[Help Thread] OH method selection + algs and fingertricks

[Caleb Valenzuela]

Yeah my F2L is fairly decent but my cross solutions are often questionable as I only solve white. Also I was thinking to switch from OLL--> PLL to OLLCP--> EPLL. Will it be ok?

being dual color neutral (white and yellow cross) will help a lot, since efficiency matters more in OH than in 2H (you can’t TPS spam your way into a better solve like 2H)
also
just use OLL
OLLCP is worth it in some cases
but most of the time it’s not
OLLCPs for T, U and L OLL cases are worth it (if I’m understanding EPLL being H perm, Z perm, and U perms)

 

[Prabal Baishya]

being dual color neutral (white and yellow cross) will help a lot, since efficiency matters more in OH than in 2H (you can’t TPS spam your way into a better solve like 2H)
also
just use OLL
OLLCP is worth it in some cases
but most of the time it’s not
OLLCPs for T, U and L OLL cases are worth it (if I’m understanding EPLL being H perm, Z perm, and U perms)

yeah I will then limit to the cross OLLCPs then, also can you suggest a good OH E-perm, I use the standard RUD one and it's slow for me

 

[Caleb Valenzuela]

yeah I will then limit to the cross OLLCPs then, also can you suggest a good OH E-perm, I use the standard RUD one and it's slow for me

R U’ y R U’ R U R’ U R U2 R’ U R’ U’ R U2 R’ F’

 

[Prabal Baishya]

R U’ y R U’ R U R’ U R U2 R’ U R’ U’ R U2 R’ F’

This is so much better than the 2H one lmao

 

[K3n]

yeah I will then limit to the cross OLLCPs then, also can you suggest a good OH E-perm, I use the standard RUD one and it's slow for me

That's COLL btw

 

[AJT17]

First, about two-handed times: This seems to be mostly correlation, not causation? I think most people start with getting good at two-handed, then turn to OH while still practising two-handed; hence there is a certain ratio between the two. I don't really practise much cubing at all and have limited amounts of time to do so, but would it really be worthwhile to practise two-handed to get better at one-handed? I understand that many things carry over, but it would seem like lookahead, cross-planning, F2L and all that stuff could be equally well learnt while actually practising one-handed. Essentially, if you have a few hours to practise per week in my situation, would you spend some of it on two-handed? If so, what would that practise consist of?

You should definitely practise 2H a bit, as it does affect your OH times. In your case, you could probably split it 60-40 or 70-30 in favour of OH; that way you're still practising mostly OH like you want, but you also get some 2H solving that will benefit you too. As for what to practise, I'm not the best at that, but I personally would have a good bit of the time dedicated to just solving. But with that solving, you want to be mindful of any specific habits you have that you could improve upon, and this is something you'll need to figure out yourself since you probably know what parts of your solves are the worst. For example, if you know there are a handful of F2L pairs that you are consistently bad at, then when you get those cases in a solve, take the extra moment to do it the right way even if it slows you down to start. And this isn't exclusive to 2H solving, but it does help to just get more experience with 2H, since it does strengthen your OH. And as for OH practise, you can do a similar thing, as well as making better use of slower turning for better lookahead, like I mentioned in the earlier post.

I have the R3SM V5 already, which seems nice for OH. I also like Guhong Pro, both for OH and for normal use. What do people normally recommend in terms of magnets, settings, etc.? It would seem that alignment is much more important than for two-handed, for example.

I personally like magnets to be around the middle; I find the V5 to be just barely too weak for my turning style, but a lot of people don't have that issue. And the Guhong is also a good cube from what I've tried. The most I can advise about settings is to either see if you can find any top cubers' settings or to experiment with it and see what feels the best to you.

Thank you, that's very nice of you! As mentioned, your response is already very helpful. I think my first goal will be to establish a baseline to see where I'm at now (maybe reviewing my old progression thread) and record some solves. Then I will focus on basic triggers and fingertricks, as well as your two-look OLL and, for now, two-look PLL (as mentioned, I'm currently only using T and Ua, which can mean four-look PLL, which is so bad). I've watched some of the videos you and the others recommended, and they've all been very helpful so far.

That's great! The biggest drop in your times right now will definitely come from learning a few more LL algs to reduce how many looks you actually need to do.
And sorry about not getting to this until now; I just completely forgot about it.