Why the inconsistency

Steve AC

Steve AC

Regular
Joined
Feb 13, 2021
Messages
63
Hey forum,

Sometimes I am on fire. Hitting near sub20 back to back. Other times I get closer to 30 seconds. My goal is to get just one sub-15 time, and I have tried for so long and I dont think even with the luckiest shuffle that I can do it.

There must be something I am doing wrong, but idk how to figure out what that is or how to correct it.

I guess my avg is around 23~25sec. Here is my knowledge on cubing so far in a nutshell (CFOP cuber btw):

Cross: Not color neutral, so white cross main. If theres a cross with more than 2 bad edges, my cross will take 5-10 seconds. Even with luckily easy crosses my execution is about 3 seconds. Idk why I can't finger trick well during cross. I never try to track first par because I can't even visualize or remember what my cross solution is most of the time.

F2L: I pray for a first easy to spot pair or else I reshuffle DNF it. If I do get a good one, sometimes my look ahead is on fire, but most of the time its trash, and every F2L pair is in the wrong slots and never showing up on the top layer. I cannot recognize which case it is if a piece is in the edge or corner, I always have to line it up to see which way to do it.

OLL: Still can't execute all 57 olls with muscle memory. Only easy cases can be done in less than 2 seconds. The harder ones I dont fully even memorize enough to perform without pauses seems abundant.

PLL: My recognition suuuuuuuuuuuuuucks. Execution sucks too, I always make mistakes, cube slips or locks up.

What I hate is when I drill the algs that I choke on during a recorded solve, I can execute it just fine. If its off camera I dont make any mistakes. When I try to record proof of a lucky sub15 single, I make so much more mistakes, have crap look ahead. I also get angrier and angrier cuz I dont want this to be a lucky thing. I want to say I am skilled at cubing not just lucky.

YouTube cubing influencers can get 8 seconds on a keychain cube, and solve sub15 when winging it without inspection... I want to be at that level. I am worried ill never get there. I feel like I hit my peak and am getting worse.
 
You have not hit your peak.

People who can get 8 seconds on a keychain cube and 15 without inspection worked on their weaknesses through deliberate practice. At some point they averaged the same as you.

At the moment, I wouldn't worry about the camera. You don't have to prove us anything, and if it affects your learning, there's no reason to use it until later on once you've worked on the issues you've identified.

Why the inconsistency: Knowledge of the cube has a lot to do with consistency. Why? Because sometimes you can get a "lucky" solve if you get cases one of the few cases which you have learned. If you think about, you barely see Felik's or Max get a 15 second solve, because they are at a point where they know so much (Full OLL, PLL, LL variation, F2L tricks) that luck doesn't dictate a large portion of their solve. If they know how to do every step efficiently and can execute it right, their solves will have similar times.

From what I can see, you need to work on your fingertricks and slow down when solving.
However, take one step at a time! It won't help to practice F2L today and tomorrow focus on PLL if you don't fully learn what you're working on. This is where deliberate practice comes in. Spend a couple days (or week depending on your progression) working on one of your weaknesses. You can use pll recognition trainers such Jperm's, or select the "Easy Cross" option in CsTimer to practice F2L.


It's a matter of focus, persistency, and dedication.
 
  • Cross taking 5-10 sec is not execution but not planning out the cross. I'm still learning cross but here's an exercise I do: for cross scrambles, take unlimited inspection and try to plan out the whole cross in inspection.
  • F2L is the hardest part of learning and takes the most practice. For certain cases, you have to learn specific algs. Most cases are intuitive and this just takes a lot of practice.
  • Full OLL is the least important at your current stage imo.
  • PLL execution is pretty easy to practice and recognition is through side patterns like headlights so you'll need to come up with your own solutions.
 
qwr said:
  • Cross taking 5-10 sec is not execution but not planning out the cross. I'm still learning cross but here's an exercise I do: for cross scrambles, take unlimited inspection and try to plan out the whole cross in inspection.
  • F2L is the hardest part of learning and takes the most practice. For certain cases, you have to learn specific algs. Most cases are intuitive and this just takes a lot of practice.
  • Full OLL is the least important at your current stage imo.
  • PLL execution is pretty easy to practice and recognition is through side patterns like headlights so you'll need to come up with your own solutions.
Click to expand...
cross is very important and early on this was a mistake I made a lot. Now, within about 5-7 seconds I can plan my whole cross and I've started tracking my first pair as well. It's so simple but it can take almost 5 seconds off your solve.

