[Help Thread] F2L Discussion and Help

[lerenard]

Hmm, based on the specific difficulties you're having I would recommend... Practice. Seriously.
https://www.speedsolving.com/forum/...-to-Get-Faster-using-the-Fridrich-CFOP-Method
https://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?27870-How-to-practice

 

[maps600]

My F2l is very bad. I do the F2l in 40 seconds and I average one minute.
Have someone any ideas to make my F2l better.

At your level just do lots of solves and you'll get faster. Also, make sure to start on every side of the cube depending on the cross on that side. For example, solve the white cross and the cube, then on the next solve if the red cross looks better then just do that.

 

[TofuChris]

Help with F2L

When I learned the beginner method, with my pretty nice cube, I got down to an average of about 70 seconds. Within the last week, I started learning the Fridich method. I am learning each step, step by step, so I don't want to flood my mind with algorithms, so I am mostly focusing on refining my cross and F2L right now. My problem, however, is that my F2L step takes upwards of a minute or more, and the whole thing takes 2-2.5 minutes. I know with time, my cross will get faster, because I work everytime on efficiency, but with F2L, I spend so much time just looking at what to do, it takes forever. I finish my cross, and then I find a corner, then look for the edge (I am doing intuitive F2L), and do that, but as I fill up more corners, I have to tihnk more and more about my moves, especially when its one of those situations where both pieces have the same color on top. anyway, am I doing this right, or should I change my thinking? If wanted, I can post a video of me solving with both methods, and you can identify my problems. Let me know please. Thanks.

 

[lerenard]

A video might help. Also, check out badmephisto's tutorials if you haven't already. Apparently they're good. Also, practice without a timer, so you can work out f2l efficiency rather than doing it quickly but poorly.

 

[Smiles]

guide:
when the same colours are on top: get them together (can be inserted with R U' R' or L' U L)
when different colours are on top: get them separated (can be inserted with R U R' or L' U' L)

however...
if the corner has your cross colour (white, for most people) facing up, do this instead:
place the edge's side colour with the correct face, then push it away from the slot using R or L', etc. and the put the corner on top of it. When you bring the edge back, the corner and edge will be paired.

might be hard to understand this without a visual but once you're more familiar with F2L (or even now?) you'll know what i mean. this is how i usually teach it and people tend to grasp it quickly.

 

[CriticalCubing]

Now that there is a f2l thread, I would like to ask how to get your f2l times to 5 seconds from 7 seconds?

 

[Berd]

Now that there is a f2l thread, I would like to ask how to get your f2l times to 5 seconds from 7 seconds?

Practice, blind pairs, lookahead, practice.

Try to solve 2+pairs at once.

 

[Seanliu]

Now that there is a f2l thread, I would like to ask how to get your f2l times to 5 seconds from 7 seconds?

Easier: Sub 12 seconds? xD imma noob

 

[IrishCuber]

Identifying pieces in F2L?

Hello cubers!

I'm a relatively new cubers (3 weeks in) and am starting to focus on F2L. I average about 35 seconds with my best average of 12 being 30 seconds. One thing that slows me down is searching for edge or corners that are stuck in an incorrect slot. How do you guys quickly identify or find these pieces? Thanks in advance!

 

[Cube Is Life]

Hello cubers!

I'm a relatively new cubers (3 weeks in) and am starting to focus on F2L. I average about 35 seconds with my best average of 12 being 30 seconds. One thing that slows me down is searching for edge or corners that are stuck in an incorrect slot. How do you guys quickly identify or find these pieces? Thanks in advance!

What you should try to do is find your next pair while solving your current one. This means not focusing on the one you are solving but looking around the cube instead.

 

[Smiles]

Hello cubers!

I'm a relatively new cubers (3 weeks in) and am starting to focus on F2L. I average about 35 seconds with my best average of 12 being 30 seconds. One thing that slows me down is searching for edge or corners that are stuck in an incorrect slot. How do you guys quickly identify or find these pieces? Thanks in advance!

sometiems you can deduce it. for example, if your LL colour is yellow and you only have yellow edges on the top, that elusive edge must be in the back slot. etc.

 

[Octopanda]

I've been stuck at sub-30 for about 5 days now. Any tips on surpassing sub-30?
Cross- I can do the cross in 2-4 seconds.
F2L- I normally have a 2-3 second pause after the cross, I can do F2L in 10-20 seconds. And I'm trying to find ways to practice look ahead.
2-Look OLL- I use Badmephisto's 2-Look OLL and I can average from 3-6 seconds with it.
PLL- I currently know 15 out of 21 PLL algorithms the 6 algs that I do not know are all 4 G algs (a, b, c, and d). And the remaining 2 are the N algs (a, and b).

 

[JemFish]

guide:
when the same colours are on top: get them together (can be inserted with R U' R' or L' U L)
when different colours are on top: get them separated (can be inserted with R U R' or L' U' L)

however...
if the corner has your cross colour (white, for most people) facing up, do this instead:
place the edge's side colour with the correct face, then push it away from the slot using R or L', etc. and the put the corner on top of it. When you bring the edge back, the corner and edge will be paired.

might be hard to understand this without a visual but once you're more familiar with F2L (or even now?) you'll know what i mean. this is how i usually teach it and people tend to grasp it quickly.

