The Solve Critique Thread

Lol, sorry to say but slow down and look ahead. :D And calm down! Like you lockup quite a bit.
Just like... turn slower but make sure it's more accurate turning.
That's the main stuff, it honesty does not take much to get sub-20 after you get that lookahead. Or well Sub-18 i'll say.

Mainly, solves are fine for now, just gotta slow down and be more accurate at turning and don't feel stressed. Look ahead.

Thanks! Yeah I'm working on the stress problem, it used to be worse, so I'm on my way :) At the moment, I'm learning the rest of OLL and I do a lot of cross practice and slow turning for look ahead. So far I feel like I'm half comfortable with it, that's why in my solves I turn rather slow, but still have a few pauses.
 
Thanks! Yeah I'm working on the stress problem, it used to be worse, so I'm on my way :) At the moment, I'm learning the rest of OLL and I do a lot of cross practice and slow turning for look ahead. So far I feel like I'm half comfortable with it, that's why in my solves I turn rather slow, but still have a few pauses.

Your solves are very similar to mine!!! I hope you don't mind me giving some advice, even though I'm barely faster than you?! I notice things watching your vid that I know I'm guilty of, and you're doing exactly the right thing to work on them. For example, there are a few occasions where you stop dead for a whole second mid-solve and look at the back slots to see if an F2L piece is there. As you (and I) know, you need to find this during the previous insert.

Practicing lookahead by slow solving is the only way around this, and something I'm working on myself. I aim at knowing where my next pair (i.e. both pieces, if not the case) will be during the current pair 100% of the time. I currently know maybe 70% during slow solves, which translates to about 50% during timed solves. If I can achieve 100% during slow solves, maybe this will be 80+% during timed solves, so I'll only lose my way 1 in 5 solves?! :p In an ideal world, lookahead would be 100% during timed solves... I guess that's something to aim at?!

There are a couple of F2L cases that you do 2 rotations for. Watch your video back and see if you can isolate these cases, or watch out for them when slow solving, and look in the wiki for better cases (rotationless cases, or just something more efficient/faster). Again, this is something I need to do myself, but inefficient cases like this really screw with your lookahead, as it's hard to keep turning the cube round without looking at what you're doing!

Do you have the timer up on screen? I find that hiding the timer while running helps with stress and lockups during LL - when I used to have time displayed, and came out of F2L at say 10-12 seconds, I'd be racing to try and get the solve in sub 14/15/16 and mess up. Now I don't know how I'm doing after F2L. Occasionally I'll feel good in a solve, and be disappointed to find out it was 21.xx, but more often than not I'll end up with a 15/16 when previously I might have panicked and messed up.

There was one solve where you didn't have your full cross memorised, and had to look for the 4th edge, and another where you stopped for an age after the cross. Both will be resolved with cross practice which, as you already said, you're doing.

Keep up the cross practice, BLD crosses, slow solves, and try to get 100% lookahead in slow practice. That's what I'm doing - hopefully see you at sub-18 in the near future! :D
 
Your solves are very similar to mine!!! I hope you don't mind me giving some advice, even though I'm barely faster than you?! I notice things watching your vid that I know I'm guilty of, and you're doing exactly the right thing to work on them. For example, there are a few occasions where you stop dead for a whole second mid-solve and look at the back slots to see if an F2L piece is there. As you (and I) know, you need to find this during the previous insert.

Practicing lookahead by slow solving is the only way around this, and something I'm working on myself. I aim at knowing where my next pair (i.e. both pieces, if not the case) will be during the current pair 100% of the time. I currently know maybe 70% during slow solves, which translates to about 50% during timed solves. If I can achieve 100% during slow solves, maybe this will be 80+% during timed solves, so I'll only lose my way 1 in 5 solves?! :p In an ideal world, lookahead would be 100% during timed solves... I guess that's something to aim at?!

