The Solve Critique Thread

Pyraminx average of Five: 12.70

Hey, all, I am trying to get to sub-ten on Pyraminx, and am stuck at about twelve seconds. I use LBL, all with my own algorithms. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
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Hi everyone !

Don't be surprised: I am color neutral.

I currently average around 15 or 16, and here is a video of an avg5 of me (the audio isn't well synced) :

I think I should improve look ahead (I wasn't at my best), LL execution, PLL recognition (maybe move to 2-side), and OLL recognition for some cases (awkward shapes, small lightning bolt, etc).

What do you think it is the most important to improve, to become sub15? :-)

Thanks in advance. :-D


EDIT: Also, I'm sorry but I'm not good enough to critic other's solves... :-/
 
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Bh13 said:
Hey, all, I am trying to get to sub-ten on Pyraminx, and am stuck at about twelve seconds. I use LBL, all with my own algorithms. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

I think you need better look ahead. Like, sometimes you have to turn the tip twice to get it right instead of once in the right direction. Fingertricks look interesting. But, I would really recommend you learn keyhole instead. It's not hard to learn at all and it took me about 3 days of practice to get a sub-10 Ao12 and 2 more days to get a sub-10 Ao100. (I only learned it about two and half weeks ago.) Before that, I was a total noob at the pyraminx and could do it in about 30 seconds.
 
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Eufrosino said:
Hey guys!

At first it was just going to be a normal video, but decided to edit it so I can show it to my friends.


3x3 Ao5: 26.376 Seconds
1st Solve: (22.77)
2nd Solve: (28.86)
3rd Solve: 25.13
4th Solve: 27.88
5th Solve: 27.24

I've been stuck in the 20s for a while now, and I really want to get sub 20 soon.
What do you guys think I should prioritize in my practice sessions? Should I learn the rest of my OLLs (around 8 more), or should I work on improving my look ahead first? Also, how should I be practicing at this point (I currently do slow turning and solving with glances)? Maybe you can tell me how you practiced when you were averaging around my time?
Any help would be appreciated!
Click to expand...

Bump after 6 days
 
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Look ahead helps way more than 8 more OLLs, but since there are so few left to be learned, I say do both at the same time. Just pick one OLL to learn until you're comfortable recognizing that case everytime it comes up. Even if you do one OLL every week, it's better to do it one at a time than all at once.

Slow turning is good. Just make sure you're doing that with the focus of having no pauses between F2L pairs. It's hard to tell from this angle, but maybe you need more efficient ways to do cross and F2L. I know you did this for your friends, but it helps to have it as 1st person angle (at least it does for me). When I was at your times, I just did lots of solves. Nothing too special until I got stuck at 22 for awhile. Turn faster for LL.
 

Meh average but kept scrambles and had a decent angle. :)
Tips?

Average of 5: 16.65
1. 16.51 B R' F' D' L B2 R' U2 D' F L2 F' L2 U2 F' B2 D2 R2 L2 F'
2. 14.56 F2 R2 U' R2 U F2 D2 R2 U2 F2 L2 F' D' L' F2 U' B D2 L D
3. (14.05) R2 D2 F L2 D2 L2 D2 F D2 B' L2 D L' U2 L2 F' R' U' F' R2 F2
4. (20.81) R D2 F U2 L U' D' F' B L2 U' B2 R2 F2 U2 R2 U L2 U' L2
5. 18.89 D F R' F2 B D F' R2 F' L D2 F2 D2 F' D2 F R2 L2 D2 R2 L2
 
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okay, I have been doing 4 X 4 only since a month - 6 weeks or so. I think I am doing something not right since I do not seem to get any decent times. I am dead last in every weekly competition.

I brake it down like this.
-Do white and yellow centers first.
-Do other centers
-make an edge pairing and place in U face or B face
-repeat previous untill B and U face are filled with completed edges.
-fuzz around with last uncompleted egdes
-do 3 X 3 on 4 X 4.

Here is a sovle with edge parity, OLL parity and PLL parity. Worse case scenario. 3:15 minutes.

4. 3:15.46 Fw' U Uw2 D' B' L2 R2 U Uw Fw2 Uw2 L2 R' F U Uw' Rw U L2 B2 Rw F2 U Rw' D2 F' Uw Fw B Rw Uw2 D' L Rw U Uw Fw' L D' F

Any feedback on how to improve will greatly be appreciated.
 
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MarcelP said:
okay, I have been doing 4 X 4 only since a month - 6 weeks or so. I think I am doing something not right since I do not seem to get any decent times. I am dead last in every weekly competition.

I brake it down like this.
-Do white and yellow centers first.
-Do other centers
-make an edge pairing and place in B face or B face
-repeat previous untill B and U face are filled with completed edges.
-fuzz around with last uncompleted egdes
-do 3 X 3 on 4 X 4.

Here is a sovle with edge parity, OLL parity and PLL parity. Worse case scenario. 3:15 minutes.