More about why OP is inconsistent, it all comes down to the amount of time you spend practicing and how you spend that time practicing. You aren't just gonna wake up one day and be sub 8. It seems like you learn algs but you don't drill them. Especially your OLL algs. Spend a week where you just drill all your oll algs so you can execute them fast.
 
This is me just now getting mostly arouns 21 second solves... Ish...



Also I practice Mon-Fri for 4 hours a day (at least) and I have been cubing like this for 6 months now.
 
Last edited:
Steve AC said:
Also I practice Mon-Fri for 4 hours a day (at least) and I have been cubing like this for 6 months now.
Click to expand...

Then you are putting in enough time but not at the right places. I am learning but from what I've seen from faster cubers, you have to focus on your weaknesses with slow solving and practice. Just doing plain solves isn't going to help.
 
Screenshot_20210215-154733_Chrome.jpg

idk if any of this helps
 
Steve AC said:
Hey forum,

Sometimes I am on fire. Hitting near sub20 back to back. Other times I get closer to 30 seconds. My goal is to get just one sub-15 time, and I have tried for so long and I dont think even with the luckiest shuffle that I can do it.

There must be something I am doing wrong, but idk how to figure out what that is or how to correct it.

I guess my avg is around 23~25sec. Here is my knowledge on cubing so far in a nutshell (CFOP cuber btw):

Cross: Not color neutral, so white cross main. If theres a cross with more than 2 bad edges, my cross will take 5-10 seconds. Even with luckily easy crosses my execution is about 3 seconds. Idk why I can't finger trick well during cross. I never try to track first par because I can't even visualize or remember what my cross solution is most of the time.

F2L: I pray for a first easy to spot pair or else I reshuffle DNF it. If I do get a good one, sometimes my look ahead is on fire, but most of the time its trash, and every F2L pair is in the wrong slots and never showing up on the top layer. I cannot recognize which case it is if a piece is in the edge or corner, I always have to line it up to see which way to do it.

OLL: Still can't execute all 57 olls with muscle memory. Only easy cases can be done in less than 2 seconds. The harder ones I dont fully even memorize enough to perform without pauses seems abundant.

PLL: My recognition suuuuuuuuuuuuuucks. Execution sucks too, I always make mistakes, cube slips or locks up.

What I hate is when I drill the algs that I choke on during a recorded solve, I can execute it just fine. If its off camera I dont make any mistakes. When I try to record proof of a lucky sub15 single, I make so much more mistakes, have crap look ahead. I also get angrier and angrier cuz I dont want this to be a lucky thing. I want to say I am skilled at cubing not just lucky.

YouTube cubing influencers can get 8 seconds on a keychain cube, and solve sub15 when winging it without inspection... I want to be at that level. I am worried ill never get there. I feel like I hit my peak and am getting worse.
Click to expand...
Same man...but instead I want a sub-20 single
 
I think your tps is too high. Work on look ahead. The way I did this(unintentionally) was doing cfop solves without a timer and just counting how many moves I took and I slowly got down to around 60 every time. I used to use 70 to 80. IMO, fewer moves with slower tps is better than a lot of moves with high tps. Max Park is the exception, not the rule.
 
carcass said:
I think your tps is too high. Work on look ahead. The way I did this(unintentionally) was doing cfop solves without a timer and just counting how many moves I took and I slowly got down to around 60 every time. I used to use 70 to 80. IMO, fewer moves with slower tps is better than a lot of moves with high tps. Max Park is the exception, not the rule.
Click to expand...
Thanks, good advice im gonna try that
 
I reconstructed your first two solves. I planned on doing more but your main weaknesses are obvious with just that: F2L efficiency and rotations

