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Duncan Bannon

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For 2x2:

Id recommend LBL for now. Its a stepping stone towards CLL also. Learn T and Y perms for 3x3 and apply it to 2x2 Last Layer. Learn 7 algs for Orientation and those 2 for permutation. If that's too many algs, let me know, its only 9 easy pz algs. With that I got 4.5 average and some people are faster than I was with LBL.

For 3x3:

Learn some basic cross tips, work with begginers method till about 1 min average. Then expand to Roux, ZZ, Or F2L Cfop. For LL on 3x3(CFOP only). Learn another 7 algs for Orientation and the T and Y perm for corners of the LL permuted. Then learn either 4 algs for the edges or just U perm and repeat till solved.
 

xyzzy

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Dec 24, 2015
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How should i help her get faster?
How fast are you?

If you're faster than her, just teach her whatever you're doing. Solving the cross directly, intuitive F2L, 4-look last layer, that kind of stuff. Or have you already tried this and found it difficult to teach?
 
Joined
Mar 27, 2018
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Hey there, I have been speed cubing for the past few months and got my sister into it not to long ago, she currently does daisy cross beggieners method and one alg PLL. She learned the 2x2 first and averages like 20-30 seconds and she is learning ortego OLL. How should i help her get faster?

Solving the cross directly is super important
If you can't do that it's a rip for you and as many algs as you learn you aren't gonna get very fast
So teach your sister direct cross
Don't teach full OLL, only the corner cases as they are also on 2×2
Also just do 2 look OLL or PLL, I managed to do that until I averaged 45 seconds
 

cubeshepherd

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I think slow-turning is SUPER important. It just has so many benefits!
You are very right on that. I used to not pay attention to how much slow turning mattered to my solve times, but once I practiced slow turning for a while, it really helped my times and I started to drop at a pretty good rate. So I would highly recommend slow turning it you want to get faster.
 

GameProfessor

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May 4, 2018
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Hi all,

This is more a personal question than a general "what to do at sub-35".
I'm currently average 35s and have been stuck at this point for about 2 months.
When break down into steps, my avg time is as follow: Cross 6s, F2L 19s, OLL 7s, PLL 7s.
I use 2-look OLL and full PLL.
Which step or technique should I focus on improving first?
As a side note, I'm over 35 so my hands' dexterity is not good and I also don't really have much time to practice (about 30min daily, and some casual solve once in a while).

Any advice is welcome.
Thanks,
GP
 

Duncan Bannon

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This is more a personal question than a general "what to do at sub-35".
I'm currently average 35s and have been stuck at this point for about 2 months.
When break down into steps, my avg time is as follow: Cross 6s, F2L 19s, OLL 7s, PLL 7s.
I use 2-look OLL and full PLL.
Which step or technique should I focus on improving first?

With full PLL, you should be able to sub 2 the step. Recognize the PLL's faster. Where did you learn PLL from? Use good fingertricks for them "cyotheking" youtube channel has a good series for fingertricks.

Do your cross in inspection. Plan all the moves. If you can't work on this by doing untimed solves just not starting till done planning whole cross.

Lookahead in F2L. Go so slow that you never have to pause. Then work speed up.

This is for sub 20, but it should help:
 

Chree

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This is more a personal question than a general "what to do at sub-35".
I'm currently average 35s and have been stuck at this point for about 2 months.
When break down into steps, my avg time is as follow: Cross 6s, F2L 19s, OLL 7s, PLL 7s.
I use 2-look OLL and full PLL.
Which step or technique should I focus on improving first?

Hey there.

Duncan's advice is pretty solid. Chris Olson's video is also really helpful. There's a lot of "how to get sub-x" threads/videos/tutorials out there, and they're all full of good advice.

For almost everybody, the place where they can improve the most is F2L. You didn't mention what your method is there, but I imagine you're doing some sort of Intuitive F2L (Find the pieces, set them up in the U layer, build the pair, insert). My unpopular opinion is that it's also helpful to at least look at some algs for all the cases. That helped me develop my recognition between cases, as well as giving me some good ideas on how to solve them. http://algdb.net/ is a great resource for all things algorithmic.

Speed comes with practice and time. Dexterity inevitably follows. I'd say just keep practicing and have fun while you're doing it. Just last year I got my first sub10 single in competition at the ripe old age of 32, so I'd say your goal of being sub35 at over 35 is entirely within reach.

You should also check out the Older Cuber Discussion thread. Share your progress, and get more advice. They'll be happy you dropped by :)
 

GameProfessor

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Joined
May 4, 2018
Messages
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Hey there.

Duncan's advice is pretty solid. Chris Olson's video is also really helpful. There's a lot of "how to get sub-x" threads/videos/tutorials out there, and they're all full of good advice.

For almost everybody, the place where they can improve the most is F2L. You didn't mention what your method is there, but I imagine you're doing some sort of Intuitive F2L (Find the pieces, set them up in the U layer, build the pair, insert). My unpopular opinion is that it's also helpful to at least look at some algs for all the cases. That helped me develop my recognition between cases, as well as giving me some good ideas on how to solve them. http://algdb.net/ is a great resource for all things algorithmic.

Speed comes with practice and time. Dexterity inevitably follows. I'd say just keep practicing and have fun while you're doing it. Just last year I got my first sub10 single in competition at the ripe old age of 32, so I'd say your goal of being sub35 at over 35 is entirely within reach.

You should also check out the Older Cuber Discussion thread. Share your progress, and get more advice. They'll be happy you dropped by :)

Thanks Duncan & Chree.
I'm using intuitive F2L with a few advanced slot insertion to reduce rotation.
What I'm wondering is which step should I focus on first: practice look-ahead or improve cross or improve OLL/PLL ?
Is there any golden ratio for time between step? For example, I remember someone said that PLL should account for 20% of solve time, etc....
I have been practicing F2L & look-ahead recently, but judging from measured time, it seems that PLL & OLL is the bottleneck. Those 2 steps require mostly finger-trick to improve TPS, quite different from practicing F2L.
 

Duncan Bannon

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No golden ratio.

I would say 1 look cross, that should allow you to improve by 2-3 seconds, because you are not looking for next edge. Work on OLL and PLL recognition and speed, just get better fingertricks.

But focus on F2L. Lookahead and find better ways to do F2L pairs. Can't find one? Go to alg.db

For Cross practice go to CS timer. Click "3x3" in left box and then "easy cross" in second(right) box. This should allow you to easily 1 look cross, then go to normal and do some of those, this should make it easier. Also for OLL and PLL click "3x3" then OLL/PLL respectfully, drill these with no inspection. This should help with those.
 

Duncan Bannon

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I would recommend only learn 4 look last layer as of now. Or even Full PLL and 2 look OLL.

 
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