There are a couple of F2L cases that you do 2 rotations for. Watch your video back and see if you can isolate these cases, or watch out for them when slow solving, and look in the wiki for better cases (rotationless cases, or just something more efficient/faster). Again, this is something I need to do myself, but inefficient cases like this really screw with your lookahead, as it's hard to keep turning the cube round without looking at what you're doing!

Do you have the timer up on screen? I find that hiding the timer while running helps with stress and lockups during LL - when I used to have time displayed, and came out of F2L at say 10-12 seconds, I'd be racing to try and get the solve in sub 14/15/16 and mess up. Now I don't know how I'm doing after F2L. Occasionally I'll feel good in a solve, and be disappointed to find out it was 21.xx, but more often than not I'll end up with a 15/16 when previously I might have panicked and messed up.

There was one solve where you didn't have your full cross memorised, and had to look for the 4th edge, and another where you stopped for an age after the cross. Both will be resolved with cross practice which, as you already said, you're doing.

Keep up the cross practice, BLD crosses, slow solves, and try to get 100% lookahead in slow practice. That's what I'm doing - hopefully see you at sub-18 in the near future! :D

Thanks for the tips :) Today I smashed all my Pbs in one session, which was amazing to me. I got about 8 or 9 sub 17, which used to be a rarity. 3 of them where even sub 16. That pretty much never happened up until today.

I finally got rid of the habit of looking at the pair I'm currently solving. Before, I used to do this in slow solves but when timing, I would go back to the old habit.
What I'm doing right now most of the time, is I will not look at the pair I'm solving and try to track the next one. Since I'm not that good at it yet, I mostly just search for a pair so that I'll know where my next pair is, not later than when I'm done with the current one. I see it as kind of a middle ground of lookahead. I'm looking ahead, although not with 100% success.

I know that some of the F2L solutions were bad. Usually I do them in a different way. During the timing, I sometimes resort to a slower way, mostly because of security I think. I don't want to risk anything, so in the heat of the moment I sometimes use pretty bad solutions to certain cases. Another thing I'm currently improving.

I have also comited to finally learn Full OLL, something I used to do occasionally, which resulted in me forgetting algs, which lead to pauses or wrong execution.

Again, thanks for the tips, let's aim for sub 15 this year :)
 
If ANYONE wouldn't mind watching this video, or at least some of it, I would appreciate it. I would love to hear what you have to say about what I can do to improve. I understand everything needs improving, but I want to hear what you think I am lacking the most. Or in what area I can improve the most. Any and all suggestions are welcome and appreciated. Thank you for your time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6uGe6xg0Uo
 
PROS:
You keep cube rotations minimal.
OLL recognition is pretty decent.

CONS:
Your fingers are moving really slow during F2L.
Pausing.
PLL recognition is slow.

How to improve:
Practice and practice F2L by itself.
And then practice OLL and PLL together trying to get rid of the pause in between

Also your cube sounds really dry even for a FangShi try lubing it with assorted regular silicone lube from TheCubicle.us
http://thecubicle.us/assorted-regular-silicone-lube-p-61.html
Get weight 2 for the screws and weight 1 for the pieces or if you prefer gummier cubes get weight 3,4 or 5 for the screws.

Or you could get some other lube but I think TheCubicle's lube is the best!

Hope this helped! :)
 
PROS:
You keep cube rotations minimal.
OLL recognition is pretty decent.

CONS:
Your fingers are moving really slow during F2L.
Pausing.
PLL recognition is slow.

How to improve:
Practice and practice F2L by itself.
And then practice OLL and PLL together trying to get rid of the pause in between

Also your cube sounds really dry even for a FangShi try lubing it with assorted regular silicone lube from TheCubicle.us
http://thecubicle.us/assorted-regular-silicone-lube-p-61.html
Get weight 2 for the screws and weight 1 for the pieces or if you prefer gummier cubes get weight 3,4 or 5 for the screws.

Or you could get some other lube but I think TheCubicle's lube is the best!

