Consistency

[Rudinie]

Hi, my name is Rudi and i'm a cube-aholic.
I started cubing about half a year ago and i'm using Friedrich's method and i know all but one PLL's and just a very little bit of OLL's, i mostly do 2 look OLL . My current pb is 27.95 and my average is about 36 so i'm allready pretty happy with that. One thing that i would like to improve is my consistency. When i see some youtube videos of really fast cubers with averages under 20 the variations in their solve times are pretty small compared to mine, even proportionally.
When i'm doing a couple of solves in a row the solvetimes can vary from lower 30's when things go smooth to 45's if things go bad. Sure there is a difference in time in need for the more complex PLL's like the G's or the headlights OLL, i hate that one. But most variation is in my cross and f2l. I do cross in about just under 5 seconds average (i know i have to improve on that) and my F2L is very variable. Most of the times a take a glimpse at the timer right after finishing up my F2L's and the times i see range from 18 seconds to 30 or even 32.
My question is: how could i practice F2L best to improve on consistency? I tried a little bit of metronome but that anoyes me if i see the next F2L pair but have to wait for the clicks to be able to turn.
I'm pretty curious to see what you think about this.

 

[rahulkadukar]

Dude understand how the F2L works rather than blindly memorising the Algorithms. Apart from that just practice harder and your times will definitely drop

 

[wing92]

i'm in about the same boat as you but average low 30s. in one average of 5 once i had a 25 and a 39. i've been getting a lot better consistency-wise lately though, so it's another one of those things that the only thing to do is practice. also, slow down turning during your F2L

 

[deepSubDiver]

the headlights OLL, i hate that one.

Same for me, but I recently found a nice 2-gen:
(R U R' U') (R U' R' U2)x2 (R U R')
The x2 is no cube rotation, its applying R U' R' U2 twice.
Maybe this helps you a little at that case

 

[Rudinie]

Dude understand how the F2L works rather than blindly memorising the Algorithms. Apart from that just practice harder and your times will definitely drop

That's what i do, i didn't memorize any algoritms for F2L, i'm sorry that i didn't make that clear. What do you mean by practice harder? Practice longer, or different? How do you practice best? How often do you use a timer? allways? I found if i use a timer i tend to do more cube-rotations, even though i know i shouldn't. If i don't use a timer i allow myself more time to solve fl2-pairs in the back or with less cube-rotations.

 

[Rudinie]

(R U R' U') (R U' R' U2)x2 (R U R')

Very nice, it takes a little bit more moves but i think with some practice i can excecute this faster that the R2DR'U2RD'R'U2R' i used so far.
Thanks.

 

[wing92]

the headlights OLL, i hate that one.

Same for me, but I recently found a nice 2-gen:
(R U R' U') (R U' R' U2)x2 (R U R')

i just do an anti-sune and then a sune. it's nice and easy

 

[Cride5]

I get the same problem - details here. I'm sure I could average about 25 with my current turning speed, but I keep running into 'awkward' cases which slow me down

My question is: how could i practice F2L best to improve on consistency?

For my F2L I think two things are slowing me down (1) awkward multiblocking cases and (2) lookahead failure. To sort out these dodgy multiblocking situations I'm going to look into more algs and learn to recognise these cases quickly. Dealing with Fridrich F2L may be similar. If you're finding some cases just keep slowing you down, search for fingertrick friendly algs and learn to recognise and execute them quickly.

For lookahead I can't really think of anything else but lots of practice. I'm like you with the metronome, I hate having to 'wait' for the damn thing! While doing F2L though, I keep asking myself "where's my next block?", even if I'm trying to concentrate on the current one. Quite often I'll have my eye on one potential pair and then I'll notice something better... all while executing the current block. Other times I just don't see anything and I get a pause!

Something which is also useful is to try and anticipate what case you're going to get once you have your eye on that next C+E pair. Some insertions won't affect their orientation at all and you'll simply have the case you're looking at. Sometimes a corner or edge will be flipped, and even worse, sometimes they'll join together into a bad block.

I'm thinking (hoping) that enough hardcore practice should gradually iron these problems out, but a bit of practice focused on the weak areas will certainly help

 

[TheJanitorsMop]

I use l2 U' R D2 R' U R D2 l x
Headlights are at the back, and I'm pretty sure the cube rotation at the end is "x", but I often forget.

 

[miniGOINGS]

I am facing the same problems currently. The problem is most likely that you are running into cases that you are less familiar with, and thus slower. If you find those cases, practice them, slow them down, find optimized solutions, and speed them back up.