Need help with particular issues in CFOP

[Praetorian]

so lately I have been very inconsistent and I am noticing that I have some problems

1. I honestly am too pressured by being timed, sometimes I'm not but I almost always am, I can't seem to do something normally when I'm being timed over when I'm not timed. I couldn't imagine how badly my nerves would get to me if I were in a competition

2. I cannot, find pairs after a cross, I'm not sure why I just can't, it is killing me and making me feel slow. When I do I try too hard to be fast and have quick bursts of speed after 2-5 seconds looking for two pieces to pair up. Sometimes I'll get nervous about the timer and put it into the wrong slot by accident. I try to find a corner then find its edge

3. My turning gets inaccurate and I'm not sure how to fix that, and making an attempt to changing my natural turning and fingertricks seems like a huge step backwards

4. (not sure if this is normal or not) I feel like fast cubes have ruined my turning style, I have a Gans 357 and a GuangYing, I main the Gans cause the GuangYing feels nice but is too locky and is a little too fast

5. I feel like I'm not making any improvement, some days I get sub 20 avg's other days I'm back to 28-30 second solves when I completely break down

6. And lastly I'm not sure whether to try to be fast to go against the timer or to go slower and try to look for pieces because both yield around the same times for me

 

[cashis]

Hey. I have the same problems, specifically the first one. I find myself stopping the timer halfway through auf just to get better times. I also can't track pairs very well, but as I get faster it comes more naturally. For easy crosses (< 3), you should absolutely be able to track your first pair, and eventually you'll be able to do it for longer and longer crosses. I think turning also just comes with time, and I agree you shouldn't undo natural habits unless they're terribly bad, which I doubt is the case. About fast cubes, how are they "ruining" your turning style? Clarify for me please. About not improving, we all have bad days. Our PB ao100s aren't going to be what we always solve as. Some days I get low 14s and some days its low 11s and low 10s. It happens, and as you get faster, the gap between your worst and best will close. Finally, and I think this is most important, dont pressure yourself. Sit down and relax and just cube. Thats what gives me the best times. If you think about getting good times, you wont. Turn the cube quickly, but not so fast that you cant see your next pair. I'm not really sure how to explain it at your times because I haven't been there in a while, but if you aren't looking ahead at all, then learn how to, and if you are, solidify that by turning a little slower .
E; sorry for wall of text.
Tldr; chill

 

[Phinagin]

Ok it sounds like to me that you have two major problems that can be fixed.
1. You turn too fast and need to slow down turning(F2L).
2. Turn the timer off.

When you turn too fast you will not be able to look at the pieces you need to solve next and therefore cannot lookahead. In order to lookahead, you need to turn the cube slow enough so that during F2L you never stop turning. While you are inserting one pair, try to look for the next pair you are going to solve. If this is still too hard one way at getting better at this is to find a F2L pair, and think of how to solve it. Then you would close your eyes and solve the pair. Repeat this for all 4 pairs. By doing this type of practice you will be able to progress to solving the pair with eyes open while looking for next pair. anyway I am not going to go more in depth on this as there are many guides, that are better than what I could make on lookahead.

It is obvious that the timer is making you feel nervous for whatever reason, so I would suggest not using a timer for a while. This is actually for two reasons. 1. Since you should be practicing lookahead, it might take you longer to solve the cube using method I previously described. 2. Also because it is making you feel nervous and taking a break from the timer may help. However if you do want to use a timer, I would suggest finding a timer that does not display the running time as you solve. This will make you less likely to look at timer, and therefore less nervous.

Hope this will help.

 

[NeilH]

1. This might help; on some timers you can hide the counting timer so that you can't see it. I did this when I used to have a habit of looking the at the timer and getting tense. Remember that when you are practicing with a timer at home, it's just at home, not at competition.

2. What I do to help me with this is do the cross slow, like 2 TPS. I sometimes even do this during real solves because the slow TPS is more than made up by the look ahead. Other times, I choose to just track a certain corner and watch it all throughout my cross. Since I know the edge can't be can't be on the bottom, it's very easy to match up the corner I was tracking and its edge.

3. Turn slowly. Subconsciously, you will develop good finger tricks.

4. I'm not a cube expert, so I can't comment.

5. That happens to me too. Sometimes you just have to live with it. If you turn slower and work on look ahead, your solves will become more consistent because your pauses will all become very similar. That's what has happened for me. Also, remember you're not in competition. Just relax and have fun with the cube.

6. I mostly do fast solves but I never EVER look at the pair I am solving. You should do slow turning solves to increase lookahead. After that, you'll naturally be able to track pieces while turning faster.

I know we are about the same speed, but I hope this helped. This is advice I'm giving to you from personal experience.

