I've heard this several places and I'm eager to learn better PLLs. Can you point me in a good direction? mainly to save me time, haha.
Certainly, although I can't remember where 100% of my algs have come from. I started with all Badmephisto PLLs, but never liked his J(a). I still use some of his algs, including J(b), T, 3xG's, H, and maybe a few others.
The best place for new algs is YouTube - watch a few 'all PLL sub 1' vids, and check out the finger tricks, see what might work for you. For example, when I first started cubing, I HATED any algs with L turns, just couldn't do them quickly. Now I'm fine with L turns, but I can't really get on with B turns in algs. To each his own! You will
NEVER find a single person who has 21 PLL algs that all work for you. There will be elements of picking and choosing; however I'll get you started with some good resources:
Sebastien Felix's page 'Absolute Mind' -
http://absolutemind.pagesperso-orange.fr/index-angl.html (source for such awesome PLLs as the 'French' G perms - versions of Badmephisto's algs, using U'+D in place of cube rotations
)
Sarah Strong's cubing site -
http://sarah.cubing.net (just a nice bunch of OLL and PLL algs)
http://www.YouTube.com - just search for 'fast X PLL' where X is replaced by the PLL you don't like your alg for. Obviously!
If you like, I can post all of my PLLs later tonight? But like I say, you'll never find one person who has 21 algs that work for you?
Believe it or not, I memorized all 57 algorithms months ago.
OK, that's a good start. Do you use full OLL/PLL in solves? I personally find that it's one thing knowing an alg, another completely using it in a solve. For example, I know all of the small lightning bolt OLLs, and sometimes 2-look them in solves just instinctively. This is because I haven't practiced them enough in slow solves, and under time pressure you often resort to 'old' algs.
I'll talk more about slow solves in a minute.
One thing I'd like to do is learn every single algorithm backwards. I can do a few backwards using my own wit, other algs are quite tough to intuitively do backwards, though. I'd love if you could provide me a nice suggestion for finding mirrored algs.
Experiment. I posted a few days ago about some OLL algs that I found while playing around with Sune + M/M' setups. Including Sune, Antisune, their mirrors, and the wide versions of both, there are 16 different OLL cases that can be solved just using these few algs. So once you find an alg you like, see if you also like the mirror/inverse.
To mirror an alg for left/right hands, simply change the direction of all turns (prime becomes normal; normal becomes prime), and switch R and L. For example, a left handed version of the classic T perm:
(R U R' U') R' F (R2 U' R' U') (R U R' F')
would be:
(L' U' L U) L F' (L2 U L U) (L' U' L F)
Which, of course, would solve a T perm from the opposite AUF (i.e. U2 away from the Badmephisto AUF).
I think!!
Not many people use mirrored algs, as there are few people who are ambidextrous cubers. Most people find it quicker to AUF, then execute algs that are more right-hand-oriented. As a result, I don't think there's any resources for mirrored algs, you just have to experiment. I know you already memorised all OLLs, but if you take out mirrors there's really only about 30 OLL cases, so if you like mirrored algs, it's worth 30 seconds to write the alg down and take the time to flip it.
Thank you very much for the time you put in to your post, I read every word. I guess I was looking at my improvement in a compartmentalized way. That's just how my brain works. I see every different thing as just that, an individual, different thing for me to work on. But you're right, everything I am doing can be improved upon and I should constantly be trying to do so. anyway, thanks for the advice! I, just today, got a new record of 14.40 seconds and I practiced nothing but the cross. I can now safely do most crosses in about 2-2.5 seconds.
Congrats, and no worries. I just hate seeing the same generic advice regurgitated, and thought I'd chip in my 2 cents worth. The thing about generic advice is that it's generic for a reason, and that reason is that it's right! There are things that people say to those wanting to become sub 20, like "go slow and look ahead" and "practice BLD cross". And they're absolutely true and fantastic advice. But could result in you getting a 19 second average, then hitting another roadblock.
Imagine a racing driver who drives a practice lap of a circuit he's due to race on. His pit team tell him that there's a particular corner that he drives too slowly. Does he drive that one corner; reverse; drive the corner again; reverse... etc? No, he drives a full lap, but concentrates on that corner specifically. He's still practicing the whole thing, but focussing on the element that he knows he needs to improve. What about all the other corners on the circuit - is he just blindly driving round them? Nope, he's focussing on each element in isolation, and so still practicing each and improving each relative to each other.
Same thing goes for cubing: if you suck at cross, you could just solve a cross. Scramble. Solve a cross. Scramble... OR, you could concentrate on your cross while solving. Continuing into F2L, OLL, and PLL means that you get some practice at these too whilst still improving your cross.
Whilst I completely agree with compartmentalised practice (it's the most efficient way to improve aspects of your solve) it's unlikely that you will perfect a single element of your solve in isolation. For example, you could spend weeks drilling PLLs, and get them all sub-1 before you're sub 40, if you really wanted. Personally, I find that gradual improvements in all aspects is more fulfilling, because all elements improve relative to each other. I know that each aspect of my solve still has massive room for improvement - I can drill PLLs/OLLs, work on my lookahead, or BLD crosses. Or all of the above. I know nothing has been perfected, so I'm still in the happy position of knowing I can solve a cube in 19 seconds, and still have improvements to make across the board!
Sure, my progress will be slower, but I'll never get bored of cubing because my practice is full of variety.
Anyway, I promised I'd say a few words about slow practice, so here goes: DO SLOW PRACTICE. Turn off the timer, and do stuff slowly. For me, this has twice yielded 2 second jumps in averages. It's really the only way to implement new LL algs in your timed solves. You'll rarely have the confidence to throw in a new alg if you're on a 9 second solve after F2L, you'll revert to your old (slower) alg because instinct tells you to do so. If you don't do slow solves, the confidence to apply your new algs in timed solves will come VERY slowly, if at all. Slow solves not only help your F2L efficiency and lookahead, but are a great time to try and throw in the new LL algs you're trying to bring in to replace old ones.
And so we're back on holistic practice once again!
Edit: Could you just mention any links, videos, people, etc. that you used to improve or that you might suggest for me to check out? I'd be interested in checking them all out. I've literally gotten this far by pretty much crazybadcuber and badmephisto alone.
Sure, some excellent youtubers - all of them are on this forum as well:
JSkyler91 (I think he's Joseph Skyler now)
FazRulz1 (A certain Feliks Zemdegs!)
TellerWest (awesome fingertricks, even if some of them aren't overly practical!)
Brad Cottom (some great OLL tutorials and other assorted cubing stuff)
xxoxia (especially
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i37S0iJFOz0)
Cyoubix (if you haven't already found him)
The Westonian
That's about 48 hours of videos for you to be getting on with!!!
