How can you tell when you are good at looking ahead for F2L?

[applemobile]

I would say that 'look ahead' is not your issue at all. Its easily possible to sub 20 with no look ahead at all, so i would really try to nail your f2l inserts first. So what if it takes you 10 seconds to find the pair, just take your time and don't make any unnecessary moves untill you have found your pairs and are 100% sure how you are going to pair and insert them. You need to get to a point where you can see the pairs, then close your eyes nd insert them. ONLY once you can do this with out a problem should you start trying to look ahead, otherwise you will just end up getting yourself in a pickle.

 

[mark49152]

(advice on practising lookahead)

This is great, thanks. I'll give it a go. I have found that with eyes closed I am still inclined to follow the inserting pair in my head.

Still, 28s is pretty long for just F2L to be thinking so much about look ahead. Can you put a few written cross+F2L examples?

Yeah I will do this later today. That 28s doesn't even include cross! :0

 

[mark49152]

I would say that 'look ahead' is not your issue at all. Its easily possible to sub 20 with no look ahead at all, so i would really try to nail your f2l inserts first. So what if it takes you 10 seconds to find the pair, just take your time and don't make any unnecessary moves untill you have found your pairs and are 100% sure how you are going to pair and insert them. You need to get to a point where you can see the pairs, then close your eyes nd insert them. ONLY once you can do this with out a problem should you start trying to look ahead, otherwise you will just end up getting yourself in a pickle.

Yeah I am OK with the inserts and can do it fluidly eyes closed once I find the pair, and if I could do just 4 of those back to back with no pauses I'd be much faster than 28s. The time-wasting staring at the cube in between inserts just seemed to be the most obvious thing to work on, looking at my splits. (Cross is next on my list.)

 

[jskyler91]

Yeah I am OK with the inserts and can do it fluidly eyes closed once I find the pair, and if I could do just 4 of those back to back with no pauses I'd be much faster than 28s. The time-wasting staring at the cube in between inserts just seemed to be the most obvious thing to work on, looking at my splits. (Cross is next on my list.)

How long have you been doing Fridich f2l? Because it usually takes at least a few months to really get them down and be able to recog them quickly. Don't be so hard on yourself. It will come with time.

 

[mark49152]

How long have you been doing Fridich f2l? Because it usually takes at least a few months to really get them down and be able to recog them quickly. Don't be so hard on yourself. It will come with time.

A couple of months and it's great, I'm really enjoying cubing again (first learned in about 1982 but forgot everything since). Just a little frustrated that my recent practice doesn't seem to be paying off but that's OK, practice is fun too. I just asked for advice in case I'm doing something wrong or missing a better way. Your lookahead videos are great, by the way.

 

[jskyler91]

A couple of months and it's great, I'm really enjoying cubing again (first learned in about 1982 but forgot everything since). Just a little frustrated that my recent practice doesn't seem to be paying off but that's OK, practice is fun too. I just asked for advice in case I'm doing something wrong or missing a better way. Your lookahead videos are great, by the way.

Thanks, and ya cubing can be frustrating at times. I remember I spent over a week trying to cut like two seconds off of my time to be sub 30 and I was stuck at sup 20 (21 sec or so) for like a month straight. The key is perseverance! Also, remember to never move the cube unless you KNOW what you are going to do next. Many people at your time are doing tons of unnecessary moves, cube rotations and make mistakes often. These are all things that just practicing properly and doing A LOT of untimed solves can help to alleviate.

 

[mark49152]

Still, 28s is pretty long for just F2L to be thinking so much about look ahead. Can you put a few written cross+F2L examples?

OK guys, here's some example solves. Any advice much appreciated - and no laughing please . I didn't time these as I kept pausing to write the moves down but these are the moves I would have made at full speed assuming no mistakes due to rushing. I guess the first and third would have been a little faster than my average, the second a little slower.

Actually it was a really interesting exercise doing this. Counting moves it looks like my average is close to 1tps. When I do metronome at 60bpm that feels painfully slow, like half speed, so that shows how much time I must lose on pauses.

Scrambled with white on top, green at front.

