How to Improve: The Mountain

[Padfoot]

I think this is a great idea. The only problem for me is that I try to learn new techniques, and then get bored of repeating the algorithm over and over again to memorize it. But before that happened I probably did a T permutation 50+ times before stopping.

 

[szalejot]

This is nice idea. Gets me thinking about my practice and fact, that I should change something, because I am staying in place.

 

[pipkiksass]

I think this is a great idea. The only problem for me is that I try to learn new techniques, and then get bored of repeating the algorithm over and over again to memorize it. But before that happened I probably did a T permutation 50+ times before stopping.

Try drilling the new alg less, say 20 times, then doing a lot of slow solves with the new alg written down in case you forget it.

When the case you are learning comes up, try to remember your new alg. If you can't, use your 'cheat sheet'. Eventually you won't need to look up the alg at all.

Using the alg in slow solves helps reinforce it in you're memory, but also helps with recognising the case, but without time pressure, which might cause you to revert to your old alg or 2-look.

Works for me, anyway!

 

[jeff081692]

I really did change my way of climbing by switching to zz but I'm stuck at the 20 second barrier just like I was with cfop... oh well I think the deliberate practice I should be doing is bld eo line that should keep me climbing the mountain

There is almost always something new you can learn about your method. I am still learning new ways to insert cross pieces that make me facepalm that I was doing things badly all this time. Eventually you pick up on so many little things that your average just seems to jump down a level. I was stuck at 20 seconds for a while and then one day I just wasn't. If you pay close attention during solving you start to notice things you could do just a little differently but makes a big difference when combined with all the other tips out there.

One example of a little thing I realized that changed my cubing was I never looked at the Back bottom corners during F2L. Often times I would rotate to solve a BR slot and then realize I should rotate back because I didn't lookahead enough to realize I could solve the BR without rotating. So I made an effort to glance at the Back corners during F2L and now that habit with the knowledge of edge orientation makes it easy for me to tell if I should rotate or not.

 

[Jaycee]

I watched this video last night and realized this could be why I suddenly more than a second faster (Literally. Check my posts from yesterday in the Accomplishment Thread xD). Thanks to jeff081692's advice in a help thread 2 weeks ago, I found a way to train lookahead that was much better than the way I had been doing. The capability increase made me faster after 10 days of practice. Great video, Noah!

 

[pipkiksass]

Thanks to jeff081692's advice in a help thread 2 weeks ago

What was the advice?

 

[jeff081692]

What was the advice?

I don't know what exactly helped him the most but my general approach in F2L for lookahead comes from studies on deliberate practice in typing. Once you do slow solves and understand what lookahead feels like when done correctly, increase the speed slightly while trying to maintain lookahead. This will introduce errors but each time you make a mistake in lookahead just try to be more careful if you get a similar situation in the future. This is stretching your abilities just beyond what you can normally do and is the essence of deliberate practice imo. As you get better at the increased speed you just increase by a little bit again and repeat. Also things like trying to solve 2 pairs BLD taking as much time as you need helps but do it only if you like it. The first technique is something you can practice in real solves while timing. I haven't experimented with doing pairs BLD but if you really think about how moves like R U R' affect different corner orientations and knowing which edges will stay in the same place then you are on your way to making snap decisions in solves since you have seen the effects of basic moves on surrounding pieces so much. This is why just practice can build your lookahead skills but only if you are paying attention to how pieces are being affected when you solve.

The people who improve the fastest were just really good at picking up on how the cube is constantly changing. Someone like me who spent way too much time staring at my current pair during F2L really held me back because had I been looking around the cube while solving the pair I would see more. And once you can lookahead the next step as I said before is knowing how every combination of 3 moves in F2L affects the surrounding pieces. A good example of this is if you watch any sub 10 cubers example solves. Sometimes before they insert a pair they say "And instead of inserting like this and getting this bad case..." They have already seen what the cube will look like if they do a normal insert and can choose a better route in less than a second because of this.

Also typing is something that we commonly see plateaus in. Once you reach an acceptable level in typing people can go years and not increase there WPM at all. The deliberate practice technique of typing 15%-25% faster really worked. And I see enough similarities with typing and lookahead in F2L that I am sure that is the perfect way for me to practice at least.

Edit: Reminding yourself before each solve to lookahead might have been the tip I gave him now that I look back in my history. And that goes along with the idea that staring at your current pair while solving is bad and when you have improved from a minute to sub20 it is likely that you were not looking ahead in a majority of solves so it's a bad habit that should be broken and lots of people who get stuck at 20 seconds probably do not try to lookahead each solve. It's very easy to start a session lookingahead and then 30 solves later find yourself not really doing it when you are new to it.

