[Help Thread] Finger Tricks Discussion and Help

[Carrot]

Fingertricks are always worth learning.
If you learn them at this point you'll be able to scratch off about 3~5 seconds I believe off your average.

as far as I know neither Felix Lee, Yohei Oka nor I uses fingertricks for pyraminx :rolleyes:

 

[NaeosPsy]

as far as I know neither Felix Lee, Yohei Oka nor I uses fingertricks for pyraminx :rolleyes:

Solving Pyraminx is one large fingertrick, o.O
You dont use those flips, like(R L R' L')? I would call them fingertricks. Or maybe no, dunno.
If not, there is no need of them in Pyraminx, thats right.

 

[20four7n]

How do you do your finger tricks?

Hi guys, I am relativity new to cubing, and i average about 1.30.

I am trying to improve my time, i have lubed my cube, and I have a zhanchi, dian sheng, and a "rubik's cube". I figured that the reason why i am taking to long is becuase i am not doing any finger tricks or finger movements, but i am using my wrist.
I have searched on youtube and this forum, but nothing has really told me how to do finger tricks. eg. index finer for U.

Can someone please give me a list of finger tricks or a video?? Thanks!!!!!

 

[Hershey]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgr4SbZKF1k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a3MjWfZSKA&feature=channel_video_title

 

[Phlippieskezer]

My fingertricks pretty much just came naturally after hanging about some of my cubing friends for a while and attending some cube meets.

There's no strict way of doing fingertricks, so it's not very easy to give a tutorial, and just watching some really fast solves would probably help more than a tutorial, IMO.

 

[Hershey]

My fingertricks pretty much just came naturally after hanging about some of my cubing friends for a while and attending some cube meets.

There's no strict way of doing fingertricks, so it's not very easy to give a tutorial, and just watching some really fast solves would probably help more than a tutorial, IMO.

^ Listen to this guy. This is true.

 

[20four7n]

thanks to both, appreciated

 

[Erdos]

It kind of just comes from practice and watching other people for slight tricks. But most of your "style" comes from practice. Do you grip mostly with your left or right hand? Do you prefer to do gens with <R,U>, <R,U,L>, <M,U>, etc.? How do you do perform <F>, <M>, <B>, etc.? After answering questions like these, you can pretty much figure some type of pattern and try to "improve" from there.

 

[5BLD]

Yeah, do them naturally... Don't do it exactly the same as anyone else. Do it how you feel is best. I personally use my right index or thumb for U, left index or thumb or right index for U' (yes, right index push during mooing sometimes), left ring for all Ms or maybe right index for M sometimes...

Oh and for D I use my wrist or I use my ring fingers.

I'd like to ask the same questions as Erdos has asked, as this will give more info and we'll be able to guide you...

 

[Rpotts]

do R U' R and R' U R' in one fluid motion without regripping your wrist, keep it locked on the R layer.

Then do R U R' U' * a lot

Also practice doing R U' R' U

Practice things like R' F R2 U' R' or R' F2 R2 U2' R'

R2 U' R2' U'

R' F R

etc etc

Don't forget to practice your left hand stuff as well.

 

[Zarxrax]

Cross finger tricks?

My cross is probably the slowest part of my solve. I have dedicated lots of my practice time just towards my cross, trying to find good solutions with few moves, trying to plan the full cross during inspection, etc. However I still seem to have trouble with all aspects of the cross. I guess if I keep practicing those things, I will get better eventually (at least I hope so).
However one thing that is bothering me lately, is the execution speed of my cross. Even if I have my cross planned out and I know what I'm going to do, its just slow.
I notice a lot of fast cubers doing their cross in around 1 second! I think mine averages around 4 seconds.

So I recently watched badmephisto's advanced cross video again, and I noticed he had a fingertrick in there for when you've got a misoriented cross edge (R' u R' u').
That is way faster than how I have always been solving that case, so I'm wondering if there are any other good tricks that I don't know about?
Does anyone specifically use any finger tricks or algs for certain cases?

 

[ottozing]

when you have two adjacent cross edges swapped (DF AND DR) do R' D' R D R'.

 

[MWilson]

Use qqTimer and set it to a scramble length of four or five, and just plan the fingertricks for that scramble and then time it. Once you're sub 2 seconds consistently, add another move to the scramble length. Once you're at 7 moves sub 2 seconds consistently, you should be pretty pro.

Edit: Don't forget to consider moves like r and l, don't just use R L etc. Also M' isn't bad. Just focus on efficient movement and having it completely figured out before you start. Speed will come eventually as a result.

 

[Zarxrax]

Dominate, thats a pretty solid idea, I'm going to try that.
Looks like I'm currently averaging 2.5 for a 5-move avg of 12.

 

[tozies24]

some times you can't really get a fast cross but usually you should be able to figure out how each piece is going to move when you place another piece. The worst case is when you have to do like an R' F and then adjust the bottom layer to place a piece because this will take 3 or 4 moves. Add this on to the other 3 pieces and you can have a pretty bad cross. But if you figure out how each piece is affected by the other faces, then things will start to set in and you will be able to make better more effiecient crosses.

 

[DavidWoner]

Wide turns are your best friend. Practice them a bunch.

 

[Arkwell]

Wide turns are your best friend. Practice them a bunch.

What are wide turns?

 

[cubernya]

Double layer turns, like r is the same as L x

 

[teller]

Swap and flip: x R U' R' U2

 

[vinko]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTydBg21aaw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY_FbpdNRCQ