Hi from Ryan

Hi Ryan,

Welcome (LOL). Looking at your 21 second 3 X 3 average I would say.. that is a tough barriere to get through. You are a lot faster than me so I can not give solid advise. What I can do is tell you about this guy:

He is crazy. SickXTB or something like that. I love that guy.. He makes very good sugestions on getting faster. Most of the tips he gave did I follow up and got a lot faster..

 
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SHENGSHOUOUOUOU
anyway, welcome (lawl). Practice a bunch. How are you doing several hundred 3x3 solves a day? I found it was difficult to do 300 pyraminx solves a day when I averaged 6 seconds, and I can't even imagine doing 1500 pyraminx solves a day (about the same as 300 31 second 3x3 solves). What method do you use?
 
SHENGSHOUOUOUOU
anyway, welcome (lawl). Practice a bunch. How are you doing several hundred 3x3 solves a day? I found it was difficult to do 300 pyraminx solves a day when I averaged 6 seconds, and I can't even imagine doing 1500 pyraminx solves a day (about the same as 300 31 second 3x3 solves). What method do you use?

Shengshou? I probably only do about 100 but I don't have a life so it doesn't matter. I use CFOP but am transitioning to zz.
 
Working on 2x2 this weekend. I got a 5.25 single. I avg sub-10. Maybe sub-9. I think I am going to learn cll now. When I get a completed first layer my pbl sucks because my j and y perms are bad.
 
Maybe you should take a break. I have done some 300-solves-a-day weeks but I wouldn't get any faster. Leave and come back in a few days and your hands might be better. Also, too much cubing can hurts your wrists.

On another note: Solve big cubes and 3x3 will look a lot easier.
 
What is your time for J and Y perm? What are the algs that you're using? OLL should be easy to learn. Just take the ones from 3x3 and change a couple. And what method are you using?

About 2 (maybe sub-2) and 3. I use standard 3x3 pll algs. I feel the j pll is faster than the R U2 R' U' …. I use CFOP and Ortega.
 
About 2 (maybe sub-2) and 3. I use standard 3x3 pll algs. I feel the j pll is faster than the R U2 R' U' …. I use CFOP and Ortega.

Y-perm try
R U' R' U' F2 U' R U R' D R2

which is much shorter than
F R U' R' U' R U R' F' R U R' U' R' F R F'

CLL may not necessarily make you faster because recognition takes time as well. And then all these other algs to practice a lot of to get fast at them. I would recommend getting closer to sub-6 or even sub-5 with Ortega before doing CLL. You'll have to use the same skills of planning the D layer and knowing at inspection at least what OLL case you'll have so CLL recognition doesn't take as long. Also, I assume you are CN on 2x2. I'm a bit confused about one thing though: You said you use Ortega but you asked about learning OLL. I thought you would already know OLL if you use Ortega?
 
Hey Ryan, if you wanna get better at cubing then you gotta get better at the things that you're not better at.
It'd be great to know how you practice, because there are many different ways. You can practice specific areas of your solve, do untimed solves while trying to improve your efficiency, learn new things, or just mindlessly practice your times (which is not a bad thing, but usually not the best).

30+ seconds average is still in that area where speed doesn't matter. During my first method, CFOP, 30+ seconds was as good as my cubing skill was at the time and breaking my own records was a big deal. However, like most experienced cubers will say, just worrying about your times could slow you down compared to if you practiced the right ways.

For me, speed wasn't a big factor in my solves until trying to get sub-15. What I'm trying to say is don't worry about your turning speed during non-algorithm parts of the solve, and look ahead is very important. very.

Like, if you wanna main ZZ, plan your EO-Line and look ahead to your first square or corner-edge pair while you're doing it. Turning fast without good look ahead will save only a little bit of time, while blurring the cube and causing pauses. Practice smooth solving and conscious look ahead and such, until the last layer.
For Roux, plan out your first block (which isn't too hard at first if you're not colour neutral) and look ahead to second block. Lots of look ahead for LSE as well.
For CFOP, look ahead to your first pair during the cross, and obviously keep looking ahead.

Just speaking from experience, usually my PBs have very smooth or short F2L/blocks, and stuff like PLL skips or LSE skips alone make less of a difference.

You don't have to main any method yet, each one will help you in another one. I remember Feliks said he averages like 12 with ZZ and 15 with Roux, so clearly knowing a lot of methods won't hurt.

tl;dr

- prepare yourself for when you're fast, by practicing the things you'll be doing when you're fast. the right algs, look ahead, optimal cross, etc.
- in a few months or a year, your current PBs won't seem so omgawesome. worry about being a faster cuber, not just having a faster PB.
- do untimed solves, do smooth solves to a metronome, figure out shortcuts while doing slow solves, etc. try going off your regular practice pattern.
 
I practice a lot. I do a couple hundred solves each day. I guess I am practicing wrong.
You're DEFINITELY practicing wrong if you are spending that much time on it and not getting anywhere. Don't just do casual solves. Work on lookahead, try to do each alg faster (not just moving your hands fast, find efficient ways to do the moves with as little finger movement as possible), try to turn consistently and smoothly without breaks throughout the whole solve. Have you ever thought about reading the topics on the forum about how to get good? Or the wiki articles about it?
 
You're DEFINITELY practicing wrong if you are spending that much time on it and not getting anywhere. Don't just do casual solves. Work on lookahead, try to do each alg faster (not just moving your hands fast, find efficient ways to do the moves with as little finger movement as possible), try to turn consistently and smoothly without breaks throughout the whole solve. Have you ever thought about reading the topics on the forum about how to get good? Or the wiki articles about it?

I have read the how to practice thread. Which others should I look at?
 
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