TIPS: Center for bigcube... ie... V6 and V7...

[TheJoker]

hello sir... as the title says... is there any TIPS or technique or any other advance tutorials for building center on bigcubes like V6 and V7 particularly...???

as i will consider myself an intermediate user of V6 and V7... my PB in V6 is 3:54.xx and in V7 is 5:51.xx... but that is the only sub4 and sub6 i solve respectively... can't get sub4 and sub6 again...

i don't know what i did... but i want it to be consistent... and i found out that i sucks in building centers...

my average for V6 centers is 2min... and for V7 is 3:30sec... so i want to trim it down... as i see a lot of you solve the center way faster... i know i don't have a very good finger tricks but i'm already working on it...

and edges and 3x3 part... i'm pretty consistent... average 3min in v7... and 2min in v6

then i want to know if there are some advance tips/techniques aside from PRACTICE/PRACTICE method...

hope someone could help or enlighten me... or direct to a more advance tutorials in center for v6/v7... as the next competition here in our country is due 3 weeks...

thanks a lot in advance... heheheheh...

 

[Lucas Garron]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myuiaVMv2eQ
This thread is probably better off in the beginner's forum, even if you know a bit of what you're doing.

 

[Mike Hughey]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myuiaVMv2eQ
This thread is probably better off in the beginner's forum, even if you know a bit of what you're doing.

Wow, Lucas, you have high standards! This guy comes along with a personal best that's 30 seconds better than your German NR and wants to know how to get better, and you think it belongs in the beginner's forum?? Remind me to never start a thread in the Speedcubing forum then. I obviously permanently belong in the Beginner's forum.

I hope I'll manage a sub-4 6x6x6 and a sub-6 7x7x7 sometime this year. But it'll probably take me most of the year to get there.

 

[AvGalen]

Uhm, you are indeed not slow at all!

I assume that you can benefit from all sorts of lucky cases during centers and can determine when it would be better to do
* Inner centers, Everything except outer lines, outer lines
* Line, Line, Line, etc
* Spiraling

I also assume that you do
* first center (color neutral or at the very least opposite center color neutral)
* opposite center
* third center (again, color neutral)
* one of the two adjacent centers (adjacent to the 3rd that is)
* Last two centers

For the last two centers I prefer this approach:
* Solve as many pieces as possible with about 10 moves
* Use Niklas/Sune based swaps for the last bad pieces
But if you prefer a more methodical approach I would suggest building vertical lines in this order:
* Solve the middle line (doesn't exist on even cubes)
* Solve the line to the left of the middle line
* Solve the line to the left of that one, etc (basically work from the middle outwards to the left)
* Solve the line to the right of the middle line
* Solve the line to the right of that one, etc (basically work from the middle outwards to the right)
* For the last line (outer-right) get the two "corners" surrounding the biggest block of "edges"
* Finish the missing "edges" with Niklas-commutators

Maybe a video would help?

 

[Mike Hughey]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myuiaVMv2eQ

By the way, I had always thought from descriptions that I probably did 7x7x7 centers the same as qq, but I had never really watched this video all the way through before now. It's eerie - I would have had almost exactly the same solve. I know he has a couple more tricks than me for the last two centers so that he pretty much never does more than one commutator to finish, whereas I often do two, but I'm pretty fast at that and I don't think it costs me more than a few seconds.

So the difference between qq's center solves and mine are entirely turning speed and lookahead. Scary. That means I have pretty much nothing to gain by improving my method.

I average around 3:30 to 4:00 on 7x7x7 centers, for anyone who's curious. So qq's probably about twice as fast as me.

 

[jcuber]

What is spiral centers, Arnuard?

 

[Lucas Garron]

Wow, Lucas, you have high standards! This guy comes along with a personal best that's 30 seconds better than your German NR and wants to know how to get better, and you think it belongs in the beginner's forum?? Remind me to never start a thread in the Speedcubing forum then. I obviously permanently belong in the Beginner's forum.

Well, it's not the speed that matters. But the initial post looks to me like someone who practiced, preached some level, and is blindly asking for advice, not much better than a beginner.
Better grammar would convince me that he's (she's?) serious, but it would really be nice to have some information on what to help with. A description for his current method, what he's tried, why it doesn't seem to work, would all help.
That way, this post is also useful for other people, who can clearly see what his situation was, and what helped him. Not that every post under "Speedsolving" has to be perfect, but right now it's really devolving into clutter.

 

[DavidWoner]

What is spiral centers, Arnuard?

I'm assuming you build:

1x2
2x2
3x2
3x3
3x4
4x4 (for 6x6x6)
4x5
5x5 (for 7x7x7)

 

[jcuber]

Seems very inneficient to me.

 

[TheJoker]

ooppsss... sorry sir LUCAS... thanks for the heads-up of the links... i didn't mean anything... i post this not to offend you guys... it just that i'm just frustrated... yeah i been practicing for a week now for the competition... it is just that i found centers is holding me from getting a consistent sub6 in V7 and sub4 in V6...

and sorry again to all who reply... i didn't mention what method i used...

thanks sir vault for the explanation... a little complicated to me for now... maybe if i find some video i could try it... as i'm vulnerable to any suggestion right now... anything to try a new to see if can help...

and Lucas is right... maybe it can others too... thanks...

and thanks avgalen... that is a lot of information... and thanks also for saying i'm not slow... i take that as a compliment...

and i do really appreciate all your reply... it is an honor for me... thanks a lot...

here it is...
in V6... i do a 1x4... whichever i see first during my inspection... if i see the outer 1x4 is easier i do it first... but i always look for the inner 1x4... but only for white... the rest of the color i start building two inner 1x4...

and here is my color scheme...
white to yellow... then third is blue... then red... then green/orange for the last 2 center... all of them i use 1x4... and in the last two center... i build the two inner 1x4 as fast as i can no thinking and pausing... that's what i practice... then i do a 1x3 any order for the the last two 1x4... but it always 2 corner and 1 inner edge... then i always left with 2 inner edges/cubies for the commutators...

in v7... i use 1x3 then build 3x3x3... then two 1x3 to build 3x5... then two 1x5 for left and right to build 5x5...

then again white first, yellow, blue, red then for the last two center green/orange... all the same method...

and for the last two center... i always do five 1x3 to build 3x5... then solve as many cubies for two remaining 1x5... then do commutators... i always end up with 3-4 commutators...

almost the same with what avgalen said... but instead of 1x5 i use multi-reduction... but i will practice what avgalen said... thanks...

and the commutators alg i used is this... if it is in the right... R U ...(r)... U' R' U ...(r')... something like this... i saw with someone and mention it is for oblique centers... i don't know... you can correct me... is it called niklaus commutators...??? i used it with 5x5...

i hope i explained my method of solving center clearly...

i just want to improve my center cuz i saw a lot of video of v7... i can only follow the first two colors... but when they start solving the last 4 center... i don't know how they do it... i know finger tricks is a big factor... and i'm practicing and onto it...

but what i really want to know is maybe there is other method or maybe some tips or techniques... or any other tutorials to improve building centers... like the video sir lucas posted... it is a great help... QQ is very fast... i saw some michael and yu video... my jaw drops... sub 2 centers... i only want sub3...

and i am serious about this... i'm 38 years old... and cubing is the only hobby i'm doing for more than 1 year now... except every friday night... drinking with my close friend...

thanks again guys... i REALLY do appreciate all your concerns and helps...