Why don't advanced cubers use their full inspection time?

[Zarxrax]

Whenever I see video of someone solving the cube really fast, they usually just inspect the cube for a couple seconds and then start solving. Why don't they use all of the inspection time? If they could look farther into the solve and plan out their moves, they would get a faster solve, right?

 

[joey]

You don't always get a faster solve from more inspection.

Also, seeing the cross (for a fixed colour) only normall takes 2-3s, aswell as having a brief look at corners/edges.

 

[Zarxrax]

Yea, but if they can see the cross in just 2-3 seconds, couldn't they plan out an x-cross or a double x-cross?

 

[Faz]

Yes, probably

 

[dannyz0r]

X-Cross isn't efficient in every scramble.

 

[joey]

Sometimes doing an x-cross is longer than cross+lookahead+first pair.

 

[4Chan]

I get nervous when the judge says "EIGHT SECONDS"

 

[Faz]

Yeah, I meant see the first pair.

 

[StachuK1992]

I get nervous when the judge says "EIGHT SECONDS"

Same. It's a slight OCD for me.

 

[KevinK]

I know that I don't usually even use eight seconds of inspection. I think that it has to do with the pieces for which you are looking. A long time ago, I used almost all of my inspection time just to find the cross. As I got better, it took me less and less time to find the cross. I got used to only finding the cross during inspection, so I currently only use about four seconds of inspection. Recently, I have been trying to use more inspection time to look for a first f2l pair, but I find that after about nine seconds, I've found everything that I can find and I've reached my limit to how much I can remember without messing up.

 

[Logan]

Because they don't need to. They're just THAT good!

 

[Zubon]

I think that many videos of fast cubers are of them cubing at home so they don't bother spending a few seconds doing more inspection after finding the cross. Just because it means that they can't solve as many cubes in their limited practice time. Maybe really fast cubers can see the cross and track the first pair in only a few seconds.

However in a competition, I can't understand why people don't use all the time available to them.

 

[mmMarco17]

I think that many videos of fast cubers are of them cubing at home so they don't bother spending a few seconds doing more inspection after finding the cross. Just because it means that they can't solve as many cubes in their limited practice time. Maybe really fast cubers can see the cross and track the first pair in only a few seconds.

However in a competition, I can't understand why people don't use all the time available to them.

If a fast person uses little inspection time at home, then why use more inspection time in competitions? Taking more inspection time would mess up their flow, I would think. If the way fast people practice at home yields them good results, then it makes sense to do their competition solves in the same manner.

Personally, I take ~12 secs inspection in practice because it makes sense to me to use what I have available, seeing as how crosses aren't second nature to me. I do the same thing in competitions (though I always fail miserably).

 

[Ryanrex116]

I get nervous when the judge says "EIGHT SECONDS"

Same. It's a slight OCD for me.

For me, I get nervous when I say or hear 8 seconds. I've only gotten to 8 seconds a few times though. However, when I was asked to judge at Stanford, I told them I didn't have a timing device. They just told me to do it in my head. Whenever I said "8 seconds" I always thought "god, I hope thats right!" Good thing I only had to say "12 seconds" once.

 

[qqwref]

Laziness, mostly.

Also, for me (and probably some other people), forcing myself to look for an xcross is possible but often ends up wasting time. The larger number of moves to remember means that I am more likely to mess up, and also that I am less likely to be able to do it in a braindead enough way to be able to lookahead to whatever is next. Even if I sometimes can plan an extended cross in the 15 seconds, it won't actually help my solves unless it is very short.

 

[lorki3]

I get nervous when the judge says "EIGHT SECONDS"

me too a little bit

 

[mr.onehanded]

In a typical solve I only plan the cross for two reasons. The first is that the moves in the cross are remembered in my short term memory and I concentrate on doing them fast right in the beginning. Then the whole time I solve the cross I'm noticing all of the relevant corners that appear, so there really isn't all that much need--for me--to search for f2l pieces because it will actually slow my cross and then my f2l because I won't be looking at the corner when the cross is finished. On top of all that, it's just too much information for me to try to coordinate in my head.
The second reason is simply because I hate running out of time on my inspection and being forced to start the solve with a really crap cross.
Once you get faster your f2l will flow a lot more smoothly and the tracking of corners isn't really needed; Extended cross is another story, but that isn't always practical.
I average around 25 seconds so your question may not apply, but I hope this has helped anyway.

 

[Tim Major]

Look at 0:46 in this video onwards http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKs78QR-8Iw&feature=related
They're good tips. Use your full inspection time. A cross may be obvious straight away, for example, doing F2 R' L D2 F2 to form the cross. But looking further, you may see F2 R' U L D2 F2 or many other slightly different ways, that may give you an easier first pair, or a X-cross. Use your full time.

Edit: In response to your question, it's because they're stupid.

 

[Ron]

The cross moves are generally the slowest moves of the solve. Only short XCrosses are worth the extra few slow moves.
Personally I am happy to just solve the cross correctly, I once had 7 wrong crosses in 15 competition solves.

 

[Rama]

I get nervous when the judge says "EIGHT SECONDS"

Heck yeah!
But when I started out the judge always said ''Five seconds.'', so I always had crazy fast inspection time, but now it is changed to 8 seconds and Erik suggested that I would take a little bit more time now.

I hate it when the judge take about 30 years to search for a stopwatch and finally tries to set it up correctly.
I always try to inspect the cube even more faster then, just to show to the judge: ''You are wasting my and your own valuable time with that stupid plastic piece of X-Rated.''.