Hope this helped! :)

This post is so beautiful I want to cry. :eek: Thank you for the effort you put in to it! :D I love that you put in pros and cons. I didn't even think to ask for things I was doing well, it's helpful to know what I can kind of not focus on as much as well as what I should focus on more. The How to improve was perfect. Thank you so much, again. And the little suggestion about my cube being dry is great! I have no idea how most people lube their cubes. I lubed the core using lubix (bout 45k weight) and the pieces I BARELY put lubix on. I'll see about getting more lube. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I hope everyone else continues with the advice!
 
This post is so beautiful I want to cry. :eek: Thank you for the effort you put in to it! :D I love that you put in pros and cons. I didn't even think to ask for things I was doing well, it's helpful to know what I can kind of not focus on as much as well as what I should focus on more. The How to improve was perfect. Thank you so much, again. And the little suggestion about my cube being dry is great! I have no idea how most people lube their cubes. I lubed the core using lubix (bout 45k weight) and the pieces I BARELY put lubix on. I'll see about getting more lube. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I hope everyone else continues with the advice!

No Problem :)
 
Awesome average for me - got a new PB :)

anyway, any help will be appreciated
!

And apparently my voice didnt record...

And sorry for covering up my avgs. etc...
 
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So, I'm kinda sub 20 nowadays.
The DNF was noobish, but the rest is decent. Any tips on what I should mainly focus on?
Cross: Not so bad, but try to practice cross blindfolded. Sometimes you are looking for cross edges.
F2l: You still need a lot of practice here, don't be afraid of regrips, moves like y and y' aren't so bad, if you can properly use them. You turn sides slowly to have better look ahead, or something. But between f2l slots you make long breaks for looking next piece or transfer between slots is not fluent. Try to fix it by slowing down more but focus only in next pieces, for having fluent f2l.
OLL: Fine, when you see that you are going to have no oriented edges (OLL without any oriented edges) put last slot with this alg R'FRF'. Just tip.
PLL: Bad recognition, you make unnecessary moves during fitting PLL to execute.

Don't stress.

Awesome average for me - got a new PB :)

And apparently my voice didnt record...

And sorry for covering up my avgs. etc...
So..
Cross: Bad angle, difficult to see, I thinki that it's not so bad.
F2L: Almost everything to correct. Moves are fine (enough fast) but look ahead... there is no look ahead! You solved one pair and look at cube and do by 1-3 seconds completly anything. Try to slow down, realy slow down you turning, and focus on another pieces. I have one advice for you: Make cross, then look at cube, find edge and corner and solve this f2l pair blindfolded. Do it 4 times. And again, solve cross, and make every one slot blinfolded. Find f2l pair, solve it blindfolded, find another one, solve it. This is gonna help you with focusing at another pieces during f2l. You won't focus on solving pair, but on next slot.
LL: Practice, a lot. Read about PLL recognition, tips how to recognise them really easly. qqtimer has an option "Last layer trainer" or something. Try this.


Pretty normal solve for me.

What's good and what's bad?

Note: I solve cross on top.

Learn to solve cross on D side. It's much better, faster, and more fluent transition to first f2l pair. More look ahead during f2l. Practice, a lot. That's all.
 

Pretty normal solve for me.

What's good and what's bad?

Note: I solve cross on top.

You stop completely between each F2L pair. Try to look ahead at the next pair, and make F2L one seamless sequence of turns.

4 move cross. 15 second inspection should allow you plenty of time to at least locate the first pair.

PLL was frantic and the cube was fighting against you as a result. Try to turn a little more accurately. This will come with drilling PLLs.

So lookahead will make the biggest change for you. Moving your cross to the bottom will help massively with this.
 
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Help is appreciated

I would advise turning sound off. First cube was Weilong and second one was a Fangshi (Shuang Ren)
 
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less pauses during F2L, more look ahead, less short bursts of fast turning + pauses, work on cross and cross + F2L transition, work on recognition for PLL
mostly just work on F2L

and yes I didn't feel like just telling you this on facebook.
 