4. 3:15.46 Fw' U Uw2 D' B' L2 R2 U Uw Fw2 Uw2 L2 R' F U Uw' Rw U L2 B2 Rw F2 U Rw' D2 F' Uw Fw B Rw Uw2 D' L Rw U Uw Fw' L D' F

Any feedback on how to improve will greatly be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Centers: After first 2 opposite centers, you should do the remaining four in adjacent order (ie. blue, red, green, orange) instead of in opposite pairs.
Edges: As far as I can see, you are doing basically one dedge at a time. Try learning 3-2-2-2-3.
3x3 stage: Kind of a lot of pauses and lockups. Try to look ahead.

What I would do at this speed is either
1. Just turn as fast as you can - turning faster with the same number of lockups/pauses = faster time, or
2. Lookahead better. Pause less. For some reason you seem to be locking up quite a bit. This might be your cube's fault (but it's modded? idk.) or you might just need to work on turning.

Good luck!
 
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cubingawsumness said:
For some reason you seem to be locking up quite a bit. This might be your cube's fault (but it's modded? idk.) or you might just need to work on turning.

Good luck!
Click to expand...
Thanks! I just restickered the cube yesterday (after modding it a week ago). And before I made the video I sprayed lot of silicone in the cube resulting in a very very slow and locky cube. That was not my brightest moment of the day LOL.. Now 12 hours later the lube is worn in and it's 1000% better now. ;) I will look into the 3-2-2-2-3 thing. Never heard of before.
 
MarcelP said:
Thanks! I just restickered the cube yesterday (after modding it a week ago). And before I made the video I sprayed lot of silicone in the cube resulting in a very very slow and locky cube. That was not my brightest moment of the day LOL.. Now 12 hours later the lube is worn in and it's 1000% better now. ;) I will look into the 3-2-2-2-3 thing. Never heard of before.
Click to expand...
Also always hold the completed white and yellow centers on the left and right sides of the cube when solving the next four centers. This allows you to use mostly Rw and U turns (and x rotations) for solving them.
Before looking into 3-2-2-2-3, you should try out normal 2-pairing first (in fact the 2-2-2-3 part is just normal 2-pairing, though more localized; the first 3 is the only part that's different) - here's a very old but good guide for it (look under "two pairs at once"): http://www.bigcubes.com/4x4x4/edges.html
 
cubingawsumness said:

Meh average but kept scrambles and had a decent angle. :)
Tips?

Average of 5: 16.65
1. 16.51 B R' F' D' L B2 R' U2 D' F L2 F' L2 U2 F' B2 D2 R2 L2 F'
2. 14.56 F2 R2 U' R2 U F2 D2 R2 U2 F2 L2 F' D' L' F2 U' B D2 L D
3. (14.05) R2 D2 F L2 D2 L2 D2 F D2 B' L2 D L' U2 L2 F' R' U' F' R2 F2
4. (20.81) R D2 F U2 L U' D' F' B L2 U' B2 R2 F2 U2 R2 U L2 U' L2
5. 18.89 D F R' F2 B D F' R2 F' L D2 F2 D2 F' D2 F R2 L2 D2 R2 L2
Click to expand...

Make the easiest block, not the one that you are most comfortable to make at this time. It seems you rarely make blocks with cross edges, instead you almost always make F2L pairs at the start like in CFOP. That is bad.

Also, improve your TPS while maintaining your good look-ahead.
 
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PianoCube said:
Some critique on this? It's a bit faster than average, but nothing unusual.

Some things I have noticed:
-Too long pause between cross and f2l
-Too long inspection time on 4th solve
-Some messing around with AUF

I feel like my look ahead is finally starting to get good, although there is always room for improvement.
My turning style is quite a bit influenced by some videos of jskyler91 I saw a while ago. Love his style.
Click to expand...

Bump after more than 3 weeks.
Anyone?
 
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PianoCube said:
Bump after more than 3 weeks.
Anyone?
Click to expand...

What I see is:
- Look ahead is quite good. Now you need to learn to look ahead while turning faster.
- Cross-F2L transition is generally bad in your solves. You target your practice on cross+1 a couple of days (cross+1 is cross with one pair). Be sure to know exactly how to do your cross. You should be able to do it blindfolded, while counting in the reverse order, from 20 to 0. :-P
- You should work on your OLL speed execution. You PLL are very fast, but not your OLL. Maybe try to make some OLL time attack.
- You can do better fingertricks on half turns: you use your index twice, but you can make a quarter turn with your index, and then a quarter turn with your middle. This is faster. You can also use this in some PLL or OLL, for example the anti-sune: R U2 (use both fingers) R' U' (with your index) R U' (with your middle) R'. Same on some PLL (like the T one). It take some time to get used to it, but it's way more comfortable, and you can save a second by doing this. ;-)


That's my 2 cents, hope that helps. :-)
 
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