 

[Padfoot]

Try drilling the new alg less, say 20 times, then doing a lot of slow solves with the new alg written down in case you forget it.

When the case you are learning comes up, try to remember your new alg. If you can't, use your 'cheat sheet'. Eventually you won't need to look up the alg at all.

Using the alg in slow solves helps reinforce it in you're memory, but also helps with recognising the case, but without time pressure, which might cause you to revert to your old alg or 2-look.

Works for me, anyway!

I only did it over 50 times because I have a horrible short term memory and I also won't write if I don't have to.

 

[Jaysammey777]

Mmmmmmm.
A video well worth my time
Haven't read through the whole forum yet, but here is my first thoughts.
What about the peak? If someone reaches the peak, does that mean that their capability decrease while their skill increases? Oddly enough this was true for me when or entered the fun puzzle slicing last year. But then you start to climb a new mountain.

As well, I think you can do the opposite of steps, drive into the mountain and dig out some of it. Making skill easier and capability harder.

Just my first thoughts. I'll be interested to read the rest of the discussion later.

 

[Noahaha]

Mmmmmmm.
A video well worth my time
Haven't read through the whole forum yet, but here is my first thoughts.
What about the peak? If someone reaches the peak, does that mean that their capability decrease while their skill increases? Oddly enough this was true for me when or entered the fun puzzle slicing last year. But then you start to climb a new mountain.

As well, I think you can do the opposite of steps, drive into the mountain and dig out some of it. Making skill easier and capability harder.

Just my first thoughts. I'll be interested to read the rest of the discussion later.

There is no peak of course.

 

[Jaysammey777]

There is no peak of course.

What about summits? the highest point an individual can reach.

 

[uvafan]

What about summits? the highest point an individual can reach.

There are no limits, only plateaus.

 

[Noahaha]

What about summits? the highest point an individual can reach.

No such thing. You can always keep improving.

 

[pipkiksass]

Once you do slow solves and understand what lookahead feels like when done correctly, increase the speed slightly while trying to maintain lookahead. This will introduce errors but each time you make a mistake in lookahead just try to be more careful if you get a similar situation in the future.

Thanks - that's what I was looking for! I can't even look ahead when I'm doing slow solves. I know I need to slow down, but I only cube for a few hours a week. If I had more time...

I'm currently averaging about 18.5, and I feel like I've bludgeoned bad habits into my solves... it'll take some effort bludgeoning them out!

 

[jeff081692]

I can't even look ahead when I'm doing slow solves.

The step before that is being confident in how you would solve each F2L pair. If you can look at a random pair, close your eyes and solve it BLD easily and feel you could do this with every F2L case then that's when it's time to begin lookahead. As long as you are looking at everything but the pair you are solving when turning slow, you are making the most of your practice time and the more time you put into it the easier it will get.

Also I'm pretty sure that just like with sports or anything competitive there is an age where most people start to slightly degrade in skill (like decreased reaction time) but most people on this site are far from that point and have lots of potential to get extremely fast.

 

[pipkiksass]

The step before that is being confident in how you would solve each F2L pair.

I've been at this stage for months, the reason I've not progressed is through laziness, rather than lack of familiarity!

 

[XTowncuber]

I sort of went about this differently when I was getting good at pyra. I don't do this as much anymore, but I used to do long sessions of trying and retrying scrambles until I found a really great solution AND got a good time on it. Then I would move on to the next scramble. This kind of combined specialized practice and grinding out solves, and it pretty much improved every part of my solves simultaneously. The downsides are that you can't count PBs this way, and it doesn't work nearly as well for events that require lookahead during the solve.

 

[Carrot]

I sort of went about this differently when I was getting good at pyra. I don't do this as much anymore, but I used to do long sessions of trying and retrying scrambles until I found a really great solution AND got a good time on it. Then I would move on to the next scramble. This kind of combined specialized practice and grinding out solves, and it pretty much improved every part of my solves simultaneously. The downsides are that you can't count PBs this way, and it doesn't work nearly as well for events that require lookahead during the solve.

That's really clever

 

[Noahaha]

Likely relevant bump:

Feliks made a video of his own thoughts on the subject.

 

[rybaby]

Likely relevant bump:

Feliks made a video of his own thoughts on the subject.

Interesting....Seems like a contrast to what Noah was saying. I mean, I think Feliks' way would be optimal, but, realistically, I couldn't see everything getting better from just speedsolves. If one can deliberately practice during their speedsolves, that would be best. What does everyone else think?