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efattah

Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2016
Messages
709
The answer is very simple, use the pause and blind trick. First, practice doing the cross blindfolded until you can do it that way within a 15 second inspection time. During F2L, when you ID the pair, don't solve the pair; stop turning. Examine all the pieces and figure out the next pair even before solving the first one. You should know how the F2L sequence or algorithm affects the pieces you are not solving, therefore it is possible (given enough time) to see 2 pairs into the future. Once you are sure about the two consecutive pairs, close your eyes and solve both with eyes closed, then repeat for the next 2 pairs. This process will be very frustrating and time consuming at first, but as you improve it will only take a few seconds of pause, gradually less, until there is no pause at all and you can see far into the future.
 

Spencer131

Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2016
Messages
338
WCA
2017CHUB02
Just do solves, and make sure you're consciously thinking about lookahead. It should feel pretty mentally rigorous because you always want to be pushing your speed. Kian mansour has a video that I love and it's called slow solves are overrated. In my opinion, slow solves are used to practice everything BUT lookahead such as efficiency, new algs, etc.
 

CornerCutter

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Joined
Jan 19, 2016
Messages
1,971
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Cubing at my desk - USA
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So things to note, I'm color neutral and I average around 20 seconds to 23 seconds, but I can get sub 20 sometime, also I haven't learned full pll or oll yet.

So I've been struggling to achieve sub 20 I know I need to improve my lookahead but I'm not sure how, besides the obvious slow solved. But how long does this usually take? I also use 4-look last layer so I still don't use full pll. What can I do to improve my lookahead to get sub 20? Also should I just learn full pll? I know I can learn algs pretty quickly but I've been holding off on learning full pll.
I would really recommend learning full PLL and that will push you under 20 seconds. Then since you said your good at learning algs you should learn full OLL soon after. Most of the cases are really easy, lots of triggers.
 

GenTheSnail

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Joined
Mar 18, 2016
Messages
2,249
Location
Illinois, USA
WCA
2016GEEN01
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Make an effort to look for the next pieces that you are going to solve. Try and figure out what orientation they're going to be in, so that once you are done solving your current pieces, you can jump straight into solving the next ones without needing to look for them.
 

some nerd

Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2017
Messages
7
So I've been cubing for about a month and a half, and my average is around 25-30 seconds (broke sub-30 last week :D). All my friends are saying I'm improving pretty fast, but I think my speed's plateauing. I timed my F2L, and found out that if I were to half my F2L duration, my times would instantly drop to around 15 seconds. My question is: what tips do you have to be able to maintain lookahead while still turning fast? If you could link me to some example solves, too, that'd be great. Thanks for the help!
 

Hazel

Premium Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2017
Messages
1,681
Location
in your walls :3
So I've been cubing for about a month and a half, and my average is around 25-30 seconds (broke sub-30 last week :D). All my friends are saying I'm improving pretty fast, but I think my speed's plateauing. I timed my F2L, and found out that if I were to half my F2L duration, my times would instantly drop to around 15 seconds. My question is: what tips do you have to be able to maintain lookahead while still turning fast? If you could link me to some example solves, too, that'd be great. Thanks for the help!
You can't really improve look-ahead while still turning fast... you'll have to slow down your F2L a bit, so you can actually look for your next pair while solving the current one.
 

some nerd

Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2017
Messages
7
You can't really improve look-ahead while still turning fast... you'll have to slow down your F2L a bit, so you can actually look for your next pair while solving the current one.
not what i meant... what i mean is how can i speed up my lookahead so i can somewhat lookahead while turning fast?
 

Hazel

Premium Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2017
Messages
1,681
Location
in your walls :3
not what i meant... what i mean is how can i speed up my lookahead so i can somewhat lookahead while turning fast?
Well then I still have the same advice, turn slowly so you can track pieces easily, then speed up a little bit and practice tracking pieces at that speed, and keep going until you're back at your regular speed. Keep in mind that you won't be able to do all this in an hour, to get good at look ahead takes a lot of time.
 

some nerd

Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2017
Messages
7
Well then I still have the same advice, turn slowly so you can track pieces easily, then speed up a little bit and practice tracking pieces at that speed, and keep going until you're back at your regular speed. Keep in mind that you won't be able to do all this in an hour, to get good at look ahead takes a lot of time.
i get that; after all, the more you improve, the slower you improve as there becomes less and less you can work on.
 

pglewis

Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2016
Messages
1,268
Location
Cincinnati
WCA
2016LEWI07
I'm at about the same level and lookahead is probably my biggest weakness so I can just parrot the major advice I've seen; my own lookahead is still very much a WIP:

* Blind pair practice. The moment you spot a pair you would like to be looking for the next pair. Practice spotting a pair closing your eyes and solving the pair so that solving cases becomes more automatic.

* Solve the back slots first, it removes blind spots for your pieces to hide in.

* Slow turning. Practice F2L slowly enough that you can do it without any pauses, out-turning my lookahead is still a very hard habit for me to break.
 
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