L2 U2 B2 D' R2 B2 F2 U2 R2 D' B2 L' U2 L B' L2 U F L D' L

x2
F D' R' F' // cross
U y' R' U R U2 y R' U' R // 1 (green red)
U y' R U' R' U' R U R' y U R U' R' // 2 (blue red)
y' R U' R' U R U2 R' U R U' R' // 3 (blue orange)
U U2 L' L U U' L' U' L // 4 (green orange)
U' L U F' (U' L' U L) F L' // OLL
U' U' L' U L U L' U' L' D' L U L' D L U2 L U // PLL
Cross
Good solution but bad fingertricks: there were 4 regrips, as you basically did x U' for the F' (regripping both hands).
To limit regrips you can do:
F with right thumb
D' with left ring finger
R' as usual
F' with right index
It's regripless but still a bit awkward. An even better solution is to do it from another angle (red front): L D' F' L'.

F2L
1st pair : take advantage of the free back slot : R' U R U' R' U' R
2nd pair : you chose the blue red pair when you had a much easier one, the orange green on top. With that said, you can limit yourself to one rotation for the blue red pair : L' U L y' U2 R' U2 R U' R' U R
3rd pair : good solution, even though you had no need to rotate and you could have done it with your left hand. Here it doesn’t matter, even if you had done it with your left hand you would have rotated afterwards for the last pair, but I don’t think you saw that.
4th pair : Don’t do moves until you know which ones are needed. Only U' L' U' L was needed.

LL
OLL : ok
PLL : ok. It’s not that good of an idea to mirror algs to your left hand, but for now it’s not a priority.
Here's a good righty alg for that R Perm : R2' F R U R U' R' F' R U2' R' U2 R
Here's an example of what that solve could've looked like:

L2 U2 B2 D' R2 B2 F2 U2 R2 D' B2 L' U2 L B' L2 U F L D' L

x2 y
L D' F' L' // cross
here you can either go for the green orange or the green red pair. I'll go with the green orange as it is rotationless.
U' R' U' R U' R' U R // 1 (green orange)
U L U' L' y' R' U' R // 2 (green red)
you can solve the last two pairs without any rotation, choose the case you want. I'll go for the blue orange pair (easier case)
U2' R U' R' U L' U2 L // 3 (blue orange)
U2' R U' R' U R U' R' // 4 (blue red)
U' (F R' F' R) (U R U' R') // OLL
Y perm // PLL

There's only one rotation, and the whole solve is regripless if you have good fingertricks.

L2 F2 U2 B2 U2 R2 D F2 R2 B2 F2 R' U2 R U L F' R2 B U2 L2

x2 y'
U U R' R D' R' F y' u2' y' R2' // cross
U' y4 U' R U' R' y U' R' U R // 1 (green red)
y' U R' U' R U2' U y' R' U R // 2 (blue orange)
R U' R' y R' U' R // 3 (blue red)
U y' R U' R' U2 y' R' U' R // 4 (green orange)
U' r U R' U R U2 r' U2 F R U R' R R' U' R U R' U' F' U' F' (r U R' U') r' F R // OLL
M' U M2' U M2' U M' U2 M2' U' // PLL (Z)
Cross
It's a good solution, but if you plan it better you can avoid mistakes (you forgot a D' so you did U U R' R D' R' instead of U2 D' R') and avoid really stupid insertions like y' u2' y' R2' instead of D2 R2.
(y' u2' y' is really really really really bad)

F2L
1st pair : y2 is unecessary, but y4 is really useless. You can solve this pair with U2 L F' U F L'.
2nd pair : this one can be solved with U2 L' U' L U2 L' U L
3rd pair : ok
4th pair : you can solve this one without rotating, either with U F U' F' U2' L' U' L or with U L' U' L U2 L' U L U' L' U L

LL
OLL: I'm going to guess you did the wrong OLL here, and had to do 2-look after that
PLL: ok
L2 F2 U2 B2 U2 R2 D F2 R2 B2 F2 R' U2 R U L F' R2 B U2 L2

x2 y'
D' U2' R' F D2 R2 // cross
The first thing I see is the solved blue orange corner, and that the corresponding edge is on top. The edge is misoriented so I'm going to insert it with F moves. I'm going to regrip while doing the D' move.
D' F' U F D // 1 (blue orange)
R' U R U' R' U' R // 2 (blue red)
U L' U L U' L U L' // 3 (green red)
L' U L U2' y' R U R' // 4 (green orange)
U (R U R2' U') R' F (R U R U') F' // OLL
U2 A perm U // PLL

Your solves:
+ : fingertricks: you're doing double flick U2s with both hands, and push U / U' with both hands
Insertions in the back
- : F2L efficiency: you don't take enough advantage of free slots, your solves are all RU moves. RU gen solutions are fast, but not when there's 2 rotations in every single one.
Rotations: There should be at most 3 rotations per solves. You have 14 rotations in two solves, including a y4 and two rotations in a cross solution.

