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When should I consider becoming colour neutral and actively use look-ahead?

GAN 356 X

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Yes I would also recommend being color neutral now while you can I average 12 seconds and can’t become color neutral. It is incredibly hard! I currently only do white and yellow cross.
my average on yellow cross is about 5 seconds off on white cross now... green is next, I did it once and got 3:00.054 minutes. it makes me feel like a noob because I can't even recognise one f2l case, let alone pair them and insert them successfully
 

Lapse.

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there isn't much benefit that can come from being colour neutral if you're a 20 second solver. you can do it for fun but it only matters if you're at the world-class level, where every millisecond counts. if you're averaging 20 seconds you have other areas to work on. trying to become colour neutral will only slow you down. becoming cn from dual cn is definitely easier, i only get a few seconds more than my times when i do colours other than white or yellow, but do you seriously think that is what i should be working on now to get faster? you have to look at the effort as well, you may take a super long time to be fully colour neutral and even that has no real test, it would be better to start becoming cn if you were a complete noob. my friend started off just solving the cube on the easiest cross he saw on the cube, so that's cool.

basically become cn only if you have time for it because it probably isnt going to benefit you as much as another thing would if you are at the 20 second level. not saying its a bad thing to have but you're better off learning something else that will greatly improve your times.

p.s. lucas etter is a white-only cross solver yet his times are pretty f-in decent, so another thing you should consider when switching, its not really necessary!!!
 

tx789

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there isn't much benefit that can come from being colour neutral if you're a 20 second solver. you can do it for fun but it only matters if you're at the world-class level, where every millisecond counts. if you're averaging 20 seconds you have other areas to work on. trying to become colour neutral will only slow you down. becoming cn from dual cn is definitely easier, i only get a few seconds more than my times when i do colours other than white or yellow, but do you seriously think that is what i should be working on now to get faster? you have to look at the effort as well, you may take a super long time to be fully colour neutral and even that has no real test, it would be better to start becoming cn if you were a complete noob. my friend started off just solving the cube on the easiest cross he saw on the cube, so that's cool.

basically become cn only if you have time for it because it probably isnt going to benefit you as much as another thing would if you are at the 20 second level. not saying its a bad thing to have but you're better off learning something else that will greatly improve your times.

p.s. lucas etter is a white-only cross solver yet his times are pretty f-in decent, so another thing you should consider when switching, its not really necessary!!!

Fast people's bad habits aren't a excuse to keep yours! Patrick Ponce and Seung-Hyuk Nahm did switch to being colour neutral when they were sub 8 so it is possible for anyone. True Lucas Etter and Philipp Weyer are white cross only but most of the other world-class 3x3 people are colour neutral (what does that say?).

You should switch now as it is better in the long run. It won't give you much faster times initially but it will make cross+1 in inspection easier which is essential for fast times. If you average over 20 seconds switching to colour neutral should be very easy compared for you relatively. At 20+ second average improvement from solves alone is possible for most at a quick pace. Also don't practise a specific colour to switch instead just choose the best cross each time as this is what you do in the long run.

Be CN and practise cross+1 in inspection so you can be a head of most people. It will be hard at first so start with cross and this can be done at the some time as becoming CN. These skills are nessery if you want to get real fast start using them early so you have better habits. If you just start doing CN solves only picking the best cross now then by the time your CN your times will likely of improved.
 

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Fast people's bad habits aren't a excuse to keep yours! Patrick Ponce and Seung-Hyuk Nahm did switch to being colour neutral when they were sub 8 so it is possible for anyone. True Lucas Etter and Philipp Weyer are white cross only but most of the other world-class 3x3 people are colour neutral (what does that say?).

You should switch now as it is better in the long run. It won't give you much faster times initially but it will make cross+1 in inspection easier which is essential for fast times. If you average over 20 seconds switching to colour neutral should be very easy compared for you relatively. At 20+ second average improvement from solves alone is possible for most at a quick pace. Also don't practise a specific colour to switch instead just choose the best cross each time as this is what you do in the long run.

Be CN and practise cross+1 in inspection so you can be a head of most people. It will be hard at first so start with cross and this can be done at the some time as becoming CN. These skills are nessery if you want to get real fast start using them early so you have better habits. If you just start doing CN solves only picking the best cross now then by the time your CN your times will likely of improved.

Again this isnt the most important thing a 20-second solver might want to focus on, the rewards aren't as great as other things. As a 20 second solver myself, colour neutrality will only worsen my times now, and i need to focus on lookahead, good f2l and efficiency and build up my alg knowledge as that is the most important thing that will easily make my times faster. Colour neutrality, again only benefits people where their times actually matter and they have nothing else important to learn.

There are also some people who just can't switch colours on cross, or be as fast as they are on their most preferred colour. CN definitely has benefits and in my opinion i think its abit too hyped by people, like solving on a different cross will suddenly make your f2l better, no it doesnt really, it only gives you an easier cross(at a basic level)!

Practice whatever you want, I don't really mind, but if you're like sub-20 and think going CN will really improve your times, then I would advise you that your time could be more wisely spent...
 

Skittleskp

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What I did to become color neutral in two weeks (I average sub 15) was I created a cstimer session and called it color neutral and then did an average of 500 on it. For the first 50 solves or so my times were in the low 20s but after the first ao100 my times were consistent sub 20. Then I deleted the session and went back to my regular session and forced myself to be color neutral. I'm now only a second or two behind my normal solves but it just takes time to get used to it.
 

cubeshepherd

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What I did to become color neutral in two weeks (I average sub 15) was I created a cstimer session and called it color neutral and then did an average of 500 on it. For the first 50 solves or so my times were in the low 20s but after the first ao100 my times were consistent sub 20. Then I deleted the session and went back to my regular session and forced myself to be color neutral. I'm now only a second or two behind my normal solves but it just takes time to get used to it.
Same here for me. I did about 2 weeks of several hundred solves (without using White or Yellow) and for the first hundred solves or so I did untimed, and after that I started timing them, which put me a couple of seconds slower then I was on white/yellow, but that got better after some practice. And I did this when I was averaging 11-12 seconds and once I switched I was about 15-17....which is still the same.
So for anyone asking if they should switch to CN, then I would say yes...even if it does not make you faster right away I still like being able to start on any side, versus constraining yourself to only one color.
 

GAN 356 X

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What I did to become color neutral in two weeks (I average sub 15) was I created a cstimer session and called it color neutral and then did an average of 500 on it. For the first 50 solves or so my times were in the low 20s but after the first ao100 my times were consistent sub 20. Then I deleted the session and went back to my regular session and forced myself to be color neutral. I'm now only a second or two behind my normal solves but it just takes time to get used to it.
Yep, that's what I'm doing now
 

Llewelys

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Or maybe just get better at solving cross lol

Why do a 3 move red cross and plan 1st pair (and even 2nd pair) in inspection when you could do an 8 move white cross and barely know where your 1st pair will be ...
 

Llewelys

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Update: I've just completed my first session (100 solves) as a (new) color neutral solver !!
It's only 2 seconds off from my pb avg100 with white only, and I broke 2 pbs: mo3 (20.66 --> 19.34) and ao5 (21.25 --> 20.46). I am very happy with these results !

I don't consider myself completely CN yet, as it still takes me longer to find pieces than with white, but I'm getting there !
 
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