Lookin' to the future

[BashTheFash]

I started in 2004, reduced my speed to about 40 seconds then stopped for 2006. Now the past couple months I picked it back up again.

Basically I want to get sub-20 and I was wondering if any of the more experienced people here could chat whenever possible via AIM.

Besides that, what are things you can do to 'train' yourself?

 

[pjk]

Work on the technique. Are you solving with Fridrich, or another method like Roux or Petrus? If you are solving Fridrich, work on your F2L, pairing up corners and edges and inserting them, then work on a 4LLL then 3LLL and eventually 2LLL. Practice is the key.

 

[BashTheFash]

Yeahh, I know. :unsure: , I guess I'm just being lazy? Either way, if anyone wants to talk : BashTheFash 89.

I'm about 4 algs from a 3LLL, then I'm moving on the those damned OLL algs..

 

[DANGAZN]

Originally posted by BashTheFash@Jan 28 2007, 06:46 PM
Yeahh, I know. :unsure: , I guess I'm just being lazy? Either way, if anyone wants to talk : BashTheFash 89.

I'm about 4 algs from a 3LLL, then I'm moving on the those damned OLL algs..

Same here my man, I still got to memorize a lot of the OLL cases, and a few more G PLL cases.

 

[BashTheFash]

BTW, I always hear people refer to different PLL by a letter. Where are they getting these??

 

[gn17]

Originally posted by BashTheFash@Jan 29 2007, 05:12 AM
BTW, I always hear people refer to different PLL by a letter. Where are they getting these??

I'm not too sure where it came from, but it has spread to numerous cubing sites all over the internet. The letters themselves come from the shapes that the permutations make as the cubies are moved around the cube. The T-perm moves it in a 'T'-shape, while the Y-perm moves it in a 'Y'-shape.

A very nice and useful place that organizes these is Dan's Cube Station: http://www.cubestation.co.uk/cs2/index.php...x3/cfop/pll/pll

 

[tenderchkn]

Algorithms will only get you so far. If you can't either execute them fast, or execute them smoothly, you can forget about sub-20.

Keep in mind that a 20 second solve breaks down to about 12-13s F2L and 7-8s LL. That's 2.5 seconds each for cross and each C/E pair, 3s for OLL and 4s for PLL. It sounds daunting, but with proper practice, you'll realize that 20 seconds is a long time, and (hopefully) one of your slower solves.

But to get there, I cannot stress proper technique more. You don't have to be particularly fast (an average of 3 moves/second will suffice), but especially during F2L, you have to connect your algorithms. Learn to execute finger tricks in ways that leaves your hands in position to perform another one. I used to have this bad habit where I did U' and U2' by pushing with my right thumb. It's a bad idea because my hand is way out of position to do the follow-up, which is usually RUR' or RU'R. Breaking this habit was essential for me to drop from the mid-20's to sub-20.

Eventually, you're develop your own style - just make sure you work on correcting bad habits. And work on the F2L until you can average 10-12s, and the rest should be a piece of cake.