 

[Praetorian]

About fast cubes, how are they "ruining" your turning style? Clarify for me please.

because then my turning style gets (effortless is the word?) and then I start to lock up a lot because it becomes more inaccurate

not sure if this was the right way to say it, sorry, slow cubes or aolong v2 speed just doesn't seem right for me is all, and I feel like my actual turning speed is affected by the speed of my cube and not my actual self, it might be a sort of mental problem with me during solving

 

[cashis]

I'm not sure I understand but either way I'm not the best with hardware. Sorry

 

[Mes]

With #1 I am the same way, Like NeilH said, qqtimer allows you only to have timer updating for inspection, so when you start your solve it just says "running". It broke my habit of looking up at the timer while I was solving. Hopefully it will help you the same.

 

[TDM]

Sounds like you're trying too hard to turn too fast. Slow down.

1. I honestly am too pressured by being timed, sometimes I'm not but I almost always am, I can't seem to do something normally when I'm being timed over when I'm not timed. I couldn't imagine how badly my nerves would get to me if I were in a competition

This can be helped by timing yourself more. Doing timed solves should be no different to timed solves - don't worry about what times you get. You'll eventually stop feeling pressured. Same with competitions - the more you compete, the less nervous you'll get.

2. I cannot, find pairs after a cross, I'm not sure why I just can't, it is killing me and making me feel slow.

This problem can be solved by turning slower during cross. Try to plan your cross in inspection (practising just solving the cross BLD will help with this), and if you can do that, then turn slowly while executing it and look for the next pair.

When I do I try too hard to be fast and have quick bursts of speed after 2-5 seconds looking for two pieces to pair up. Sometimes I'll get nervous about the timer and put it into the wrong slot by accident. I try to find a corner then find its edge

Being fast isn't about turning fast. It's about not pausing. Honestly, if you turn slowly and look ahead to the next pair, you'll get very similar (sometimes better) times than fast turning, without much practise. If you practise it some more then you'll find you do get faster with slow turning.
If the timer is still causing problems then try this untimed, but the timer shouldn't be a problem really.

3. My turning gets inaccurate and I'm not sure how to fix that, and making an attempt to changing my natural turning and fingertricks seems like a huge step backwards

4. (not sure if this is normal or not) I feel like fast cubes have ruined my turning style, I have a Gans 357 and a GuangYing, I main the Gans cause the GuangYing feels nice but is too locky and is a little too fast

Then try another cube! You could try a DaYan cube (GuHong v2 or ZhanChi), or a ShuangRen. These aren't as fast as a GuangYing or a Gans, but are still great cubes. I switch between a GuHong v2 and a mini ShuangRen as my main. I find cubes like the WeiLong too fast for me and I can't control them; using a controllable cube can help reduce lockups.

5. I feel like I'm not making any improvement, some days I get sub 20 avg's other days I'm back to 28-30 second solves when I completely break down

Then try changing something. If you don't know an alg set (e.g. OLL) then learn that, since it will help your times. Minimizing pauses is very important if you want to get faster; if you look at some of the best cubers they only pause for PLL recognition, and sometimes not even for that. This can be done by practising slower turning, both in timed and untimed solves.

6. And lastly I'm not sure whether to try to be fast to go against the timer or to go slower and try to look for pieces because both yield around the same times for me

Go slow and look ahead. It's easier to improve lookahead and then turning speed, than it is to improve turning speed and then lookahead.

 

[MM99]

There's been some great advice already the only thing I can add is you've only been cubing for 3 months man it takes people years to get fast so just keep grinding and you'll get to where you wanna be one day

 

[jamessorsona]

Just practice and practice. Don't always time your solves. Have some "examination" solves where you think about what happens when you do that and what comes next after. You'll eventually find your turning style with your preferred cube.

 

[Ross The Boss]

something that I find helpful is: when you need to turn really fast, you should keep your hands/body/mind relatively loose. you don't need to flex anything hard to turn fast. and when your executing an algorithm/solving a pair, slow down toward the end of your execution so you can see the next pieces sooner. just play around with different turning speeds till you feel comfortable.

 

[2180161]

Slow down, and make sure you look ahead. If you do a solve with quick bursts of speed, and then pause to look for pieces, slow down, and look for the pieces while you are performing the algorithm (even though I assume you are using intuitive F2L). Also, learn what the F2L case you get, how it affects the rest of the cube (it bothers me that I didnt know if this was affect or effect )

 

[Praetorian]

I just did an avg50 here are the results http://gyazo.com/c5832687857ef2ae2476c68a0336d715

this is my 2nd avg of 50 ive ever done

I was more consistent with my times except for two of the times where the solves were just complete messes

 

[Berd]

I just did an avg50 here are the results http://gyazo.com/c5832687857ef2ae2476c68a0336d715

this is my 2nd avg of 50 ive ever done

I was more consistent with my times except for two of the times where the solves were just complete messes

Roll the ao12!