Please help.

[wanna_speed_cube]

Hi there, I'm a beginner, and like most beginners, I use the layer by layer method. Also like most beginners, I've noticed it is not the fastest nor the most economic (in terms of number of moves) method out there. My times range around 1:20 to 1:40. Can anyone give me a faster method that would get my times around 50 seconds or so? I don't need 15 second times or anything, so no need to advise any methods with ridiculously difficult algorithims, just another simple method that would improve my times. Thanks!

 

[Kenneth]

...method that would get my times around 50 seconds or so? I don't need 15 second times or anything....

Yea yea, not now, but when you can do 50 you will for sure want to do 30, and when you can do 30...

But a good and easy start from a LBL is to change to keyhole F2L, that will take you to 50 seconds.

 

[wanna_speed_cube]

I'm sorry, but I'm new. Or stupid, perhaps. What does all of that mean?

 

[FU]

(Rephrasing Kenneth's words)

You are using LBL (layer by layer) method now, to reduce your timings you could try out Keyhole F2L (first 2 layers). Avgalen has a tutorial on keyhole on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ-qIyScA5o

 

[TimMc]

Keyhole F2L is nifty but I reckon Fridrich F2L is faster...

I haven't done Keyhole F2L long enough to make the comparison though.

Try counting the number of moves you make during a solve (treat Quarter/Half/Full turns as one move). I can solve it in 30 seconds by doing around 100 moves. If you're fingers are fast you can take a crappy method and get fast times. If you learn a better method then it's even faster ^_^

Tim.

 

[wanna_speed_cube]

Thank you all. I appreciate the replies.

 

[Kenneth]

When I used keyhole I did F2L in about 40 turns, now using Fridrich F2L + a load of special tricks I can do around 30 on average, but of course, I had a load of tricks also for keyhole often putting down two corners at the time and sometimes also two edges in one go.

I think that if I practice keyhole for about a week or so I can probably go faster using that than with Fridrich, I often know one or even two pieces ahead and newer have to stop as I do when doing Fridrich = look ahead is much easier.

Take this as a comparsion: I'm using a advanced method for 4x4x4 solving F3L in blocks of 2-3 pieces at the time, averaging sub 130 turns. My brother uses a simple keyhole method solving F3L piece by piece averaging at least 100 turns more than I do (he has a crappy LL, that's the reason for the big difference). But still he is only about 20-30% slower than I am, most of it I think he looses in LL. (We both direct solve, no reduction).

Keyhole is not the most effective method but sure one of the fastest if you know how to twist that thing.