Poll - how do YOU look ahead from cross to F2L?

[pipkiksass]

Just to clarify, I know the common methods of doing this, I'm not asking for a tutorial or tips. I'm at the stage in my personal cubing development where I know my biggest weakness is failure to adequately plan the cross, to the extent that I can look ahead into F2L. I've read loads of really helpful posts about this, and watched tutorials, and these have left me with a few potential roads for exploration.

I'd just be interested to hear from those who feel that they already have reasonable lookahead between cross and F2L, which of the various methods they use in actual solves. Please only reply if you feel that you can look ahead pretty well at this stage in your solve.

Thanks folks!

 

[Ollie]

It might/might not be helpful, but practicing speedBLD helped me a lot. With a minute or so of tracing, I could predict for certain where my first F2L pair would be after the cross + what alg I would use. With lots of practice, I had a 'brief idea' at around 10-15s.

 

[BillyRain]

Hope for the best

 

[ben1996123]

i can usually plan cross+first f2l during inspection

 

[cannon4747]

I try to do the cross while looking for edges that will become "good" edges meaning I can solve them with only R, U, and L turns. Sorta like ZZ method without the actual pre-cross edge orientation. It makes f2l pairs go way faster and reduces cube rotations. of course, i usually end up doing a billion cube rotations after the first pair, but the solves that I don't are usually sub-16 (I average 18s).

 

[ottozing]

Either plan ahead or don't look at the cross as you solve it. Both things will only get better with practice.

 

[A Leman]

I normally plan a pair during inspection and look at the EO of the F2l edge pieces. and then find at least the next pair while I execute the Cross+1.

The reason why I look at EO is so I can solve the F2l with at most 1 rotation and it gives myself an idea of where the edges will be after the cross.

I also prefer crosses that leave pairs alone so I can make the predict F2L part easier. I would gladly add a move or two for a cross that preserves the positions of easy pairs.

 

[immortalchaos29]

Of course you (and I) need to get to the point where you are either able to solve an X-cross or track both the first corner and the edge every time. But when it is too difficult to pull that off I usually just track the corner and predict the edge.

 

[aceofspades98]

I look for the corner and edge during inspection and predict where it will go, but I don't usually plan it out completely.

 

[kcl]

I usually look for an efficient cross first. Then I search for the f2l pair after it. I want to try speedBLD for f2l though

 

[speedcuber115]

I do most of those methods depending on which seems easiest. I usually predict at least one piece unless the cross is difficult.