[Help Thread] Colour Neutral Discussion and Help

[MarcelP]

I've been working off and on to become color neutral for a couple years now, and today I finally set a new PB average of 5 of 13.15!

I don't practice as much as I used to, but it feels good to be improving again!

Very cool! And how many of these 5 where none white crosses?

 

[cmhardw]

Very cool! And how many of these 5 where none white crosses?

Thanks!

As for non-white crosses: I have no idea, I don't keep track anymore.

 

[Kirjava]

Do you think it was worth sacrificing the progress you could've made for the sake of changing your solving style?

I imagine it's a trade off you didn't mind making.

 

[cmhardw]

Do you think it was worth sacrificing the progress you could've made for the sake of changing your solving style?

I imagine it's a trade off you didn't mind making.

I do think it was worth it for me. I have pretty much peaked in all events already, so I don't think in my case that I lost out on any potential improvements had I not switched. I think that rather than continuing to lose skill from not practicing often, switching to color neutral has motivated me to keep practicing. I would argue that switching has slowed my decline in skill (increase in solve times), and as of late even allowed me to improve again!

 

[supercavitation]

Has anybody tried switching to color neutral for 4x4 (Yau)? I know Robert Yau does it, but I'm wondering if anybody has any tips?

 

[Randomno]

I still don't really think about solving any other colour. Very occasionally I go for yellow if the white is terrible.

 

[scottishcuber]

Has anybody tried switching to color neutral for 4x4 (Yau)? I know Robert Yau does it, but I'm wondering if anybody has any tips?

My approach is to memorise 3 different L4C colour relationships. Because I really struggle with forming edges and centers in their relative positions on the fly.

So I start with any 2 centers, then always do White/Blue/Red cross, and then solve the centers in the way that I have memorised. This means I can start the solve with any colour center(s).

Natural progressions would be to chose which colour to do cross on after F2C, essentially making me colour neutral...but I won't end up doing this to be honest.

 

[supercavitation]

My approach is to memorise 3 different L4C colour relationships. Because I really struggle with forming edges and centers in their relative positions on the fly.

So I start with any 2 centers, then always do White/Blue/Red cross, and then solve the centers in the way that I have memorised. This means I can start the solve with any colour center(s).

Natural progressions would be to chose which colour to do cross on after F2C, essentially making me colour neutral...but I won't end up doing this to be honest.

So you're half neutral, I guess? Would you recommend going for full neutrality while I'm still slow, or just sticking to half neutrality?

 

[rowehessler]

I do think it was worth it for me. I have pretty much peaked in all events already, so I don't think in my case that I lost out on any potential improvements had I not switched. I think that rather than continuing to lose skill from not practicing often, switching to color neutral has motivated me to keep practicing. I would argue that switching has slowed my decline in skill (increase in solve times), and as of late even allowed me to improve again!

so CN has made you better? I've never heard of someone switching successfully, especially someone like you who has ben doing one color for over a decade. It mustve been the hardest for you to accomplish. Either way, I hope it works out for you, CN is the future.

 

[cmhardw]

so CN has made you better? I've never heard of someone switching successfully, especially someone like you who has ben doing one color for over a decade. It mustve been the hardest for you to accomplish. Either way, I hope it works out for you, CN is the future.

I wouldn't say I'm better now than I was, but I'm approaching my old times.

My history with being color neutral is diverse. I started color neutral for about a year, switched to white cross only for about 6 years, to white/yellow neutral for about 6 years, then to color neutral for about 3 years now. I would say that I am still better at white/yellow crosses, but I will always do a non-white/yellow cross if it is a better cross. It helps me to tell myself that I *am* color neutral, just slower than I used to be. This motivates me to keep practicing at being color neutral, to get back to my old speed.

Switching to color neutral was definitely hard, and I am still transitioning. I am happy I did it, and stuck with it.

 

[maps600]

I have just begun my colorneutral transition. I have been solving for about a year and a few months and I'm down about 13 seconds using white/yellow cross only. I have decided I want a better and easier transition into my first pair and more options during inspection. I started solving blue and green crosses yesterday and I've done about 200 solves so far. After I warm up (about 30-50 solves) I am able to get some sub 15 times (1 in 8 approximately). I plan on solving these two colors until I am fully sub 15, then start on red on orange. Any suggestions?