Wow, I never 'learnt' F2L but these are the exact same rules I came up with while experimenting with F2L when I first started. I think it's time for me to step up a level in F2L and make some more advanced rules, so that I really do get sub-20.

 

[Smiles]

Wow, I never 'learnt' F2L but these are the exact same rules I came up with while experimenting with F2L when I first started. I think it's time for me to step up a level in F2L and make some more advanced rules, so that I really do get sub-20.

oh for sure.
what i said in that part is only U layer pairs and standard inserts. no sledges, no edge control, no fancy algs for bad cases.

the next step after learning to pair them is learning to pair them when one of them is in a slot and the other is in the U layer.

then the next step is to do it from different angles or predict which angle is best by looking at EO.

and then making sure you can do every single F2L case with 0 or 1 rotation.

F2L is endless lol.

 

[JemFish]

oh for sure.
what i said in that part is only U layer pairs and standard inserts. no sledges, no edge control, no fancy algs for bad cases.

the next step after learning to pair them is learning to pair them when one of them is in a slot and the other is in the U layer.

I've been lazy with these cases, and wasting seconds because I do them the easy way. I need to learn them properly.

then the next step is to do it from different angles or predict which angle is best by looking at EO.

I think you can pretty much group this step with the previous one.

and then making sure you can do every single F2L case with 0 or 1 rotation.

I can already do that but my case-solutions are too long.

F2L is endless lol.

Yep.

 

[SpeedCubeReview]

I've been stuck at sub-30 for about 5 days now. Any tips on surpassing sub-30?
Cross- I can do the cross in 2-4 seconds.
F2L- I normally have a 2-3 second pause after the cross, I can do F2L in 10-20 seconds. And I'm trying to find ways to practice look ahead.
2-Look OLL- I use Badmephisto's 2-Look OLL and I can average from 3-6 seconds with it.
PLL- I currently know 15 out of 21 PLL algorithms the 6 algs that I do not know are all 4 G algs (a, b, c, and d). And the remaining 2 are the N algs (a, and b).

It took me about 5-6 months to get an average of 30. You're doing fine. The next step would be to get the muscle memory doEn so you can look elsewhere while you are slotting each f2l case

 

[Asher Cho]

How to practice f2l

Hi I average around 35 seconds. I know full pll and 2 look oll. I asked Feliks for help so he told me to get me f2l faster. I Really want my f2l to get down to 10 seconds from my 15~20 second f2l average. How should I practice?

 

[mafergut]

Hi I average around 35 seconds. I know full pll and 2 look oll. I asked Feliks for help so he told me to get me f2l faster. I Really want my f2l to get down to 10 seconds from my 15~20 second f2l average. How should I practice?

You should practise at least in two fronts. I'm not sure at what level you are in any of these two areas so I apologize up front if you are already doing some of this:
- Making F2L insertions more efficient, by using less moves, or more fingertrick-friendly moves, avoiding cube rotations as much as possible and, for that, learning how to insert pairs in back slots, using empty slots to your advantage, etc.
- Improving your lookahead so that you can reduce pauses between pairs. For that you have to learn to track the next pair while you insert the current one. Perhaps blind insertion practice can help at first with this so that you reach a level where you don't need to look at the current pair to be able to insert it correctly, then you can start looking at the next one and planning how to insert it, and do it automatically while you search for the next pair. This also applies to cross-to-F2L transition.

Hope this helps. It is easly said but, from my own experience, it is much harder to apply it. I'm still on it in many areas.

Anyway, if you average 35 and only 15-20 seconds out of that is F2L you also need to work either on your cross, your LL or both. Can you give us a bit more info on your cross+f2l+oll+pll splits?

 

[Asher Cho]

You should practise at least in two fronts. I'm not sure at what level you are in any of these two areas so I apologize up front if you are already doing some of this:
- Making F2L insertions more efficient, by using less moves, or more fingertrick-friendly moves, avoiding cube rotations as much as possible and, for that, learning how to insert pairs in back slots, using empty slots to your advantage, etc.
- Improving your lookahead so that you can reduce pauses between pairs. For that you have to learn to track the next pair while you insert the current one. Perhaps blind insertion practice can help at first with this so that you reach a level where you don't need to look at the current pair to be able to insert it correctly, then you can start looking at the next one and planning how to insert it, and do it automatically while you search for the next pair. This also applies to cross-to-F2L transition.

Hope this helps. It is easly said but, from my own experience, it is much harder to apply it. I'm still on it in many areas.

Anyway, if you average 35 and only 15-20 seconds out of that is F2L you also need to work either on your cross, your LL or both. Can you give us a bit more info on your cross+f2l+oll+pll splits?

Thanks! I'll try to get better at look ahead. Cross:3~6 seconds f2l: 15~20 seconds oll and pll both are 5~7 seconds

 

[FailCuber]

Thanks! I'll try to get better at look ahead. Cross:3~6 seconds f2l: 15~20 seconds oll and pll both are 5~7 seconds

You're from korea?? I'm from korea too.!!