Hello! - and a request for some advice

[Selkie]

Firstly I do apologise if some of the questions and advise requested is in other threads, I have read many but wanted to also meet the community and share my progress in cubing.

Its is worth mentioning I was caught up with the phenomenon back in 1980 at the age of ten. My wife made the very dubious decision on buying me a Rubik's store bought cube this Christmas and it has started the new obcession

At Christmas I could still remember the beginner method I used three decades ago - face on top and about an 8LLL! from the algo's I could recall, recording an average of about 1m25.

I decided to get into speedcubing and here is my progression so far:-

Week1 - Cross on bottom, intuitive F2L
Week2 - 4 LLL
Week3/4 - 3 LLL
Week5 - Some F2L algs for some more complicated cases

I am now at a stage where I am averaging overall about 52, RA12: 48.32, RA5: 47.19, PB/(Lucky): 37.36/35.8

I have started learning an OLL case per day and generally practising on everything, doing long timed runs, slowed runs for look ahead.

Whilst I am very pleased with progress there are a couple of areas I do need improving on, being lookahead and hand speed. When I try to speed up I always seems to get lockups due to inaccurate turning and finger tricks. Too fast and I soon lockup a Lingyun or Guhong! Have to say of the number of speed cubes I have bought I prefer these two the most.

I guess as I am using intuitive F2L, until it becomes 2nd nature I will always be looking at placing the pair rather than tracking other pairs so that will come in time.



Have to say a great community here, congratulations Any advice you may have for this grey haired cuber would be most welcome.

 

[Godmil]

Hello, sounds like you know exactly what you're doing Just keep at it I guess. Oh and be sure to join the Race to sub 30 thread.

 

[Jordie]

I agree, if you know all that, just keep practicing. Also, look up Badmephisto's videos on F2L tricks, and The Westonian has some really good ones too.

 

[ianography]

Yeah, you look like you know what you're doing. Also, try and learn full PLL sometime, it'll really bring down your times (atleast in my case).

 

[Krible]

It would be easier to say what you need to work on if you tell us how much time you use on average for cross, f2l, oll, and pll.
F2l is probably the most important step. Some people can do F2l (including cross) in just 6 seconds. How much time do you use for F2l on a normal solve? With a little more practise you should easily be able to get it below 20 seconds. Many people will tell you to slow down and look ahead during F2l. This is important. But another thing that is also imporatant is that you find the best solution for all the F2l cases. http://cubefreak.net/speed/cfop/f2l.html

 

[Selkie]

Thanks for the replies.

I will do some solves this evening and try and get time breakdowns between cross, F2L, OLL, PLL and post the results. Is there a good timer that allows 'lap' times to time each section? (I currently use CTT but cannot see a facility to time each section of a solve)

Though I do know full PLL (3 look last layer) I have to confess the alg's are not as yet completely automatic and I guess only time will move them to muscle memory.

Thanks for the video recommendations. I watched badmephisto's intuitive F2L vid set when I started learning and I have to say they are excellent and I did not need to watch them a second time but I know some of my intuitive pairings are not optimal so I am trying to support that by learning alg's for some more complicated cases. The Westonian vid on multislotting was really interesting and something well worth looking into but currently as I am solving F2L intuitively I am having to watch the pair I am working on too much which will improve as I know the moves instinctively.

I do feel my week points are look ahead, especially 1st pair, turning speed. Though I do use finger tricks throughout my solves I still finger trick slowly so I guess practising tricks on their own at times will improve this.

Anyone have any other recommendations on improving turning speed?

 

[ianography]

Thanks for the replies.

I will do some solves this evening and try and get time breakdowns between cross, F2L, OLL, PLL and post the results. Is there a good timer that allows 'lap' times to time each section? (I currently use CTT but cannot see a facility to time each section of a solve)

Though I do know full PLL (3 look last layer) I have to confess the alg's are not as yet completely automatic and I guess only time will move them to muscle memory.

Thanks for the video recommendations. I watched badmephisto's intuitive F2L vid set when I started learning and I have to say they are excellent and I did not need to watch them a second time but I know some of my intuitive pairings are not optimal so I am trying to support that by learning alg's for some more complicated cases. The Westonian vid on multislotting was really interesting and something well worth looking into but currently as I am solving F2L intuitively I am having to watch the pair I am working on too much which will improve as I know the moves instinctively.

I do feel my week points are look ahead, especially 1st pair, turning speed. Though I do use finger tricks throughout my solves I still finger trick slowly so I guess practising tricks on their own at times will improve this.

Anyone have any other recommendations on improving turning speed?

I'm not sure of any type of method that will improve you turning speed in the best way possible. Maybe look at fingertrick tutorials? The one by camcuber on youtube is great (I don't know how to put a link to it, so if anybody could do that, that'd be nice). And then, once youknow which fingertricks you're most comfortable using, try practicing them over and over again.

 

[Selkie]

It would be easier to say what you need to work on if you tell us how much time you use on average for cross, f2l, oll, and pll]

This is the average breakdown on 12 solves

Cross: 5.66s
F2L: 31.42s
3LLL: 16.54s

Total: 53.62

Not great times but seems to indicate some F2L work is needed

 

[freshcuber]

It shouldnt take you that long for cross. You're only doing, at most, 8 moves. 1 tps is very easy to do during cross or any other part of the solve. Your F2L is definitely lacking. Really work on quickly finding the piece that you need to reduce pauses. Even if you're not tracking pieces be able to quickly recognize the ones you need. You LL is most likely slow due to recognition problems. To help recognize PLLs check out badmephisto's guide here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBYycb7hR4Y

To help you see the differences between the Us and As and such set up each case on a different cube and compare them from there. Your execution is probably a little slow but drilling your algs will help that. Try drilling each alg once a day for a few minutes or a certain number of cycles or repetitions. Instead of doing an Ao12 go for fifteen minutes of drilling.

