The Solve Critique Thread

[gateway cuber]

A 3x3 solve by me (11.84, pb).

scramble: R2 U2 R2 B2 L2 U2 F' R2 U2 L B2 F R2 U L2 U L U2 F2
inspection: x2 y'
cross: D' R' D' R2 y R2
F2L-1: U' R U' R' y2 U' R U R'
F2L-2: y U2 R' U2 R R U R'
F2L-3: y2 U2 R U R' U2 R U R'
F2L-4: y' U R U' R' U R U' R'
OLL: U2 R U2 R2' U' R2 U' R2' U2 R
PLL: skip

pb by far but only due to luck, my F2L seems to suck and I'd appreciate suggestions.

you really need to cut dow on your rotations, that's why you're struggling with 3x3 in general not just your f2l, cut down on rotations, use U moves instead whenever possible.

 

[turtwig]

I just filmed myself for the first time for fun so I thought that I'd might as well post it here.
I average 14 seconds. I use CFOP with full OLL, PLL, COLL (except sune), and a few ZBLLs, OLS, and VHLS. I do white and yellow cross and I'm currently working on CN.
So I'm just looking for some tips to help my improve (preferably F2L)
Thanks.

 

[Ordway Persyn]

^^ I average about the same as you but I saw some pauses between cross and F2L and some LL lags were a little locky.

Also dual neutral between white and yellow, any tips are appreciated.

 

[Bindedsa]

^^ I average about the same as you but I saw some pauses between cross and F2L and some LL lags were a little locky.

Also dual neutral between white and yellow, any tips are appreciated.

During your F2L you regularly do little x' x rotations to look for new pieces, it's a terrible habit that I also used to have trouble with. You're also regularly using less than 6 seconds for inspection and you're not attempting to see further into yours solves. Your cross is inefficient some times and you rotate a lot during it, which might make it harder to see your first pair, so working on your crosses should help you better utilize your inspection and maybe make it easier to see your first pair. The first pair and cross to F2L transition is important, but I would focus more on look ahead because it is a lot easier to improve at slowly rather than making that big jump from never seeing your first pair to seeing it sometimes. Your F2L is efficient so I assume you know your cases fairly well, try to do blind pairs, like two at a time and slow turning solves, it should help with look ahead. You also do x' x rotations to recognize PLL almost every time, this is an a really really bad habit, learn to recognize your PLLs from all angles.

Your cube seems a little tight, it all depends on your turning style, but loosening a little might help with TPS and lock ups. You do F' with your thumb a lot, which is a finger trick I really like, but it just seems a little awkward for you. Maybe trying some different options like your left index or your right index might work. Also, just doing less U U and U' U' and more double flicks with both hands will help.

It might seem like a lot to work on, but just being conscious of what you're doing wrong is useful. Maybe try to focus on one or two things, it's nice to known there's a lot to improve because it means you can always get faster.

 

[obelisk477]

^^ I average about the same as you but I saw some pauses between cross and F2L and some LL lags were a little locky.

Also dual neutral between white and yellow, any tips are appreciated.

What PLL was that around ~5:00?

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[turtwig]

What PLL was that around ~5:00?

G perm I believe

 

[obelisk477]

G perm I believe

Yeah I meant which, and what alg. It was painful to watch lol

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[turtwig]

Yeah I meant which, and what alg. It was painful to watch lol

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R' U' R B2 D L' U L U' L D' B2

Yeah, it's a bad alg. The standard G perm is much better.
It's the mirror of L U L' B2' D' R U' R' U R' D B2', which a lot of cubers (including me) use for G perm at a U2.

 

[Ordway Persyn]

Yeah I've been thinking of relearning better algs for those G-perms. I also might try stuff Bindedsa said. also one thing I personally have always been bad at AUFing. I do U3s or U U' at the end of my solves a lot.

 

[obelisk477]

Yeah I've been thinking of relearning better algs for those G-perms. I also might try stuff Bindedsa said. also one thing I personally have always been bad at AUFing. I do U3s or U U' at the end of my solves a lot.

I've been thinking about making a video on predicting AUF after PLL, I think alot of people struggle with it

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[ConfusedCubing]

Usually on 3x3 I average around 27-29 seconds and I've been trying to improve on certain areas of my solves. However, it is pretty difficult when I only have my own judgement as reference. If I could get some help, that would be great. Here is an Average of 5 that I did earlier today:

Feel free to give any constructive criticism, thanks!

 

[posaidon0802]

Try to improve lookahead (Cross-F2L & F2L-F2L). While working on one pair, look for the next pair. For Cross-F2L although this may be hard, find 1 F2L pair during inspection. Also try to avoid rotations during last layer and do U moves to recognize PLL cases.

EDIT: Deleted:Shouldnt this be in the solve critique thread?

 

[shadowslice e]

Your turning style actually seems quite nice just make sure that you can alternate between hands fluidly and drill those LL algs as much as you can so that they become second nature and you don't have to think about them at all.

My main criticism is that you need to work on your lookahead (ie. Working out what you need to do next) because atm it seems you spend most of your time looking for pairs. Practise solving each of the steps BLD (so cross BLD so you can predict where the first pair is and first pair so you know where the second is etc). Don't be afraid to go over in inspection when you first try this and practise each step or do slow turning practise where you turn slowly enough that you know what you can do. Cyotheking has a good video on this.

But, in general, quite a nice set of solves for a sub-30 second solver and you seem to have developed quite a nice base to build further progress on.

