[Member Intro] Hi There. (Sub 30 cuber, here) Looking for tips

[Bourney231]

Hi there. I'm Gavin, from Wales, UK.

By sub 30 I mean I'm 29 years old. Ha-ha.

Picked up cubing at 22 for about 4 weeks and got to 82 seconds.

Drop it until December 2015; 7 years later. Got down to 69 seconds with complete beginner method (this is with the old cube too, stickers turns like a tug boat - horrific, good work out for the fingers though)

My friend had gotten to under a minute with his speed cube, so initially I got a speed-cube to just beat him. Once I'd don't that I wanted to go faster, so I learned F2L. I got slower initially and now my best time is 49secs.

I'd be happy with getting to under 30 seconds. So I'm now going to trawl through the forum to find me some hints, tips and tricks.

 

[shadowslice e]

Welcome to the forums!

Hope you have a great time here!

BTW, I would advise you first to try out all the methods or at least Roux ZZ and CFOP though maybe some others as well.

 

[TDM]

Welcome! If you want specific advice then a video of 2-3 solves is the most helpful thing you can give us. It could also be good to tell us which algorithms you know, so we can suggest what to learn next.

 

[Bourney231]

I'm still yet to video myself solving. Will be doing that soon. I can do the cross in less than 5 seconds every time. F2L is the limiting part of my solve. I think I just need to practice to recognise every case and to be able to solve by muscle memory. After that then I still orient corners then get the yellow side done then move the edge pieces. My last layer probably takes about 10-15seconds so I probably average 30seconds for F2L.

 

[TDM]

I think 2/3 for F2L and 1/3 for LL is roughly normal. However, if you've only recently learned F2L then your F2L time will probably be improving constantly. It slows you down at first (as you noticed!), but after that you'll get a lot faster. I think the thing that will probably be the next step for you would be to learn more last layer algorithms. It can be boring at first, but learning algorithms gets easier!

 

[Bourney231]

Yeah, I've been thinking of learning last layer algorithms. But it's daunting with so many. I have shaved time off today. I've done 6 sub 50 solves, 43.97 the quickest one. My last 15 solves have been sub 60s. So my average is getting lower. If I don't feel like learning last layer algorithms is the next step learning look ahead? once I have all the F2l cases engraved into my brain . . .

 

[TDM]

Yeah, I've been thinking of learning last layer algorithms. But it's daunting with so many. I have shaved time off today. I've done 6 sub 50 solves, 43.97 the quickest one. My last 15 solves have been sub 60s. So my average is getting lower. If I don't feel like learning last layer algorithms is the next step learning look ahead? once I have all the F2l cases engraved into my brain . . .

The trick to learning last layer algorithms is to just learn a few at a time. I can't tell from your description since you didn't use "normal" terms (sorry ), but do you use 4-look last layer? If not then learn that next.

If you do use that already, then full PLL is the next step. This tutorial seems to have a decent overview and good algorithms. Now unlike 4-look last layer, this is a lot of algorithms - there are 21 total. However, you should know 6 already (from 4-look last layer), so it's only 15 really. I would suggest just learning one or two a day - maybe not even as often as that if you find that difficult. I found them easier to learn in pairs (since algs usually come in pairs), but just one at a time is good too. The algs on the website I linked are also in a good order, so I'd suggest following it!

Lookahead is definitely important and worth learning. However, this becomes more of a problem at ~30 seconds. For now, I think the problem with F2L will be doing more moves than you should. If you're learning F2L intuitively (i.e. not learning algorithms for each case), then people often use more moves than they should do. You can find "example solves" on YouTube where people show you their solutions; these can be really useful for you to learn tricks or short solutions.

 

[shadowslice e]

Yeah, I've been thinking of learning last layer algorithms. But it's daunting with so many. I have shaved time off today. I've done 6 sub 50 solves, 43.97 the quickest one. My last 15 solves have been sub 60s. So my average is getting lower. If I don't feel like learning last layer algorithms is the next step learning look ahead? once I have all the F2l cases engraved into my brain . . .

You could use Roux or ZZ; they have fewer algs.

 

[Shaky Hands]

Hi and welcome from the other side of the Severn.

Keep an eye on the Forum Competitions. You can use the Race to Sub-30 each week to track your progress.

I hit 48 seconds after 500-600 timed solves and got my first sub-30 after about 1300. Keep up the practice.

 

[Bourney231]

I think Full PLL should be the next stage for me. I only do timed solves like once a week; at the moment I'm constantly just solving cross as fast as possible and then doing F2L, then I re-scramble and do it again. When I feel faster then I time myself and see if I was right. Once I feel like F2L is no longer the limiting factor I'll probably move on to full PLL.

I have learn some algorithms for F2L, but some cases I'm working out the quickest way myself. The most difficult thing personally is recognising the case quickly.

 

[Bourney231]

I've been solving today, in work. Great stuff, I know, haha; getting paid to improve my Rubik's time.
I've hit 4 sub 40seconds today (36.78,37.83,38.80 and 39.78). And over my last 50 solves I've averaged 49 seconds. I think over my last 25 solves I've averaged about 45 seconds. Still making silly errors sometimes, but getting there slowly. I'm not going to time myself this week and try to see if I can go slow and start to look ahead.