Jennah's Progression Thread | Almost sub-20

[Jennah]

Thanks Filipe! you've helped a ton!

 

[Jennah]

2x2 update+ mega practice help

I haven't done much to improve my 2x2 recently so I wanted to try and become a bit faster.
I average 5-6 seconds right now.

I am trying to learn algs so that I can solve pbl cases from different angles to avoid doing cube rotations. I am also going to learn how to predict pbl and oll to eliminate pauses in my solves, and hopefully doing these things will lower my average by a second or two. I'm not looking into learning CLL right now, I want to spend more of my practice time on 3x3, mega, 4x4, and sometimes pyra.

Here are the algs that i'm learning right now (Ortega):

1 bar (bottom layer) on the back: R U' R' U' R' F2 U' R U R

1 bar (top layer) on the back: R' U R' F2 R F' R

2 bars on the back: R2 U' R2 U2 F2 U' R2

bottom layer solved+ no bar on top (this is faster than a Y perm): R U' R' U' F2 U' R U' R' U

top layer solved+ no bar on bottom: R U' R' U' F2 U' R U' R' U R2 B2

I recently learned the westlund S2L method on megaminx. Do I need to do deliberate practice as a beginner?

 

[Garf]

2x2 update+ mega practice help

I haven't done much to improve my 2x2 recently so I wanted to try and become a bit faster.
I average 5-6 seconds right now.

I am trying to learn algs so that I can solve pbl cases from different angles to avoid doing cube rotations. I am also going to learn how to predict pbl and oll to eliminate pauses in my solves, and hopefully doing these things will lower my average by a second or two. I'm not looking into learning CLL right now, I want to spend more of my practice time on 3x3, mega, 4x4, and sometimes pyra.

Here are the algs that i'm learning right now (Ortega):

1 bar (bottom layer) on the back: R U' R' U' R' F2 U' R U R

1 bar (top layer) on the back: R' U R' F2 R F' R

2 bars on the back: R2 U' R2 U2 F2 U' R2

bottom layer solved+ no bar on top (this is faster than a Y perm): R U' R' U' F2 U' R U' R' U

top layer solved+ no bar on bottom: R U' R' U' F2 U' R U' R' U R2 B2

I recently learned the westlund S2L method on megaminx. Do I need to do deliberate practice as a beginner?

You should do it. It is very useful.

 

[Jennah]

You should do it. It is very useful.

Yeah, I find that rotations slow down my solves a lot.

 

[Jennah]

Update

3x3
Right now I am aiming to be sub-20 on 3x3. I average 23-34 seconds right now. I am still working on learning full PLL but I am more than halfway there. I have been mainly focusing my practices on F2L. To practice F2L, I do 2-gen solves on CS timer (R and U scrambles) to work on lookahead. I do not time those solves in order to discover different ways to solve pairs. I need to work on my cross.

2x2
I have learned a couple of new additional ortega algorithms to help with solving from different angles. I have not implemented them in my solves yet, though, but I will. I also learned how to recognize pbl by only looking at 2 sides of the cube. I average 5-6 seconds but I want to average sub-5.

Megaminx
I have not practiced mega as much as I am supposed to but I have learned the westlund method. I am going to do some more solves to get comfortable with it before I get into deliberate practice.

4x4
I do not often time my solves but when I do, I get around 2:45. I am starting to get comfortable with creating centers and edges. I struggle with the 2-3-2 step sometimes but I am getting better. Does anyone know how I can deliberately practice this?

Pyraminx
I haven't been practicing pyra a lot but I want to start getting faster. I average 12 seconds. I think I need to get better at recognizing the last layer algorithms and pairing edges with centers during inspection. I am using LBL.

 

[Filipe Teixeira]

I struggle with the 2-3-2 step sometimes but I am getting better. Does anyone know how I can deliberately practice this?

You mean 3-2-3, right?

If you use reduction i don't think you use 3-2-3 at all. Search for a good video specifically on 4x4 reduction edges pairing.i don't know any at the moment

On cstimer, put 4x4x4, then select the sub scrambler that has centers solved

Then you can grind edges

 

[Jennah]

Thanks Filipe. I use the yau method. I didn't know that cstimer had this scramble, thanks for telling me!

