Serious question. One-handed cubing

[Mike Hughey]

I never do M slice moves with real OH. But with OH BLD, I do lots and lots of M2 moves; I push the FU sticker with my thumb. Probably not a fast enough move for speedsolving, but plenty fast enough to be semi-decent for OH BLD; I can do an M2 in about half a second that way.

If I actually need to do an M (as opposed to an M') for OH BLD (and unfortunately, I do it fairly often), I hold the FUR sticker with the pad of my thumb and the whole FL side with the base of my thumb, and pull from BU with my index finger. But that's admittedly a pretty bad move - each move like that probably adds a full second to my solve.

 

[Anonymous]

You use your thumb to push FU? That sounds difficult. Does it end up looking like a z' E', or am I just a noob for not being able to figure out how you're doing that?

 

[Mike Hughey]

No, I don't really reorient the cube at all. The grip does change, but it's not that slow to do the change, considering how slow the move itself is (and in a real solve, I suppose I may have exaggerated - I can't do an M2 in a half second - I'm probably closer to a full second). Before doing the FU thumb push, I let my fifth finger curl so that it lies along the DL edge, and I put my second fingertip on BLU and my third fingertip on BLR to keep those slices from moving while I do the thumb push. My fourth finger almost rests at BDR, but doesn't really do anything. It actually flows pretty well with typical M2 setup moves, so it's pretty good for BLD.

I didn't really work this out; I just found myself naturally doing it when I tried juggling and solving - it works well even with your hand behind your back, and allows a really firm grip on the cube so you don't drop it.