 

[mafergut]

@ConfusedCubing, I agree that your weakest point is lookahead during F2L. Also cube rotations during F2L are to be reduced but during LL there no reason to do it during OLL and almost no reason to do it during PLL except in very specific cases where e.g. maybe you need U2 + PLL + U2 and it might be faster to just do y2 + PLL. But I don't recommend you to do U turns to recognize PLL. That's a very bad thing. Instead you should learn to recognize PLL from as few sides as possible. Ideally only 2 sides but, if you need to have a glance at a 3rd side, you can do that while finishing OLL instead of doing useless U/U' turns.

Other than that keep practising!!!

Now my turn This is a quite decen Mo3 at Yau 4x4 for me. I have watched the video and I have too many pauses while pairing and also my cross edges (the 3 first and the 4th as well) are horrible. Any advice is welcome.

 

[Eduard Khil]

[Roux] This is my PB average and normally I would average high-14 with very inconsistent times. Any tips are appreciated, thanks!

 

[YTCuber]

Square-1 solves, practising for German Nationals 2016
Tips?

EDIT: 1000!

 

[Hssandwich]

Square-1 solves, practising for German Nationals 2016
Tips?

EDIT: 1000!

Try to get your CO done in as few moves as possible, 3 moves is the maximum number it will take, but the majority of cases are 0-2 moves.
Make sure you don't rotate, square-1 is difficult to regrip after rotating, so it's generally not the best to rotate.
It was a little difficult to see what EPs you did during your solves, but it looked like they took up the most time, so try to work on those too.

 

[YTCuber]

My Method/Algs:
Cubeshape is advanced/optimal cubeshape
CO is intuitive (now working on that)
EO is 2 Algs, 1 for 1 Edge/layer and one is M2 (will maybe learn the other cases)
CP is 2x2 Ortega
EP is H,Z,Ub-Perm + M2 U2 M2 (parity on both layers) + Parity on one layer

EP Algs:
Z-Perm: M2 U M2 U' M2
H-Perm: M2 U2 M2 U M2 U2 M2
Ub-Perm: 1,0/0,-3/-1,0/3,0/1,0/0,3/-1,0/-3,0/
Double Parity: M2 U2 M2
Parity: Can't write it, but can execute it in 3-4 seconds

What EPs should I learn? H,Z,Ub on the bottom or Parity EP on Top or something else?

2 Centers: Good, learn fingertricks for r U2 r' and other inserts for the yellow center
3 Edges: Needs work. Hold the two solved Centers on the left and on the right, build the edges on the middle layer with r, r2 and r' and use U and L moves to put them to their correct position
Centers: Don't pair it center by center, do it slice by slice. First do the left center half (+maybe bottom center), then to the right one, first the bottom center, then back or front. The last 1.5 Centers are really fast, sub1 is possible.
Edges: For the last cross edge, don't rotate that much. Correct the cross during Centers, and NEVER using your whole hand. Remember to focus on the unsolved edges/3x3 stage during the edge flip algorithm, to decrease pauses.
3x3: Practise 3x3 helps you getting faster in 4x4. You can do OLL parity where you want, only auf if you have a solved edge which would get flipped. In the first solve, you did U2, U would have been enough. Recognise PLL Parity faster, don't AUF.
Solved cube: Don't waste time before pressing the spacebar.
And your cube could turn faster.

 

[mafergut]

2 Centers: Good, learn fingertricks for r U2 r' and other inserts for the yellow center
3 Edges: Needs work. Hold the two solved Centers on the left and on the right, build the edges on the middle layer with r, r2 and r' and use U and L moves to put them to their correct position
Centers: Don't pair it center by center, do it slice by slice. First do the left center half (+maybe bottom center), then to the right one, first the bottom center, then back or front. The last 1.5 Centers are really fast, sub1 is possible.
Edges: For the last cross edge, don't rotate that much. Correct the cross during Centers, and NEVER using your whole hand. Remember to focus on the unsolved edges/3x3 stage during the edge flip algorithm, to decrease pauses.
3x3: Practise 3x3 helps you getting faster in 4x4. You can do OLL parity where you want, only auf if you have a solved edge which would get flipped. In the first solve, you did U2, U would have been enough. Recognise PLL Parity faster, don't AUF.
Solved cube: Don't waste time before pressing the spacebar.
And your cube could turn faster.

Thanks a lot for your detailed suggestions. I will try to put them into practice.

 

[Hssandwich]

My Method/Algs:
Cubeshape is advanced/optimal cubeshape
CO is intuitive (now working on that)
EO is 2 Algs, 1 for 1 Edge/layer and one is M2 (will maybe learn the other cases)
CP is 2x2 Ortega
EP is H,Z,Ub-Perm + M2 U2 M2 (parity on both layers) + Parity on one layer

EP Algs:
Z-Perm: M2 U M2 U' M2
H-Perm: M2 U2 M2 U M2 U2 M2
Ub-Perm: 1,0/0,-3/-1,0/3,0/1,0/0,3/-1,0/-3,0/
Double Parity: M2 U2 M2
Parity: Can't write it, but can execute it in 3-4 seconds

What EPs should I learn? H,Z,Ub on the bottom or Parity EP on Top or something else?

Do you know Adj-adj? That alg is probably the most important one you can know. You can use it for solving U-perms top or bottom or any combination of non-parity EPs in few moves.
For example, you can do adj-adj U adj-adj to solve a U-perm or you could do adj-adj U D adj-adj to solve 2 U-perms at once.
It's also worth it to learn a few algs on bottom rather than on the top, like Z and H-perms which you can substitute Us for Ds.