Training Advice Needed

[theace]

Ok, so my exams end tomorrow and along with preparing for my univs, i need to start serious cubing practice. There's a tournament coming up on 4th Feb which I want to do well in. It's the RCMO - Rubik's Cube Mumbai Open, the first event I ever participated in so it means quite a lot to me.

So here's the deal. I need advice for practically everything apart from the megaminx - because I don't have one. I might buy one, lets see.

I'll post breakdowns and videos he possible for each of my cubes over the next two days so you guys can help better. Any advice regarding hardware, methods, etc is appreciated. The only issue as such is that I don't like memorizing algs. It takes me quite a while. Also, I know I need shitloads of practice, so tell me what else I need to do APART from practicing.


3x3 Speed:

I currently average sub 30. When in full go, I get sub 25 as well. Lucky solves and skips usually give me 20 to 22. I use a GuHong. I do Friedrich with a 3 LLL.

What should I learn first? Full OLL or VHZBF2L? Should I learn both? What order should I go in?


3x3 OH:

I currently average at around a minute. Lucky solves give me sub 55. I use the same GuHong. I started training my pinky to do R' but I still can't pull off the sexy move well. I'm not very fast with the R' U' sequence either. I use a 3 LLL with the exception of those annoying G Perms where I do a 2 Look PLL.


3x3 BLD:

I suck at memo. I've been trying to use the Pochman method for some months now but I've given up on my memory. It takes me ages to memo a single edge cycle and breaking into new ones is virtually impossible. I memo by making sentences by using letters of the positions. E.g. RF FU DF BL BU RD BR... would be something like 'The RF values of the fuxxxx up daffodills in the black back-up of the redundant brooms was...

You get the idea right? Any advice would be appreciated here!


2x2:

I haven't practiced this for ages. Last I checked, I averaged at about 9ish with the Ortega with Friedrich OLLs. I'm colour neutral on the 2x2. I use a LanLan. Apart from practice, I don't really know what to work on...


4x4:

I've been trying to experiment with the 2 and 4 edge pairing methods. I currently do 2 2 pairs, put them on the top layer flip the cube over, do a 4 pair and finish off the rest with a 2 pairing. I'm stuck at sub 3 though I do get close to 2:30 sometimes. I fail at spotting the edges fast. Besides, my LanLan locks like mad. I'm considering getting both a Maru and a mini QJ.


Square 1:

I use the basic method. I get it to a semicircle and then a square followed by 2 orientation algs and a single permutation alg. I know a single parity alg which, for me was a ***** to learn. I average at around 1:30. Unlucky solves may go up to 1:50. I use an MF8 which has some deadly speed. A 3x3 style U flick would get of a U3 perhaps!

Any mods that you are aware of to make it cut corners and be a little controlable?


Pyraminx:

I just started on it this week. I have a QJ. I average at around sub 30, Sub 25 or even sub 20 on good days. I use the layer by layer but know only 3 algs for the last 3 edges. It's a rather awkward puzzle to handle and my fingers are usually get achy after solving it for a while. Oh and I think the tips are *****es!


Clock:

Again, I'm using the Pochman method on this one. I got it this week itself but I've been practicing a bit and it's safe to say I'm sub 30 now.


Magic:

I can do sub 3 most times. Sub 2 is rare. I Screw up a lot on the second last and last unfold. I use a Lingao magic.

 

[Toquinha1977]

3x3x3: If you're doing 3LLL on 3x3x3 and you're getting sub25, you're probably on the right track. Definitely learn all OLL algs, but focus on one at a time. Only doing solve after solve after solve is going to fragment your memory for learning new algorithms. If you really push, you could probably get all your OLLs down in about two weeks, maybe even less.

For OH, check this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ezGCA0U_WQ). This is a very thorough OH tutorial, but regardless, you need a properly lubed cube and you need to build the finger dexterity. It takes a lot of practice and time to pull off RUR'U' really quickly with one hand.

 

[FatBoyXPC]

For 3x3 I recommend concentrating less on OLL and VHF2L. If you want to skip the dot cases from OLL, learn them. There are only 7 cases to learn, and they're all quite similar. For example R U R' U SH U2 SH is one OLL and R U2 SH U2 SH is another OLL. SH = sledge hammer by the way, which is R' F R F'. Two more of them include F SM F' pretty much back to back (with an AUF separating them). Another is just F SM F' f SM f' and the remaining two are the most different but they're still easy to learn.

for 3BLD the only advice I can give you is to stop memorizing edge locations like that and go to a sticker method. Label every edge on every face A-Z (except you won't use y and z). Do it like on the F face, FU = A, FR = B, FD = C, etc. Now you only have to memorize half the letter pairs.

For 4x4 it's just practice, even doing single edge pairing you can break 2 minutes. Your centers shouldn't take you long, I know that the 30 seconds it takes me is far too long.

Can't really help you with sq1. Pyraminx, I'm not sure what method you are using but even if you do LBL/Keyhole equivalent, whatever you want to call it, you can sub15 that with practice. You could learn oka and apparently get sub15 in a day or so.

The clock method Stefan developed can still be quite fast. I'm pretty sure that's what Thrawst used at Indiana Winter and won it with a 14 or so average.

Magic: Do it slow a lot and gradually speed up. Magic is like a G perm, the faster you try to get the slower you end up being, the key to beating it is smoothness. Practice it until you get everything down. Try to anticipate your moves a bit so that you can help lock tiles in place. I know on that last unfold you are talking about I'll put pressure to the upper left bit of it (well upper right to me since I'm solving it face down) so that when it gets all the way up to the top, it flips out to right right (it locks less this way).

 

[freshcuber]

For 4x4 edge pairing I use this method

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws9EI7ni-wM

I just started 4x4 so I'm still pretty slow but it's really easy to understand what he's doing. Just watch the way he moves the cube. Hardest part for me is look ahead but it will come with practice.

