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Improve Your F2L Look Ahead With Turbo Tracking

jskyler91

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Hello fellow speedcubers, today I am going to be sharing a new technique for practicing and getting better at your look ahead. Watch the video below for more info:


I realize that this seems really simple and you may not think it will work, but trust me it really does. Let me know what you think.
 
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jskyler91

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I do that almost unconsciously, when I practice R,U group. Should I watch the cube, or be able to tell where it is without watching?

I say you should watch the cube, because the entire idea behind this exercise is learning to track 1 or 2 pieces in a jumble of other colors and not being distracted by those other colors. I think the idea of not looking at the cube is useful as well interms of understanding how your moves affect particular pieces on the cube, however I think practicing multislotting is a better exercise for that.

Try doing this for about 2-3 minutes and then do a solve at your normal speed and watch how slow and easy your f2l feels. Not only does this exercise warm up your fingers, but it also tests your mind and keeps you aware during your F2L so that you don't loose concentration (I used to have this problem often)

Does anybody care to create a text-based description of what this is?

Basically, the concept behind Turbo Tracking is that by tracking pieces that are moving at a rapid rate, you will find tracking pieces at a normal rate is incredibly easy. The benefits of this particular method of practicing is that you can do it every time you hand scramble. As to the actual implementation of this training, you basically choose one piece, whether it be an edge or corner (I recommend you do which ever one you have the most trouble finding in solves, so for me this was corners) and then track that piece as you mix up the cube as rapidly as you possibly can. As you get better at this you can add more pieces or even an edge and an corner at the same time.
 
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RTh

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This is very interesting. I'll start scrambling whilst tracking a corner, and in a week or so I'll come back and post the results.

Subbed =]
 
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Stefan

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Interesting idea, I'll try that. I like exercises like that and I can't imagine myself being good at tracking two at the same time, but I guess I should be so I'm looking forward to that. Are you always tracking the same two corners, or do you switch? And do you have any way to somehow measure your progress? Cause I like measuring to see whether and how I'm really progressing.
 
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emolover

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I like this idea! The thing is, I am great at tracking where corners are during the cross and F2L. My problem is that I suck at tracking edges. Basically the way I do F2L is that I am tracking and looking for other corner pieces then when I see an edge that goes with the corner piece, I solve that pair while tracking other corners and trying look for other edges.

The way I do it is inefficient.

Thanks for the shout out.
 

macky

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Interesting idea, especially tracking more than one piece at a time at faster-than-normal speed! I'll try this out for my bad cross colors.

[edit]
You said you do this while scrambling, but you track corner orientation using a sticker, which means after having chosen a cross color, right? When I track anything, I have the cross color in mind and really track that sticker. I can't really imagine doing this another way.

What I find so interesting about this is that it's really an exercise designed specifically for the modern burst-of-tps fast-turning style.
 
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pjk

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This is an interesting idea. I just tried it for a bit now, and it is actually pretty difficult - more than I thought it would. Using only RU's wasn't bad, but when I do any random moves faster than solving speed, it gets tough.
 
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