Long, slow progress

[sk8erman41]

Keep one thing in mind: "look ahead" is thrown around a lot on here and is sometimes this magical unicorn of a technique that is hard to nail down what it is. Look ahead means to execute your solve at a relatively sustained turn speed with no pauses. Like any new technique, learn to do that at a slow pace before you can transition to doing that at a faster pace.

I think that this is great advice. I have been speedcubing for almost two years now and am just now on the verge of sub-20 (I am 31). Look ahead has been that evasive piece of cubing for me that I understood in concept but just couldn't apply to solves. When I am really in the zone now I can feel the look ahead working it magic, when I am not in the zone it is very clear also. It is something that you have to focus on every solve and continually remind yourself to NOT look at what your are doing, but what is coming next.

I think that your progress is going well and fully believe that as long as you are enjoying yourself, you are doing what you are supposed to. Someone else (sorry can't remember who right now) in another thread responded to someone who said "practice makes perfect" by saying "no, perfect practice makes perfect, practice makes permanent" which I absolutely love. Made a huge difference to me and how I thought about practice. If you just keep doing the same thing over and over you probably won't improve much (past a point where just solving and getting the hang of the cube moves you along), but if you target the weak areas of your solves and continue to learn new things you may have slow progress, but it will be progress none the less.

I hit a huge wall around 30 seconds, made a quick jump to 25, then slow progress to where I am now (see sig). When I hit my roadblocks, I had to figure out what to change. Try watching lots of example solves to pick up different ways of doing things. I also like to watch slightly faster people than myself solve. After watching quicker solves, I seem to have a slight improvement as well. Just don't try and turn faster than you can focus on what will come next. I keep saying that I am going to put away my timer for awhile and just do slow solves, but much like many others, timing solves and seeing where I am at is what I like to do. When I do not have access to a timer for awhile and I come back to it, I do see some improvement, so if you can tear yourself away from the timer it may help also. Good luck and HAVE FUN!

 

[BlameCain]

I feel ya brother. I'm 27 years old and started cubing early this year. I remember being sub 1 minute and proud of it. Now I'm about sub 35, but can get mid 20 singles. My main problem is not knowing full Pll yet, which really causes the large variation in times I get. I solve cubes a lot, but I never really devote time for practice. I'm at the point where look ahead is starting to happen some. Feels real good when it happens, like I'm one with the cube. lol. However, progress has gotten harder, and I find that I really need to practice productively to gain anything.

 

[NewCuber000]

After seeing your video you posted in this thread previously, I see exactly what the problems are.
For one, notice you had a huge pause between your cross and F2L. A way to help this is to practice solving the cross blindfolded, which would be hard at first but worth it.
Another issue, your last layer. It took way too long based on the fact your F2L was finished at around 16 seconds (Which is good, faster times will come with time and practice with lookahead), meaning it took about 10 seconds total. This is because you paused waay too much durjng your LL. Your pausing time was longer than your execution. The best thing for you to work on right now would be your Recognization of the PLL and OLL cases.

 

[EvilGnome6]

Thanks for the feedback. The cross and F2L transition have been challenging for me. I've finally gotten to the point where I can plan out the whole cross in most cases and need to start focusing on what comes next rather than being surprised that there's more work to be done.

Blindfold and metronome training definitely help. I just need to do more of it.

I'm not sure how to go about improving LL recognition other than just spamming solves. I misread the case too often when I rush and I intentionally paused a little longer during the competition to make SURE I executed the right algorithms.