Hello from a new old guy

[rwfellows]

Glad to have just joined this forum, and looking forward to getting my 3x3 time under a minute. My first cube solve was in 1982; took half a day using Bossert's book. Since then I have brought my time down to about 2 minutes using the Fridrich F2L with my own homegrown OLL/PLL. I'm now working on the more modern 2-look OLL/PLL algorithms to get my time down more.

Maybe later I'll get into 1-look OLL/PLL, but learning more than 70 algorithms is kind of scary!

I also enjoy working 2x2, 4x4, 5x5, 6x6, and 7x7 cubes, but I'm not very fast.

Dick Fellows

 

[Dene]

Good to have you around. Practise is far more important than learning more algorithms if you want to get faster. Go hard, sub30 will be a breeze for you before you know it!

 

[cubingawsumness]

Welcome!
Practice, turn slow, and lookahead in your solves.
Use the search bar, use the OAQT, and don't be stupid on the forums.

Happy cubing!

 

[SweetSolver]

Welcome

What's your best times for 2x2?

 

[rwfellows]

About 1 1/2 minutes. Not much better than my 3x3 time--I use a rather crude technique: solve the first layer (white), get the bottom layer pieces permuted, then orient the bottom layer pieces individually.

 

[SweetSolver]

Ok. In your case I would recommend Ortega (only if you're interested of course ). In no time you could bring your time down quite a lot.

 

[Reprobate]

Welcome and good luck! I am not as old an old guy as you, but I never picked up a cube until this year at age 30, but I figure it's never too late to learn. I agree, Ortega's not bad. I had it down in a few days, and can usually get under 20 seconds even with my slow turning. Plus if you want to learn full PLL, a couple of the algorithms are the same (T and Y-perms, for instance).

 

[ThomasJE]

Hi.
Like others, I definitely recommend learning Ortega for 2x2. It's easy to learn (12 algs; less as most of the OLL's are the same as 3x3), and it can be very fast (I have sub-6 averages with it). The first step is also quite easy. Here is a link to probably the best guide: http://www.kungfoomanchu.com/guides/andy-klise-2x2x2-speedcubing-guide-v2.pdf. The distinguishing patterns on the last step are very useful. When you're familiar with the method, I recommend going colour neutural. It's really easy compared to other methods and makes the first step easier still. Hope this helped.