Where to start improving....

joey92193

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Joined
Jul 15, 2010
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Okay, so I've been cubing moderately, just as a little hobby, and I wanna get better :P

Im averaging about 40-45 seconds, with my PB being 32 seconds.

My only problem is, I'm practically using straight up beginner's method. Where do I start, between F2L and OLL/PLL, or an entirely different method.
Im trying to upload a video showing my style and whatnot, but the quality is crap, so I suppose if you could help me get a video up to that would be cool...

Thanks!
-Joe
 
I suggest that you learn intuitive F2L, and 2 look OLL and two look OLL. You will be slower at first, but soon enough you will be getting faster. Once you start getting faster start learning more PLLs here and there, and so on. But the only thing that will make those things useful is practice!
 
I would recommend sitting down and trying to teach yourself intuitive f2l. If you know the general idea of it, and can understand how your beginners method first layer corners, and middle layer edges algs work, then you should be able to figure out some basic f2l cases on your own. Start with a solved cube, remove an f2l pair and put it in the U layer (I'm assuming you have cross on bottom at this point.) Now break apart the pair in some way and observe how the corner and edge move. Try to reassemble the pair and reinsert it. Try to figure out as much of f2l as you can on your own, when you get stuck/confused go check out f2l tutorials from badmephisto, erik akkersdijk, thrawst, rowe hessler (rowehess on youtube), and other cubers. You can also go straight to the wiki's f2l page - [wiki]f2l[/wiki] to learn algs for difficult cases you may run into.

As for last layer, what method are you using now? I'm assuming it's some variation of 4-look last layer where you orient edges, oriented corners, permute corners and permute edges individually using 1 or maybe 2 repetitions of an algorithm. Or do you use the "Dan Brown" method (rubik's booklet method)?

I'm probably going to tell you to finish full 4 Look Last Layer (17 algs total, 3 for EO, 7 for CO, 3 for CP and 4 for EP)

when you finish that and start to see improvement, finish PLL (a total of 21 algs, 7 of which you would know from 4 Look last layer)

Then finish OLL, 47 more algorithms, but I swear it's really not that hard to learn. Much easier than PLL (that is if you learn full PLL first) because so many algs are very similar and most are just combinations of simple triggers, such as sexy move (R U R' U'), sledgehammer (R' F R F') sune (R U R' U R U2 R') and others.

Take your time, as much as you feel you need between learning algs. And of course don't forget that any time you start to dislike the method you are using you can learn a new one such as [wiki]petrus[/wiki] , [wiki]roux[/wiki] , [wiki]zz[/wiki] and [wiki]heise[/wiki]
 
I have made it to cross on bottom, apparently thats a big step in the cubing world :P

As for F2L, my first 2 pairs are F2L..The second 2 I do old style in sake of not messing up my first 2.

Last layer is definitely Dan brown,
 
I have made it to cross on bottom, apparently thats a big step in the cubing world :P

As for F2L, my first 2 pairs are F2L..The second 2 I do old style in sake of not messing up my first 2.

Last layer is definitely Dan brown,

no offense but that method could use some improvement. There's no reason why you could do the first to pairs f2l style, then not be able to figure the rest out. Just make sure that any time you do an R or R' at the beginning of an f2l alg, that you don't knock a pair out. If you do, undo your move, and move the U layer so that you can do an R/R' so you only bring empty slots up to the top. You'll get it with practice, it was one of the most difficult parts of f2l when i first started.

As for Last Layer - Learn [wiki]4LLL[/wiki] - That is, four look last layer. It's only 17 Algs (and you can do it with only 8 algs but you may have to repeat them in some instances) The links to 2 Look OLL and 2 Look PLL are on the 4LLL wiki page.

Good luck.
 
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