Critics Advice Needed

[spyr0th3dr4g0n]

This is a video I made of me speedcubing. The camera angle isn't great. This isn't full speed and my F2L seems to have taken an extra 5 seconds each time

Can you offer any advice on things to improve or implement? Things like X-Cross, Cross on bottom, etc.

 

[AustinReed]

You shouldn't really do x-cross unless there's an opportunity to do so. I've always done cross on bottom so I don't have any tips on that. You can try cross on left. That's pretty fast as well. Look at Phillip Espinoza for example. I saw him get an official sub-10 average with COL.

 

[adragast]

Hi !

The thing you should really really focus on now is your look ahead. If you look at your first solve for example, it is quite clear that you: solve the cross, pause (33-37=4s wasted !), solve one pair, pause (41-43=2s wasted), solve another pair, pause (43-45=2s break)... I am also surprised that you take so much time in oll recognition (51-53). You are using 2 look oll, right ? Then the pattern you had, should be recognised almost immediately (well I may be wrong, I haven't been using 2look oll for a long time).

I think you should look at this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q952_qbdorM
(ignore the last layer, but look at how he is consistently turning, never stopping, no breaks to look for pieces ...). I am not saying it is easy, it does require a lot of practice but it is really the way to go in my opinion.

Adragast

 

[spyr0th3dr4g0n]

Actually, I was inserting the last F2L pair (another 2 second delay) at 51-53. My OLL starts at 55 and is only 6 secs long.
I use a 2 look OLL system where I form the cross and then orient the corners. I use all of the algorithms from Full OLL where the edges are orientated.

I'm not onto Look ahead as I'm not quite comfortable with some of the cases. When I try to avoid them, I delay while trying to find two fresh pieces, and end up just string at the cube.

 

[jskyler91]

I would say that at 3 months of speedcubing, you are doing just fine. Just remember to take time to practice look ahead and use a metronome. Your times will go down with practice and familiarity with your method.