 

[ArcticxWolf]

my square-1 improvement site is up, but still not finished due ot lack of time and laziness, lol

 

[Rpotts]

For 3x3 - Start working on some easy OLLs. There are many you already "know" i.e. you know the sequences such as sexy move (R U R' U'), sledgehammer (R' F R F') inverse sexy move (R U' R' U) or (R' U R U'), and then stuff like sune (R U R' U R U2 R') those sequences alone will solve more than half of OLL cases with simple set ups, commonly F moves or M' setups. Go learn the square shapes and small lightning bolt shapes as those can all be solved with sunes with minor tweaks.

take OLL 7 for example

looking at it you should easily recognize that the corners are a sune away from being solved. If you were to perform sune (R U R' U' R U2 R') you would have all four corners oriented, and the two unoriented edges would remain unoriented. But if you first do an M' and then perform sune, and undo the setup move with an M, it will solve the OLL. This alg M' (R U R' U' R U2 R') M can be simplified by combining the M moves with the first and last Rs to become (r U R' U R U2 r') as you can see the alg is almost identical to sune, which I why I said you "know" the alg without even knowing it.

Don't bother with VHF2L and certainly not ZBF2l anytime soon. Or ever really. At least not ZB.

For OH just practice a lot. I use my left hand, and use my left index and ring finger exclusively. Supposedly using your pinky for R moves is preferable in the long run. Practice doing 2 gen solves OH to simply get a grip on doing R's n stuff. I don't have much to contribute to the other puzzles, good luck man. Enjoy your first tourney.

 

[FatBoyXPC]

I would probably call inverse sexy move U R U' R'

 

[theace]

Thanks guys I'm going to get down to it today itself. I'll start with the olls. Oh and Rpotts. This s my third tournament hehe. What I meant is the RCMO'10 was the first tournament I ever attended and now it's back. I made a lot of friends there. I promised them that I'd participate in everything that diem't involve wearing a blindfold this year haha! I guess I'll shoot my averages as well. That way, if there are any improvements that need to be made to my cubing style, you guys will be able to suggest em!

 

[cmhardw]

3x3 BLD:

I suck at memo. I've been trying to use the Pochman method for some months now but I've given up on my memory. It takes me ages to memo a single edge cycle and breaking into new ones is virtually impossible. I memo by making sentences by using letters of the positions. E.g. RF FU DF BL BU RD BR... would be something like 'The RF values of the fuxxxx up daffodills in the black back-up of the redundant brooms was...

You get the idea right? Any advice would be appreciated here!

My advice here would be that you're encoding way too much information. There's no reason to remember the letters R and F, in that order, to remember the RF edge location. To me, the RF edge location is either the letter G or the letter K depending on which sticker I need to shoot to. There are 24 edge stickers on the cube, so these can easily be lettered as 24 different letters. Not only that, but pairs of letters are usually combined into one meaningful word or unit.

So for your memorization: RF FU DF BL BU RD BR
Assuming the first letter is the sticker you're shooting to I would encode this as: K E X N M L O
I would then group those letters into pairs as: KE XN ML O
and these then become the words: Key Nerd Mall Oh

So I can remember the same cycles you have with only the phrase "Key Nerd Mall Oh"

I wrote up more on memorizing this way here.

Hope this helps,
Chris

 

[FatBoyXPC]

Chris, I so ninja'd you

 

[cmhardw]

Chris, I so ninja'd you

Wow.. I scanned the thread too for comments about BLD. Must have missed that. :fp That's not even ninja'd, that's me just blatantly repeat posting

 

[theace]

Thanks chris. I'm going to check it out after I finish shooting some avgs!

EDIT: i'll post a 3x3 avg of 12 vid soon. I finished editing it (sped up the pointless scrambles, put it some music, titles and all) and it's uploading right now. Should be done in an hour or so. Till then, Could someone link me to the thread that speaks about embedding youtube vids?

 

[FatBoyXPC]

Wow.. I scanned the thread too for comments about BLD. Must have missed that. :fp That's not even ninja'd, that's me just blatantly repeat posting

In fairness you elaborated much more about it than I did, and even gave him a resource for pairs. I so meant to even tell him that he should go to your or Mike for BLD help but apparently it slipped my mind as I was finishing typing my first thought

 

[Rpotts]

I would probably call inverse sexy move U R U' R'

Yea technically the inverse of sexy is U R U' R' but the two I posted (R' U R U') and (R U' R' U) are the same thing just starting on different turns. I just prefer to start with R for whatever reason. I feel if I start with U, it ends up more like U (R U' R' U) (R U' R' U) and so on. This is highly irrelevant to the OP but I couldn't help but reply. Lol we've been going back n forth a lot recently in the Help Section.

 

[emolover]

3x3: just work on F2l and you will be fine.
2x2: Inprove your lookahead and TPS.
4x4: Work on look ahead.
Square one (mod): You could put some weak magnets in so they stop the top and bottom layers from overturning.
Magic: screw magic.

 

[FatBoyXPC]

Rpots, I declare a competition! We get points for our posts when helping others!

Emolover: That square1 mod would make it WCA illegal, I believe.

 

[theace]

Just added 2 videos. The square 1 vid should be up in a couple of hours.

 

[Cyrus C.]

For OH. Practice. For about 2 weeks, whenever I was reading, eating, anything, I'd be doing U perms OH. I dropped from about 1:10 to 30s.

 

[theace]

For serious? I'm just about sub 55 right now. My F2L is usually done in 35 sec or less...

 

[theace]

All the vids are up. I'll shoot the OH vid later sometime. I'm practicing U perms and all. My PLLs are terribly slow