So..
Cross: Bad angle, difficult to see, I thinki that it's not so bad.
F2L: Almost everything to correct. Moves are fine (enough fast) but look ahead... there is no look ahead! You solved one pair and look at cube and do by 1-3 seconds completly anything. Try to slow down, realy slow down you turning, and focus on another pieces. I have one advice for you: Make cross, then look at cube, find edge and corner and solve this f2l pair blindfolded. Do it 4 times. And again, solve cross, and make every one slot blinfolded. Find f2l pair, solve it blindfolded, find another one, solve it. This is gonna help you with focusing at another pieces during f2l. You won't focus on solving pair, but on next slot.
LL: Practice, a lot. Read about PLL recognition, tips how to recognise them really easly. qqtimer has an option "Last layer trainer" or something. Try this.

Thanks for the help! I have not "learned" how to Look Ahead yet. Ill try doing your tips! Ill use the Last Layer thing as well!
 
I made an introduction video on my new youtube channel and it includes some 3x3 solves. Do you have advice? I know I have wayyyyy to many pauses . . . Thanks°!
 
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General things I saw:
1. General pausing, I find it goes away over time, but you can still train it.
2. Kinda goes with pausing but get that LL recognition down. It will help you a lot. I still struggle with this, LL is my personal weakness.
3. I'm gonna call the rolling of eyes.. Turn faster if you can. Drill your algs. You want to spam TPS in the LL, and if possible, throughout the solve. Hopefully this helps some!
 
General things I saw:
1. General pausing, I find it goes away over time, but you can still train it.
2. Kinda goes with pausing but get that LL recognition down. It will help you a lot. I still struggle with this, LL is my personal weakness.
3. I'm gonna call the rolling of eyes.. Turn faster if you can. Drill your algs. You want to spam TPS in the LL, and if possible, throughout the solve. Hopefully this helps some!

Ok, thanks a lot!

Oh, and this is how my sound experiment went (remember the discussion in cyoubx' thread?).
 
I have been stuck for the past couple of weeks and I was wondering what I should work on to be sub 15.
I know full PLL, almost all of OLL and a couple COLLs.
Mean: 15.56
Average: 15.56
Best time: 13.41
Median: 15.61
Worst time: 17.64
Standard deviation: 1.36

Best average of 5: 15.17
8-12 - 14.93 13.97 16.60 (16.85) (13.41)

1. 14.63 L2 F2 U' F2 D' B2 U2 L2 D' L2 U' F' U' R B R' U' R B' U L' U
2. 14.97 R2 B2 U2 F2 D R2 D U2 L2 D' R F2 D' F' L' U2 B D' B' D U'
3. 16.90 U' L2 D' B2 D B2 U' F2 D' R2 U L' F D B U' B L' D U' R2
4. 16.24 U R2 D R2 D' L2 B2 D2 U' B2 U2 L B U B' F' L2 B' R2 U' R' U'
5. 17.64 D' R2 U' B2 D' B2 R2 U2 L2 D U2 R' D L' F R' F' U2 L B' D
6. 16.67 U L2 U' F2 D L2 D L2 U2 F2 U2 R' B' U F D2 B D2 R L D U'
7. 13.88 B2 D2 B2 U' L2 U' B2 F2 D2 F2 L F' L2 U R2 B' R' D R L2 D'
8. 14.93 L2 F2 R2 B2 U' L2 U' F2 D U2 R D F2 R B' D2 L2 B R' U'
9. 13.97 L2 D F2 D B2 F2 D B2 U' B2 U' R B2 F D R U L2 U' L' F2
10. 16.60 L2 U' R2 F2 D B2 D' L2 F2 R2 F2 L' F R2 D B F' R2 D R2 U2
11. 16.85 U F2 R2 D' R2 L2 D' R2 D2 L2 F2 R B D2 B' F U2 B2 R' U' L' D
12. 13.41 D2 B2 U2 F2 D' R2 D' L2 B2 R2 F2 R' U' F' U F D R U2 F2
 
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