Greetings and introduction

[pipkiksass]

Did you mean me? Weird coincidence if Sk8rman is an Adam as well!?!

Currently I'm averaging about 23-24 Kong. I was stuck at 26/27 for about 2 months, and recently smashed all my PBs and took almost 4 seconds off my averages after taking some time off timed solves. Hoping to get down below 20 in the next month or so. A couple of weeks ago I was getting about 1 sub-20 solve a day, now I'm getting about 1 in 7.

I tried graphing my PB progress today, just for interest:

Notice the total lack of improvement for the whole of March and April, then pretty much the whole of May. Then I received my order from UKCubeStore! ;-)

I've been meaning to post for a while on beating plateaus, so I'm off to do that!

 

[sk8erman41]

LOL how funny, I was wondering how Kong knew my name was Adam

 

[Cubemaestro]

i use the same j a alg as you and the f perm too, not forgetting the e perm. the r a i use is this: R U2 R' U2 R B' R' U' R U R B R2 U'
anyway welcome to speedsolving

 

[sk8erman41]

Alright, I have let my brian wrap around switching out some algs after trying some a few times and I am definitely liking the new ones a lot better so thank you! I'm still overcomming my brain thinking the old ones and the muscle memory taking over, but just like learning almost anything new my times slow down at first but I am sure that they will pick back up and even improve as I get used to the new ones more and more and they replace the old ones in my mind.

 

[sk8erman41]

Any tips on cross? Like I said in an earlier post, I have watched lots of videos and am pretty decent at improvising cross, but I just can't seem to get the 15 seconds solve it blind thing. I have been practicing taking as much time as necessary and attempting to solve blind and have seen some improvement, but I still screw it up fairly often and miss by one move or something and just seem to be better at looking and improvising. I know that this is taking WAY too much time (~10 sec.) and would improve my times greatly if I could get over the hump but something just isn't working for me.

 

[KongShou]

Any tips on cross? Like I said in an earlier post, I have watched lots of videos and am pretty decent at improvising cross, but I just can't seem to get the 15 seconds solve it blind thing. I have been practicing taking as much time as necessary and attempting to solve blind and have seen some improvement, but I still screw it up fairly often and miss by one move or something and just seem to be better at looking and improvising. I know that this is taking WAY too much time (~10 sec.) and would improve my times greatly if I could get over the hump but something just isn't working for me.

If u hate the bld thing don't do it. I never tried it as I didn't see the point of it. Just solve cross over and over, taking as long as u want to inspect and eventually you'll see the fast solutions easily. This is something that is just practice. Take a look at my websites cross tutorial
http://www.ukcubestore.com/cross.html

 

[sk8erman41]

good tips, thanks. I think the best take away was not solving edge by edge. I'll have to work on that one.

 

[KongShou]

Btw ur called Adam too? What a coincidence!

 

[sk8erman41]

Yeah I was wondering how you knew that at first but turns out you were talking to the other one

 

[mark49152]

The point of solving cross blind is to enable lookahead for the first pair, and to ensure you're doing it according to your plan during inspection and not falling back on improvisation. Start with two edges blind, and when that's easy move to three, then four.

 

[KongShou]

The point of solving cross blind is to enable lookahead for the first pair, and to ensure you're doing it according to your plan during inspection and not falling back on improvisation. Start with two edges blind, and when that's easy move to three, then four.

So ur saying if I start practicing bld cross I can start to look for first pair during inspection? That's something I desperately need to work on. Very desperate, extremely desperate.

 

[mark49152]

So ur saying if I start practicing bld cross I can start to look for first pair during inspection? That's something I desperately need to work on. Very desperate, extremely desperate.

No, it gets you out of the habit of watching the cross pieces as you solve them, so that you can look ahead for the first pair while solvng the cross. Apparently. I'm not claiming to be any good at it

 

[pipkiksass]

The point of solving cross blind is to enable lookahead for the first pair, and to ensure you're doing it according to your plan during inspection and not falling back on improvisation. Start with two edges blind, and when that's easy move to three, then four.

Yuh, this is something I REALLY need to work on too - I never practiced cross, I've just gradually improved thru practice. My cross is now pretty good, but I still watch what I'm doing then pause into F2L. Next thing I think I'll work on! Nice to have so many things to work on, in a way - means there's plenty of room for improvement. My lookahead in general sucks. I know what I SHOULD be doing, I just don't do it!

 

[sk8erman41]

I do this a lot. Its funny but I have to focus on NOT just solving. It take deliberate effort to focus on going slow, looking ahead, paying attention to cross. This is why the cube is SOOOOO addicting to me, there is always room for improvement and so many different aspects to work on. When my wife gets annoyed with me practicing she always says "isn't it just the same thing over and over?" and I'm like "NO"

 

[pipkiksass]

LOL - my wife is exactly the same, just doesn't get it! To me, it's always exciting. I didn't improve much for about 2 months because I'd already reached my goal and just enjoy solving lots, but when I think about all the things I need to work on:

BLD cross to improve cross,
BLD cross to improve cross-F2L transition,
Slow turning to improve F2L-F2L lookahead,
Solving 2 F2L pairs BLD, to work on recognising the affect of your F2L insertions (and lookahead),
I still have about 50% of OLLs to learn,
When I've learnt the OLLs, I need to drill them,
I need to replace my G perms,
When I'm happy with all my PLLs, I needa drill them too!

SO much to do - when I started my only goal was to get a sub-30 single. I intended to stop then, and just be happy being sub-30. Now I feel like I'm still improving, and anything over 25s is a disappointment. I never would have believed I could solve the cube in 14 seconds (T oll and T perm with no AUF! ). With so much still to work on, I don't know if I'll ever be able to stop!

I showed my wife this, and said "it'll only be the same thing once I've solved it 43 quintillion times!!!"

 

[sk8erman41]

I showed my wife this, and said "it'll only be the same thing once I've solved it 43 quintillion times!!!"

That's awesome!

 

[KongShou]

if i get cross + f2l 1 within 2 sec and drill my oll pll until my ll is within 4 sec ill be sub 10! drill drill drill!

 

[pipkiksass]

Definitely the way forward. Someone once said there's no point having a 1 second cross if your transition to f2l 1 takes 3 seconds. I think it's from one of Faz's 'how to get faster' vids, pretty sure you'll have seen those Kong, as a big Faz fan!

 

[KongShou]

Definitely the way forward. Someone once said there's no point having a 1 second cross if your transition to f2l 1 takes 3 seconds. I think it's from one of Faz's 'how to get faster' vids, pretty sure you'll have seen those Kong, as a big Faz fan!

sub 10 would be amazing. my life would be complete!

 

[pipkiksass]

sub 10 would be amazing. my life would be complete!

I'm sure when you're sub 10 in a few months time you'll be saying the same about being sub 8! ;-)