Getting sub-30

[alexc]

How long did it take the sub-30 OH cubers to get there? I have been doing OH for as long as I have been cubing, (a bit over 3 months now) and an average solve is about 45-55 seconds. My best non lucky is 38.30 and my best lucky is 31.85. (PLL skip) Is this good? Also, I want to work on increasing my finger strength, does anyone know any techniques to do this?

 

[Lofty]

Yes, OH a lot.
Being obsessed with OH and doing it almost exclusively I would turn the cube over and over while doing other things like in class and you can't give much attention to the cube you can still turn it to build finger strength.
I would practice turning the U face and R face (I'm left handed) so that my fingers could turn them both ways.
Also I would turn U'R and cycle all the way back to a solved cube multiple times in a row until my hand felt like it would fall off.
I practiced too much, until i injured myself, so don't practice as much as I did. As for your times for how long you have been cubing I think they are pretty good!

 

[AvGalen]

I have been doing one-handed for a much longer time than you have, but I use a "crappy" method (keyhole + 4 look last layer means a lot of moves). I average around 45 seconds, my best non-lucky solves (3 or more look last layer) are around 38 seconds and my best lucky solve was a 29 (1 look last layer).

Just practise a lot, don't rotate the cube if you don't have to and use short, but OH-friendly algs.

 

[alexc]

Yeah, I probably need to learn some OH friendly PLL algs for certain cases. I particularly need one for H perm. I generally hate double layer turns OH, I try to avoid them as much as possible.

 

[masterofthebass]

I just recently found this, even though its been out there forever.
(R L U2 R' L' y)x2

 

[hdskull]

It comes naturally, sub 35 will be a big step and sub 30 will be a big step. I think I'm barely sub 30 right now and I have been OHing since the end of June. (I did an sub 30 avg of 5 today).

Last layer is really important, I can do F2L in around 16-19 secs average, but my last layer costs me lots of time. (e.g. on one solve, i was done with F2L at 13, and then i ended up getting 26.96, I was pretty unsatisfied.)

 

[AvGalen]

(R L U2 R' L' y)*2 is very common, but I like the 2-gen better:
R2 U2
R
U2 R2 U2 R2 U2
R
U2 R2

 

[Lofty]

I agree with ^

 

[alexc]

Thanks guys, I'll use one of those algs.

 

[masterofthebass]

Wow... I actually never timed doing these 2 algorithms.
04.94, (13.16), 05.73, 08.61, 05.38, 08.29

Odd solves are 2-gen, even are that alg i posted. Again, thanks for teaching me that at the US Open Arnaud.

 

[Lofty]

Avg 2-gen: 3.82
Avg LUR: 4.01
My PB fastest was actually with the LUR alg. Unless some kind of double trigger is figured learned for the R2's like talked about in the T-perm I may switch back to the LUR alg.
Edit after doing around 50 more of each I am back to liking the 2-gen better.