 

[Jennah]

Something to add to my recent update:

Alright i've decided to learn L4E on pyra. It's not as hard as I thought. I recently got a 3x3 pb as well, breaking it by a few milliseconds I also got a couple of sub-20 solves in a row which I have never done before
PB:

lucky solves:

 

[Filipe Teixeira]

Thanks Filipe. I use the yau method. I didn't know that cstimer had this scramble, thanks for telling me!

For yau i just manually scramble

For 4 last centers you can hold the two first centers on the sides then Scramble with <Lw,Rw,U>.

For edge pairing you hold Cross on bottom then you misalign Uw layer and scramble front slot then repeat a few times and alternate with misaligning Dw layer and scramble front slot a few times. That will scramble the edges and leave centers and cross solved

 

[Filipe Teixeira]

Hace you seen this video?

I don't think it's more efficient than normal yau but it seems interesting

 

[Filipe Teixeira]

For edge pairing you hold Cross on bottom then you misalign Uw layer and scramble front slot then repeat a few times and alternate with misaligning Dw layer and scramble front slot a few times. That will scramble the edges and leave centers and cross solved

my explanation was kinda weird, you just misalign Uw layer and scramble just the f2l slots, then repeat the process a few times

 

[Jennah]

I haven't updated this in awhile so here I go:

I recently got back into regular practicing after a month of not practicing as much, so here's what's happening:

So my average on 3x3 is back up to around 25 seconds (it was a bit lower before) and i'm working on an averaging 20 seconds. I've learned half of the PLL cases but I need to improve recognition on some of the new ones. I'm mainly trying to improve my cross because it is my weakness for sure.
I don't usually plan the whole cross during inspection. I am doing drills such as scrambling the cube and planning 3-4 pieces with unlimited inspection. Sometimes I try to plan 3 pieces of the cross and then solve it blindfolded (as suggested by BrodyTheCuber). My current actions to reach my goal of sub 20 is to practice my cross and bring it down to 3 seconds, and finish learning PLL.

I don't have an average on 4x4 but I would say it is around 2:30-3:00. Right now I am working on efficiency with the 3-2-3 step (I use the Yau method) of solving the cube. on CS timer there is a scramble that only scrambles the edges and leaves the centers solved so I can efficiently practice this part of the solve. My goal right now is a sub-2:30 average.

I recently started learning pyraminx L4E and I am really enjoying it so far. The algorithms are easy and I need to memorize them which won't take too long. The most difficult part is solving the V but it is getting easier for me. My goal right now is a sub-7 average.

My 2x2 average hasn't really changed (4-6 seconds) and I need to learn to solve certain PBL cases from different angles, such as from the back.

I don't practice megaminx a lot but I am interested in improving sometime. I use the Westlund method.


If anyone recommends practice techniques for anything listed above it would be appreciated!

 

[Jennah]

This is what I mean by needing to improve PLL recognition. I could've gotten a PB (15.20) but I did the wrong algorithm. I did Aa instead of Ab.

 

[Jennah]

So an update on learning pyra L4E, i'm really enjoying it so far and the algs are way easier than I thought there would be (and way less cause I'm using beginner l4e with 8 algs). The V at the beginning is difficult so i'm only practicing with untimed solves so I can make the most strategic moves possible. I don't practice pyra a whole lot because i'm trying to learn PLL, but hopefully soon i'll dedicate more time to it.

 

[Jennah]

Also an update on 4x4, I don't practice it a whole lot (because as I said I am focusing mainly on 3x3 pll rn) but I usually practice the 3-2-3 step by using the edges only scramble on cs timer (thank you so much @Filipe Teixeira for telling me abt that scramble). I don't really have a solid average because I mainly do deliberate practice but when I time myself I am usually 2:30-3:00.

I am not really putting much attention into 2x2 rn because I have a decent average (4-5.50 seconds) and it takes my attention away from practicing other things. But I want to eventually learn CLL.

 

[Jennah]

New PB!!! Hopefully this will be my average soon

 

[Jennah]

I recently got a new 4x4 pb (2:03). I don't usually time myself, I only do deliberate practice or solves without the timer, so I got a pb after not timing myself for awhile. As I said, I rarely timed myself, but when I did, the times were in between 2:30-3:00, so i'm happy to have made some progress

 

[Jennah]

I think i'm just lucky, because after I posted that, I got a new 3x3 pb (16.91)

 

[Jennah]

Almost at the sub-20 mark!

 

[Jennah]

Also, does 0 mean anything in a clock scramble?