Cross on bottom clarification

[i_love_hina]

When you solve the cross on bottom, are you supposed to solve it entirely on the bottom without ever looking at the D face? I'm trying to solve the cross on bottom but I find myself tilting the D face up every now and then to check... thoughts?

 

[ThatGuy]

Yes, it mean solving it on the bottom without looking. Don't worry about having to look at the D face. Eventually the cross will come to you naturally.

 

[i_love_hina]

Thanks, I just tried a few solves without looking at the bottom. It's amazing when I pull it off because I have so much time to look at other parts of the F2L... but when I mess it up everything gets ruined . Hoewever I'm beginning to understand how solving it without looking is beneficial.. so I'll definitely practice this.

 

[blgentry]

I spent roughly a month doing cross on bottom exclusively, as *everyone* said I had to do it to get better. It sucked hard for a while, killing my solve times and pissing me off as the color scheme was backwards from cross on top, plus I couldn't see it without tilting the cube and that's wasting time and "cheating".

After I got proficient at cross on bottom, I asked myself if I was as fast at cross on bottom as cross on top. My honest answer was that I was just as fast when everything went right, but I was horrible if I made a mistake. Transition from cross on bottom to F2L is *definitely* superior to the cross on top transition, but does that balance out my horrible mistakes on cross on bottom? For me: Nope. I switched back to cross on top after realizing the above *and* the fact that the current world record holder does cross on top.

I'm not a great cuber. I shouldn't even begin to compare myself to the world record holder. But it illustrates the point that cross on top obviously works. ...and cross on bottom irritated me and gave me inconsistent results.

Perhaps cross on bottom will work for you VERY well and reduce your solve times. Now you have my story. I think cross on bottom SUCKS. For me.

Brian.

 

[Poke]

I can spend minutes planning every move in my head, and, 99% of the time, I get the cross right, and, of not, it is something like 2 opp;osite edges switched, which could happen on top... I am sub-5 on the cross.

 

[brunson]

If you plan your cross well enough to do it with your eyes closed it doesn't matter whether it's on the top or the bottom.