(1) R' D U' F' R F' L' D' U2 L' R' F R2 F2 U L' B' D' L' R' U' B2 R B2 F2

r2 U2 R2 F2 u L' u' (now yellow on top, blue at front)
U2' L U L' U2' L U L'
U' R' U R2...
U' R' U2 L' U L
U' R U R' U2' R U R'

(2) D' L B2 U2 R L2 U' F L D R U B F' U' L R' B' U' B2 U' L' R2 U2 D'

R r2 B L' F u' F U' B2 u (now yellow on top, blue at front)
U' d' R U R' U2' R U R'
U L U' L' U d L' U' L
U' R U R' U2' R U R'
y' L' U2' L U2' L' U' L

(3) U' D2 R B D' R2 U R2 D2 L U R U R' D R' F2 U R' L' D' L' R' F' L'

r2 F R' D u R' F' L F u' (now yellow on top, blue at front)
U L' U' L U' L U' L'
R' U2' R U R' U' R2...
U R' d' L U L'
U2' L' U L d' L U' L'

 

[MWilson]

OK guys, here's some example solves. Any advice much appreciated - and no laughing please . I didn't time these as I kept pausing to write the moves down but these are the moves I would have made at full speed assuming no mistakes due to rushing. I guess the first and third would have been a little faster than my average, the second a little slower.

Actually it was a really interesting exercise doing this. Counting moves it looks like my average is close to 1tps. When I do metronome at 60bpm that feels painfully slow, like half speed, so that shows how much time I must lose on pauses.

Your F2L looks fine, especially for your times. I think mainly you just need to practice really thinking out the solution to each pair before making moves, doing it with your eyes closed, and focusing on something else to get out of the habit of focusing on the pair your solving. If you throw in finding all the remaining pairs each time, you will get substantial practice focusing on the right pieces. Seeing all of the remaining F2L pieces at once on the cube between each pair should really get your mind used to ignoring the other pieces.

Do a scramble and a cross, and just look around the cube for only a couple seconds. Take note of how boggling the view is, how messy it looks. Now take your time to find all of the F2L pairs. Focus on them for a little while, alternating your focus from one pair to the next in a loop. Keep doing this until the cube looks and feels "clean", in that you no longer really notice the useless pieces. You can rotate the cube around to see pieces on the back, of course. The idea is to get your mind used to focusing on only the useful stuff at each step.

 

[mark49152]

Thanks for taking a look and for the advice. Hopefully I'll be reporting back in a few days with a sub-20 average F2L! That's my target before moving on to cross.

I've read suggestions that it can be helpful to practise F2L with a cube that doesn't have stickers on the LL. What do you think of that?

 

[MWilson]

Thanks for taking a look and for the advice. Hopefully I'll be reporting back in a few days with a sub-20 average F2L! That's my target before moving on to cross.

I've read suggestions that it can be helpful to practice F2L with a cube that doesn't have stickers on the LL. What do you think of that?

I never tried that, so I'm only speculating, but I don't like the idea of it. If you want to practice something, you need to actually do it.

If you want to be able to see only the F2L pieces even when they are surrounded by LL pieces, you need to practice seeing only the F2L pieces even when they are surrounded by LL pieces. If the LL pieces aren't visible, how can you practice not seeing them? Removing the clutter caused by the LL pieces by not having those stickers on the cube will help you find the F2L pieces quicker, but not because you improved at finding them, it would be because you no longer have to try. If you don't even need to try, then it's already easy, so how can you practice?

You can try it if you want, again I haven't done it myself, but I don't see how removing a challenge superficially can help you overcome it. You need to meet it head on and focus.

 

[mark49152]

Makes sense. I haven't tried it either, because of similar reservations.

I got an ao10 F2L of 26 tonight so the practice is starting to make a difference.

 

[Coolster01]

When you can 1-look a solve with <15 seconds inspection.

 

[Hermanio]

It's great seeing that there are new cubers out there who are determined to get better. From my own experience I can say that practice really helps, so does going slow and smooth. Have a look at some of the F2L algs and compare them to your method of pairing because for example I found out that I make tons of wasteful moves.
Good luck!

 

[mark49152]

Progress update: my best ao12 for the four F2L pairs has come down from 28s to 20.12 - wahay! Thanks guys for all the advice. I will keep at the F2L practice but am going to take a break and work on my cross for a while. I'm averaging 8.15 for cross at the moment, but the excluded worst case in that ao12 was 27s!! Is that a UWR for slowest cross ever?

 

[MWilson]

Progress update: my best ao12 for the four F2L pairs has come down from 28s to 20.12 - wahay! Thanks guys for all the advice. I will keep at the F2L practice but am going to take a break and work on my cross for a while. I'm averaging 8.15 for cross at the moment, but the excluded worst case in that ao12 was 27s!! Is that a UWR for slowest cross ever?

Well done! That's very significant progress, and very quickly.

 

[FourBias]

I never had to stop and look around while doing f2l, that's how you know if you have mastered it.