How do I improve my times?

[QuinnHyatt]

Hey guys, I was just looking for some helpful tips and tricks, and what to learn in order to really improve my times.

Background: I just got into cubing about 2 months ago, and I just got into different puzzles (currently own 2x2, 4x4, 5x5, 6x6, Pyraminx) about a week or two ago.

Currently, I am averaging around 50-55 seconds (I time myself, and my session averages are usually in that range). I am happy with any solve under 50 seconds, and my current record is 36 seconds.

Right now, I use F2L for the first two layers, with about an 8-10 second cross (I obtain the cross in a personal, and rather unorthodox fashion, but hey, it works!)

I know really only 5 OLL cases, and not a single PLL case. So, I use a mix of OLL/Beginner's method for my final layer.

Should I stay on track to learn Fridrich method? If so, what should I practice, and how did you guys learn/memorize your OLL/PLL cases? Are there any YouTube tutorials I should take a look at?

Thank you for your time, feedback, and help; it's GREATLY appreciated,



Quinn Hyatt

 

[Johnny]

If you're sub 1 minute after 2 months, clearly you don't need any help because your time is just going to keep going down.

 

[Poke2000]

Learn 2-look oll and 2-look pll. Practice until the algs are fluent and recognition is fast. 8-10 second cross seems pretty slow; I think you should try to bring that down to 5 seconds or less. With a good cross, f2l, 2-look oll, and 2-look pll, it is quite easy to get sub 30. After that learn full pll and then full oll.
A good way to memorize is to do algs over and over and over again.
And there are a lot of YouTube videos and tutorials that are really useful. I personally don't watch a lot but I know that badmephisto, cyoubx, and frk17 have great videos.
And yes, I think you should continue with fridrich. It is the most popular of all methods. But it might be a good idea to also try others.

 

[KongShou]

Learn PLL

i learnt algs by doing it over and over again. Now i only have to do it a few times to memorise it. There is no trick really, but if u really want search Badmephistos videos.

 

[TDM]

Learn 4-look LL. And your cross method may work, but not well if it takes a fifth of your solve.
Also, don't post the same thread more than once.

 

[QuinnHyatt]

Thanks KongShou, I'll look into Badmephistos' channel and videos.

Again, this is just a search for help in a specific direction, not a full on "Help me! I suck at this!", just kind of "What should I do next?".

But yeah, thanks for the help!

Also, don't post the same thread more than once.

Sorry about that, I noticed I posted in in the wrong topic, so I posted it here, and I don't really know how to delete a thread yet; it was purely out of mistake.

Thank you for the help though, TDM. I will definitely look into that, I haven't actually heard of 4-look LL.

Thanks Poke2000, I'll work on learning the 2-look OLL/PLL and the full OLL/PLL in respective order, and I'll look into advance cross techniques as well. A sub-30 average is really my goal before I go to the 2014 US Nationals. I don't plan on competing, however; I would absolutely LOVE to spectate and get into conversations with fellow cubers.

 

[CheesecakeCuber]

Learn 4LLL and work on your cross.

 

[QuinnHyatt]

Thanks Cheesecake, that's basically the general consensus, and you saying that really just has me set on what my game plan is, and I think I have a nice little order of learning set up.

Thanks again everyone for all the help, I look forward to improving my times starting today.

 

[aboeglin]

I have been in your position about a week ago. I was averaging about 52sec back then. I had a few days to practice after christmas. I mostly worked on cross and f2l. My f2l recognition got much better, my moves are much smoother ( once I see a case I can mostly solve it without looking at it ), I often can spot my next corner piece while solving a pair which allows me to go faster into the next pair. Cross helped big deal also, before I was at 8-13sec, I can now do it in 4-7, 4 being easy ones and 7 hardest one ( like flipped edges on the bottom layer ). Since then I started to get my f2l closer to 20sec which allowed me to get many more times around 35-40sec than before.

I now average about 42sec and I haven't timed myself since the 31th but have been practicing my f2l and LL lags a lot in the train. I'll have a weilong in the mail, and, some time next week. Also, I think I could still get a lot of time by working on cross - first f2l pair transition and improving further cross / f2l in general. I find LL algs tend to work by themselves. In a way that you could train them independently ( which you should do the time you learn them ), but you'll get better at them with time. I find F2L is so much more important at our level. Optimizing LL algs would be a waste.

Badmephisto got a really good video for advanced cross and fingertricks. Like I use really often R'uR'u' to orient an edge on the bottom layer ( placed on the R face, cross being on D ).

To learn algs, something that does work is to remember them by sequences of moves. I usually rewrite the algs on a sheet and put parentheses around groups that can be performed with good fingertricks. It is usually anything between 2 and 4 parts per alg. I find these smaller parts easier to learn, for the head and for the fingers, since you already prepare yourself to perform them in a optimized way. If you practice a lot you could learn 3-5 a day, otherwise 2 is a good amount. Practice them, do a few solves, come back to it, repeat.

And of course, slow solves are always good to get better, especially for f2l. When I do slow solves I even go slow on the last layer, and try to focus on precision of moves rather than speed ( with minimal corner cutting then ), to avoid any lockup, which I happen to experience a lot on f2l.

So, in the end, I'd focus on F2L a lot, I still fill it is limiting me more than anything else at the moment. Sometimes I still loose 2sec looking for a pair to solve, or sometimes start to solve the first I find, when I just see there was an easier one. Learn 4 look OLL, and your times should quickly drop until 40sec average. Good luck !

 

[ThomasJE]

Hi!

Yes, 4LLL would be your next step. I have a guide here:
http://thomasje.webs.com/4lll-tutorial-2
Good luck!