General Tips on HOW to look ahead?

[Brett]

I just barely reached sub-30 today, and my LL times are fine (PLL time attack pending, but whatever)

I just have trouble looking ahead during my intuitive F2L. When I solve slowly I end up just doing my normal solve style, just slower instead of up to speed. I try looking around the cube for pieces but I can only find one corner, and end up pausing and looking around (even during slow solves)

Any tips? (video, written guide or just posted, anything helps). Thanks.

 

[JBCM627]

Looking ahead can be one of the harder things to do while solving. For F2L it is a good idea to know all your F2L algs by heart - make sure you can do them without thinking about it. If you can do this, then you shouldn't need to pay much attention to them, and can thus look ahead. Also trying to keep track of other pieces while performing an algorithm will let you know where they will end up after you have performed it, and allow for near instantaneous recognition.

Dan Knights had some good tips that helped me on his page: http://dan.knights.googlepages.com/cube-index.html; wrt looking ahead, look at the very bottom of the page (the 2nd section under #3 under "Other Tips")

 

[Brett]

That's something I had been trying, I would see the pieces I would want and I would close my eyes and solve them, my thought there was that I would be able to look ahead, since I dont need to look at all.

Then I would go slow and just not be able to look ahead. I'll check out that website now, though.

Wow - one tip pretty much changed how I do F2L.

Dan Knights - "While solving the first two layers, pause halfway through inserting the first pair. Find the second pair, and then force yourself to watch the second pair as you allow your hands to complete the first pair. Repeat with the remaining pairs. The most important part is that your eyes are physically tracking other pieces on the cube, instead of the pieces you are solving."

Genius

 

[JBCM627]

I mean, that is just to practice... don't make a habbit out of pausing

 

[Brett]

Yes, I planned on doing this and reducing the pause-to-find time each time, until eventually I'm just doing a smooth solve.

 

[*LukeMayn*]

C'mon guys, this is really important!!! I will share mine which has got me around 12-14 sec avg (F2L only) so far. When I am slotting a piece I see what edge/corner is in that slot. once I know that I look for the next pair (doing this while executing the previous alg) once I have found it, I appropriatly pair it while searching for the next.
This can become awkward though when you have no 1st or 2nd layer pieces in the slot you are filling cos you have to look around to the other side of the cube. Also almost all cases can be done in 7-8 moves with a few exceptions, you might want to look up some algs for long or tricky cases too.
Just my 2 cents (even though in NZ our lowest coin is 10 cents )

 

[Brett]

So if you're placing a C/E pair into the Front right slot, you're only looking at the two pieces in that slot for your look ahead?

 

[*LukeMayn*]

yea pretty much but if there is nothing there I search around the cube.

 

[*LukeMayn*]

It's OK now, PJK deleted it!!! good job

 

[Harry]

It is better to use intuitive or algos?

 

[b03tz]

I think intuitive is best, but for some cases you might want to learn the algs (in case you just cant find the sweet alg you intuively would do)

As for Dan Knights tip, that's really cool. Im gonna do that too!

 

[JBCM627]

I'd also have to agree that intuitive is best. At least for starters... you should definately know how all the algs work, but know them by heart. Knowing optimized/fast ones is really important too. It should still be muscle memory.

 

[Crzyazn]

Make pair+insertions almost subconscious. While your muscles are completing that F2L case, your eyes will have time to track all pieces in the U layer and unfilled slots.

 

[Harry]

Hmmm, so that means I must find my own algos, is that it? Because what I am doing from this few weeks is just using purely intuitive without any algos......

 

[sjoerdtheone]

No, you don't have to find your own algorithms. You can use any of the algorithms on one of the many websites, or you could do it intuitively as you have been doing thus far. http://youtube.com/watch?v=k-xbcAMfWwM is a good video I recommend for intuitive F2L.

The key I think is being able to do the algorithm required without thinking about it. And it doesn't matter whether you have found the alg yourself, or whether you got them off the net.

 

[rjohnson_8ball]

A good site for understanding intuitive F2L is Macky's site at cubefreak.net. His site is good in general. He notes the odd F2L cases you might want to memorize.

 

[Harry]

Sorry, but what I asked is that, do I need an algos for F2L or not? Since the way you speak looks like that even doing intuitive would need algos, i.e. algos that I invent, thus, intuitive. Is that it?

Edited: @rjohnson_8ball, thanks, I will check it.

 

[Winston]

I do think you should try solving the F2L pairs intuitively first, then check out the algorithms harder cases. Make sure you have absolutely no delays between algorithms, and all that boils down to practice and good lookahead

 

[Inusagi]

You must try to search for anything that has you D color, or an edge piece that doesn't have your U color.

 

[AvGalen]

algs vs intuition is a difficult discussion because there isn't really a difference except for how you acquired the knowledge.

Just consider these scrambles: RUR', RUR'U', FR'F'R and R'FRF'. None of these should require you to learn an alg. But during a FMC attempt I discovered this "alg" R2 U2 F R F' U2 R' U R' (no cube here, should flip the FR-edge) and I think most people will just learn algs for this
(my favorite weirdo's are F' L' U2 L F R U R' and it's inverse because edge-control is so easily done.)