improving f2l

[ExoCorsair]

Alright, a couple things.

First off, crazyhippo, I am giving you the benefit of the doubt and will assume that you have not been reading this forum much before posting. Your first post could definitely have been written much more cohesively, since this is a forum and not a chatroom. Searching isn't necessary, but it does help you find threads that are pertinent to your problem; however, I realize that there are 300 threads on the topic and the stickies are also buried in there as well. Moreover, try not to spout tantrums like your second and fourth posts, please. They don't do anything constructive towards the discussion and just make others less inclined to help you.

As for everyone else, if you're going to post something, please make it relevant to the topic and not simply "search for it" without at least providing an example of what a search will bring. Thank you to those who have been providing help.


Back on topic, here are a couple of links that will help you:
http://www.speedcubing.com/f2l.html
http://www.cubefreak.net/F2L.html
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~leyanlo/f2l.html

 

[crazyhippo]

ok, fine, i guess i shouldnt have lost my temper last time i posted. im sorry to the people that i might have annoyed or offended... so, can we just get back to the topic now?? but i guess nobody wants to help me now...?

maybe forums just arent the place for me to be

 

[AvGalen]

but i guess nobody wants to help me now...?

We have already helped you a lot. You have been pointed at several topics on this forum and also on other sites that have F2L-sections.

Maybe you should tell us something about you?
How fast are you now?
Which cases give you trouble?
How long have you been cubing?

 

[crazyhippo]

but i guess nobody wants to help me now...?

We have already helped you a lot. You have been pointed at several topics on this forum and also on other sites that have F2L-sections.

Maybe you should tell us something about you?
How fast are you now?
Which cases give you trouble?
How long have you been cubing?

yeh, and thx for being patient with me, cos i know i sound like a n00b a lot of the time... but anyway, ive been cubing for around 5 months, and dont seem to be getting anywhere past the 50sec mark... which is why i started learning F2L. im kinda having trouble spotting the peices quickly, though... how do you guys do it quickly?

 

[chue.hsien]

are u able to spot the next edge piece when insert another edge piece using your layer by layer method? maybe u could give us a breakdown of your times. after cubing for 5 months your first 2 layers without using fridrich should be quite decent.

 

[ExoCorsair]

yeh, and thx for being patient with me, cos i know i sound like a n00b a lot of the time... but anyway, ive been cubing for around 5 months, and dont seem to be getting anywhere past the 50sec mark... which is why i started learning F2L. im kinda having trouble spotting the peices quickly, though... how do you guys do it quickly?

The main way of getting really fast at F2L is just not pausing between F2L pairs, which, of course, takes practice. But you could easily get to the 30-40 second range by simply fingertricking and otherwise moving quickly during F2L.

How's your last layer?

 

[blindfold cube]

but i guess nobody wants to help me now...?

We have already helped you a lot. You have been pointed at several topics on this forum and also on other sites that have F2L-sections.

Maybe you should tell us something about you?
How fast are you now?
Which cases give you trouble?
How long have you been cubing?

yeh, and thx for being patient with me, cos i know i sound like a n00b a lot of the time... but anyway, ive been cubing for around 5 months, and dont seem to be getting anywhere past the 50sec mark... which is why i started learning F2L. im kinda having trouble spotting the peices quickly, though... how do you guys do it quickly?

The thing that sucks about the F2L is that the only way to get faster is to practice. I recommend you use a metronome- http://www.metronomeonline.com/

For every beep you make one turn. This will help you to look ahead instead of rushing. If you miss a beep start over. That is the only thing that can help you. I am assuming you are using intuitive F2L, not the LBL.

How fast are you on the cross and the PLL? Do you know all 21 PLLs?

 

[Lt-UnReaL]

The sounds on those things are so annoying...

 

[chue.hsien]

yeah agreed.. but cubing requires disciplined training =D at least those that intend to get fast.

 

[adragast]

Hello ! There is not much to add to advice already given to you by other people here. Basically, I would suggest you to solve the cube slowly but smoothly (again, the metronome is a good excercise). You really need to see the next pair while you are solving one pair. Learning all PLL can also be a good idea (I don't know if you already know them).
Here are two videos that you may want to see (one very instructive about F2L and one showing an example of smooth solve):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbKvOXE__CM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TvBPg8NkaM

 

[crazyhippo]

are u able to spot the next edge piece when insert another edge piece using your layer by layer method? maybe u could give us a breakdown of your times. after cubing for 5 months your first 2 layers without using fridrich should be quite decent.

yeh, i could spot the edge pieces quickly with my layer by layer method, i just cant do it quickly when i have to spot both the corner piece and the right edge piece. right now, my F2L alone takes around 30-40 secs... but using my layer by layer method, i think i could do the first two layers in around 20 secs, maybe... im not sure, cos ive never timed my F2L alone, really.

 

[yish]

ok, i am not sure how you people get about doing about f2l, the alg is important, but i feel that the delay is more important.

let's see, let's consider each f2l a stage. so there are 4 f2ls to insert, 4 stages altogether. if you people stop to stare and try to spot each stage, for like say 1 second. that will be 4 seconds eaten up altogether, plus plus plus, you break your rhythm.

so my method of f2l focuses mainly on cutting down delays and complication. I do this by spinning the R and U face.

ok when i do my f2l, my cross (always white) is on the bottom. the pieces i want to insert are on the U face (aka the playing field)

so as you turn the cube R and U, it is rather simple to spot the white pieces as they are blatantly obvious. take note of which white pieces are on the U face. memorize them. this should be done while forming your cross.

when doing my first f2l, i spin just the R and U faces (less complicated.) i scan the edge pieces and try to search for corresponding edge pieces. say i spotted a red, blue, white piece earlier on the U face. now i try to see, is there a red and blue edge piece hanging around at the U face too?

if there is. congrats. solve it. unless there is an easier f2l pair hanging around waiting to be solved.

if there isn't. for starters, whine a bit about getting a bad f2l.

then you scan the U face quickly (this should all be done during your first f2l). very quickly in fact. check which edge pieces are there. say orange and green. so try to recall. is there any orange, green, white pieces around? like stuck on the D face? then extract it out, slam it in with that edge piece. tada.

so in short. while you are doing your cross. observe which white pieces (if your cross is white) are where. just a quick scan and memorization of 2 or 3 will do.

as you do your first f2l. try to scan the edge pieces and then pair it up with the corresponding corner piece. try to do the easiest pair first.

rinse and repeat. with each f2l that you do, you turn U and R, observe, which pieces go on the U field? where is the corresponding piece? as you solve more f2ls, there is less to scan, less pieces to memorize. so it gets easier along the way.

and as you do the last f2l, observe. (this requires experience for my case), where will the yellow pieces go? will it form a cross? a L? a bar? so when you move on to OLL, you have a rough idea of what it is. so there is less delay.

that is my method of doing f2l. ><

 

[crazyhippo]

How fast are you on the cross and the PLL? Do you know all 21 PLLs?

my cross is pretty slow, i think, i suck at inspecting the cube beforehand, cos i can never see the whole cross when i inspect! and i dont do PLL the fridrich way yet, i still do it my old layer by layer way, which is pretty slow as well, i guess.

 

[masterofthebass]

I'm not sure about how slow the old LBL LL is. I can average around 27 with F2L and LBL LL. I guess it's like 9 seconds slower, but with better recognition it could be faster. Definantly work on the cross. Dan Harris's site has a great tutorial for picking out the cross during the inspection.