Question about times

[Ricks_TC]

Hi all. I bought my first cube a week and a half or so ago, because I had some time on my hands, and wanted to learn to solve it. My first solve came almost two days after I bought the cube, and it took me about twenty minutes. I began searching the internet, and came across this beginners guide, which I memorized: http://peter.stillhq.com/jasmine/rubikscubesolution.html.

Using that layer by layer method, I brought my average (of five) time down to about two and a half minutes. My goal is to eventually get down below a minute on a consistent basis, but I'm kind of stuck. I tried learning f2l intuitively, but my time using f2l instead of lbl is about four minutes.

I've only been cubing for about a week and a half, so I'm assuming that my time will go down the more I practice either method, but I'd love some tips to improve my time. I kind of hit a brick wall, because my average hasn't really gone down that much in the last few days, and I don't know if I should just keep practicing, or if I need more technique.

Thanks!

Tim

 

[Inusagi]

You could probably do a sub 1 min. with that method. You got to practise on finger tricks. Just search it on youtube and you'll find a good guide. When you're a sub 1min. solver you could jump over to the Friedrich method.
But it's takes a while before that happens.

Link to the method:
www.cubestation.co.uk

Hope that helps.

 

[Zigosity]

I got to 1:10.xx times with a beginner's LBL method before moving on to intuitive f2l. After like 2 weeks of f2l my times dropped to around 45.xx average, using f2l and like a million-look last layer from the beginner's method. Gonna start learning 4-look LL soon, when I get the time.

 

[JU1CYFRU1T]

The most important part about F2L (or LBL for that matter) is to practice correctly. Make sure that you are ALWAYS trying to look ahead. It's something that I didn't know about until I found this forum... and it is more difficult to break a bad habit then it is to learn a new one.

If you want to get REALLY good, I would recommend reading THIS entire page. (link to cubefreak "speedcubing tips"). This page has nothing to do with methodology (F2L vs LBL), but is about learning good technique.

I haven't timed myself in almost a week, so I don't know where my 'new average' stands... but I feel faster. Read the link, and follow it exactly (well... not really... but you know what I mean).

 

[Lofty]

Of course if you think your method is what is holding you back you could try other methods besides intuitive f2l. You could try keyhole or block building or any of the other number of methods that exist. Search around until you find a method that is right for you.
You have:
Fridrich- good all around method
Block building- Petrus, Heise and Roux- Also good methods, low move counts but you may have to practice more to obtain the lower move counts that are possible.
Corners First- not very popular but can be fast (sub 15 im sure if pushed can be just as fast as any method) as well Waterman is the most famous of them.

 

[fanwuq]

I have friends who average about 40 seconds on LBL. I was averaging about 2:30 my first week. Then, I got on the internet, found petrus' site. Read page on fingertricks and literally halved my time immediately.