 

[danthecuber]

To help recognize PLLs check out badmephisto's guide here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBYycb7hR4Y

RiDo also made a "Printable Version" of that video if you're interested.

 

[kpcube]

Im using a mertnome for turn speed and look ahead and it is helping the click forces me to turn something and over time it has gotten me faster and more dextrous as well as improved look ahead. I got the suggestion on the forums and its working for me and I hope it helps you. Also, slow turning could be due to a tight set cube.I know its obvious but the limitation is there so maybe loosen a little.

 

[Selkie]

Thanks guys,

The recognition on PLL isn't too bad, I had studied badmephisto's guide and deliberately learned how to recognise all PLLs before learning the additional agg's to move from 2LPLL to 1LPLL so can recognise pretty quickly. I think the problem is the way I have learned the algo's and the short length of time since and the amount I have concentrated practising on them (or not as the case may be!). For instance with the G perms, I basically learned all four at once and remembered the differences, initially just remembering and going over in my head at work, then recalling at home in the evening solving. However, though I can recognise a G perm pretty quickly, I am still having to do some pausing in my head about how this one differs to the other 3. I have never really drilled the perms and so put them more into muscle memory. I only practice a perm when it comes up in a solve and although I never forget one, I have not repeated them enough to be automatic and am having to do some recall on every one.

Given the advise I am going to change my learning. It seems 3LLL is more than adequate for the meantime (together with the 'all edges to be flipped' OLLs) and my efforts could be spent elsewhere. I will start the suggestion of drilling the perms I know and time say 20 repetitions to check on progress. I am also going to spend time on F2L, not just with pure alg's, since they are only guaranteed more optimal if you have no free slots, but recognition of the 42 cases so they become more automatic to give me time to look ahead.

The metronome seems like a great idea, I guess setting it quite low, or low enough to successfully keep up forces look ahead and in time the tempo can increase.

A for the cubes, well I have gone a little mad and bought about 6 cubes of varying types (with more due from China ) and played with tension, lubing etc. I don't think tension is an issue since my Lingyun and Guhong are pretty lose and can cut 45 degrees. However if I repeat say RUR'U' over and over I just get into a mess of fingers with speed! I will watch more finger trick tutorials and give more practice to this but I guess I shouldn't be too displeased after a month.

Thanks for the great responses, I will post my progress and will join the sub-30 weekly thread as well.

 

[freshcuber]

Don't be afraid to learn OLL after you get decent at PLL. I decided to wait until I was sub-20 to learn OLL and it's killing me. I decided to start a little early and waiting this long was a mistake. I'd say learn OLL right after you finish PLL.

 

[maggot]

if you arent having trouble with the retention of your OLL and PLL, keep up with the OLL. the F2L really will come with much much time. i recently had a breakthrough with f2l. i was practicing lookahead in a very inefficient way. i would try my hardest to track the pieces, but at the same time, i would stumble on creating the pair and inserting it. imho, just take the time to get comfortable with the cube. do as many casual solves as you can, just so you can see how cube mechanics work and what needs to be done for each case. i got very little accomplished with lookahead until i could see 2 pieces and blindsolve the case, if that makes any sense. now with lookahead isnt so much trying to 'multitask' with tracking pieces and trying to get my pair done. now it is, see the case, start solving the case, but im not even looking at whats going on, because im looking at my next pair.

 

[cyoubx]

F2L look ahead is practiced in a lot of ways. For me, I was able to do one F2L pair blind at one time, so I was sure I knew the cases, but I couldn't do 2 look F2L. Even now, I'm pretty hit-and-miss but I can definitely look-ahead. What ended up working for me was bifurcating my eyes initially to see both the pair being solved and the pair being tracked. Obviously I had to go pretty slowly at first, but after awhile, it got easier and I didn't have to divert half of my attention to pair being solved, it just came naturally.

The metronome tactic never worked for me since I tend to speed up in the fourth pair, and having a dead-consistent speed was annoying for me. Generally, I just do casual solves where I don't have pauses in my F2L. Sometimes this means that one pair has a larger tps than another but that's fine.

Good job, and good luck!

 

[Selkie]

Well following the great advise a good day for me. It helped being off work with a virus and my wife being at work which made for plenty of cubing time!

I have concentrated a lot on the cross early on and seem to have it down to an average of 3 seconds and beginning to instantly see the way to remove most flips whilst placing the cross. As well I have done some snail paced F2Ls, trying to concentrate on exactly what moves are needed to slot a pair then trying to execute that whilst actually looking at other pairs and it seems to be working and changing the mindset.

Later I did about 70 full speed solves and my overall average was over 4 seconds better than yesterday! Also managed a 47.75 average for my 1st week entry to the 'Race to sub 30'

I will take the advise and continue on the OLLs since I have no problem memorising alg's just slow recalling and executing them but practice will take care of that.

I am also going to approach F2L in the same way as i did 1LPLL, I am going to learn to recognise all 42 cases, even though most I solve intuitively, then when I do learn any alg's to optimise I already have early recognition of case which will give more time to look ahead.

The advise seems to be paying off and I'm looking forward to seeing how I progress over the next few weeks.

 

[Magix]

How to practice F2L lookahead: solve the cube until it comes naturally for you