Henry

 

[emolga77]

i started the transition 1 week ago today at almost sub 20(about 21-22 avg) and white/yellow are 21-22 avg. blue/green are 29ish avg. red/orange are also about 29ish. it was hard to find colors at first but now its kind of become a response to find the colors on all side making it faster. sometimes i am able to achieve smooth 21 sec solves without my primary color which is showing me that jskylers method works but i shortened it to...

day 1 yellow
day 2 green\blue
day 3 orange/red
day 4-rest of month solve green/blue/red/orange finding best cross and work on it becoming natural. only solve white yellow(or your original color filter) if its the most obvious cross...if its as hard as all go with a neutral one to help yourself improve..although i am not done with my transition and am not that fast but i know i will be done in a month and faster than ever.. its already showing results.

 

[IRNjuggle28]

I plan on solving these two colors until I am fully sub 15, then start on red on orange. Any suggestions?

Yeah. Start solving all four colors that aren't white/yellow ASAP. Don't wait until you're sub 15 to start on red/orange. I've also heard people suggest giving yourself unlimited inspection time, when first attempting to switch.

 

[cmhardw]

I liked forcing myself to solve the best cross out of the four non-white/yellow crosses. If you're originally a 1 color solver, then pick the best cross out of the remaining 5. Do this for a few averages of 12 and see what you think. I'm sure this has already been mentioned several times in this thread, but it did help me.

 

[SpeedCubeReview]

I started color neutral training today. I'm planning to do at least 20 of each color in a set and hope to do a couple sets a day. Today was 20 Orange and 20 Red cross. My average with a white cross is around 23 seconds, my average for both of these was around 37.

Now that many people have gone through the "becoming CN" process I am wondering how your times evolved from when you started until now.

 

[cmhardw]

Now that many people have gone through the "becoming CN" process I am wondering how your times evolved from when you started until now.

I'm still slower than before I switched, but I'm progressively getting closer to my old times.

I got a 15.03 average of 12 yesterday, and my global average for all practice solves yesterday was about 16.5 or so. My global average when I was dual-color-neutral was 15.5 with fast averages being in the high 13s/low 14s.

I'm hanging in there. Transitioning is tough, but I am sticking with it.

 

[ElectricDoodie]

I'm still slower than before I switched, but I'm progressively getting closer to my old times.

I got a 15.03 average of 12 yesterday, and my global average for all practice solves yesterday was about 16.5 or so. My global average when I was dual-color-neutral was 15.5 with fast averages being in the high 13s/low 14s.

I'm hanging in there. Transitioning is tough, but I am sticking with it.

I haven't been in the sub-20 race thread in a long time, but have you finally broken the 20s!?
Nice!

 

[cmhardw]

I haven't been in the sub-20 race thread in a long time, but have you finally broken the 20s!?
Nice!

Oh wow, that must have been a while ago. I don't really remember racing in the sub-20 thread for color neutral, but I do remember shortly after switching having more times sup-20 than I would have liked I got sub-20 on color neutral pretty quickly after switching, if not right away.

 

[Torch]

I figure I'll share my color neutral transition story:

It was November 2013, and I averaged 25 seconds. I went on vacation for a week, so I couldn't time myself, and I thought, "I'll try color neutral solving for the week, and see what my times are when I get back." I jumped straight into color neutral, solving on every cross color (except my original color, green) right from the beginning. When I got back, I did a 27 second color neutral ao100, within a month I was faster than my old times, and now I'm sub-15. I don't know whether or not I would have made those improvements if I hadn't switched, but I certainly don't regret switching at all.

 

[Smiles]

I figure I'll share my color neutral transition story:

It was November 2013, and I averaged 25 seconds. I went on vacation for a week, so I couldn't time myself, and I thought, "I'll try color neutral solving for the week, and see what my times are when I get back." I jumped straight into color neutral, solving on every cross color (except my original color, green) right from the beginning. When I got back, I did a 27 second color neutral ao100, within a month I was faster than my old times, and now I'm sub-15. I don't know whether or not I would have made those improvements if I hadn't switched, but I certainly don't regret switching at all.

I tried that with Roux on vacation, but I was so bad at roux that I stopped trying haha. I was really bad at seeing blocks back then, but I'm still L/R and U/D colour neutral for Roux. I think that's 16 options for first 1x2x2 or 8 options for first block so I guess, in an analogous way, it's still better than colour neutrality in CFOP?