ahead, for a great solve ! (All this is my opinion, i am no one to state facts)

 

[jskyler91]

@Jskyler91, I m not color neutral, but thanks for this thread, I m really a fan of(inspired by) how fast you have improved and how you look at everything in such an organised manner. Personally, as my cross is slower than my oll and pll(execution wise in time, not just tps), I would mention all those people who just do the cross without thinking that much are a bit lazy(dont mind Feliks , i know you have practiced too much to get to a stage where u dont need that much inspection). Almost all the time, i find the optimal cross in 2-3 seconds(or maybe 1-2 more) , think a little about the starting grip and start solving it. And I know, my cross is slow, only because I was too lazy to stress out that much in every solve. Of course, I will be doing this now. And In any form of art, an extra push is needed to break the plateau, with repeated forced stressing, I m sure anyone can keep improving at the cross until he becomes very good at it. As Kirjava says, after some time intuitive f2l becomes algorithmic, same is the case here. One must constantly be using majority of his inspection time, efficient hand movements, nice finger tricks, and patient look ahead, for a great solve ! (All this is my opinion, i am no one to state facts)

Thank you for the support and advice Akash I see you have also been improving quite fast!!! I would really recommend that if you want to make the change to color neutrality that you do it now before you become to set in your ways. You don't have to change of course, but I think it will increase your overall potential if you do. THe way I look at cubing is like this: if I am going to waste a huge amount of time learning an almost completely useless skill, I might as well strive to be the best at it that I can be. This means not being stubborn or lazy on learning things that are hard and not wasting my time learning things that aren't useful.

 

[ottozing]

i look for the cross with most edges either solved/alligned with their centres, solved but not alligned with there side centres or in the same relative position to eachother but not alligned with any centers or their cross center (only for when their opposites, using this aproach for adjacent edges is inefficient and slow). then i plan the rest of the cross accordingly.

 

[jskyler91]

i look for the cross with most edges either solved/alligned with their centres, solved but not alligned with there side centres or in the same relative position to eachother but not alligned with any centers or their cross center (only for when their opposites, using this aproach for adjacent edges is inefficient and slow). then i plan the rest of the cross accordingly.

This is the easiest way, but I feel like many of those crosses can actually be longer to execute and harder to fingertrick.

 

[Genesis]

I look for F2L pairs and see which one's more fingertricky if there isn't any, I just look for a half done cross

 

[Faz]

I don't really know how I pick a side, it just happens. I don't follow a formula or anything

Basically, I just scan the cube, check a few sides, and look for pairs, and just pick a side which looks easy.

 

[jskyler91]

I don't really know how I pick a side, it just happens. I don't follow a formula or anything

Basically, I just scan the cube, check a few sides, and look for pairs, and just pick a side which looks easy.

When you say pairs, do you mean f2l pairs? As in you are looking for the start to an x-cross? or are you just looking for the cross that has edge pieces on it? Do you always look at all sides or do you just go with the first decent cross you see?

 

[ottozing]

This is the easiest way, but I feel like many of those crosses can actually be longer to execute and harder to fingertrick.

i agree that it isnt the best way to plan a cross but i find it to be decently fast. my crosses are never more then eight moves and usualy decent to finger trick. plus because its so easy to plan this way i can usually track my first pair.