What you can do to improve:
- Know when it's useless to rotate.
If the edge is in the U layer, look at the top color. If it matches the color in the front/back, it's correctly oriented and you won't need to rotate
If it doesn't, you'll need to rotate/use F moves.
If the edge is in the E slice, look at the front(/back) color. If it matches the color in the front/back, it's correctly oriented and you won't need to rotate
If it doesn't, you'll need to rotate/use F moves.
Use at most 1 rotation per pair

- Watch example solves.
You'll find ways to pair pieces without doing too many moves/rotations.
Do untimed solves to start to implement them.
4 hours of practice every day is useless if all you're doing is reinforcing bad habits.

- Reconstruct your solves
Filming your solves seems to stress you so either don't do it, or don't publish them. Use them to reconstruct your solves, and see if you could have done a more efficient solution for a particular pair.

- Drill your LL algs
I wouldn't worry about full OLL yet, 2 look is good enough for now.
If you still want to be full OLL, work on both recognition and execution.
 
Llewelys said:
I reconstructed your first two solves. I planned on doing more but your main weaknesses are obvious with just that: F2L efficiency and rotations

L2 U2 B2 D' R2 B2 F2 U2 R2 D' B2 L' U2 L B' L2 U F L D' L

x2
F D' R' F' // cross
U y' R' U R U2 y R' U' R // 1 (green red)
U y' R U' R' U' R U R' y U R U' R' // 2 (blue red)
y' R U' R' U R U2 R' U R U' R' // 3 (blue orange)
U U2 L' L U U' L' U' L // 4 (green orange)
U' L U F' (U' L' U L) F L' // OLL
U' U' L' U L U L' U' L' D' L U L' D L U2 L U // PLL
Cross
Good solution but bad fingertricks: there were 4 regrips, as you basically did x U' for the F' (regripping both hands).
To limit regrips you can do:
F with right thumb
D' with left ring finger
R' as usual
F' with right index
It's regripless but still a bit awkward. An even better solution is to do it from another angle (red front): L D' F' L'.

F2L
1st pair : take advantage of the free back slot : R' U R U' R' U' R
2nd pair : you chose the blue red pair when you had a much easier one, the orange green on top. With that said, you can limit yourself to one rotation for the blue red pair : L' U L y' U2 R' U2 R U' R' U R
3rd pair : good solution, even though you had no need to rotate and you could have done it with your left hand. Here it doesn’t matter, even if you had done it with your left hand you would have rotated afterwards for the last pair, but I don’t think you saw that.
4th pair : Don’t do moves until you know which ones are needed. Only U' L' U' L was needed.

LL
OLL : ok
PLL : ok. It’s not that good of an idea to mirror algs to your left hand, but for now it’s not a priority.
Here's a good righty alg for that R Perm : R2' F R U R U' R' F' R U2' R' U2 R
Here's an example of what that solve could've looked like:

L2 U2 B2 D' R2 B2 F2 U2 R2 D' B2 L' U2 L B' L2 U F L D' L

x2 y
L D' F' L' // cross
here you can either go for the green orange or the green red pair. I'll go with the green orange as it is rotationless.
U' R' U' R U' R' U R // 1 (green orange)
U L U' L' y' R' U' R // 2 (green red)
you can solve the last two pairs without any rotation, choose the case you want. I'll go for the blue orange pair (easier case)
U2' R U' R' U L' U2 L // 3 (blue orange)
U2' R U' R' U R U' R' // 4 (blue red)
U' (F R' F' R) (U R U' R') // OLL
Y perm // PLL

There's only one rotation, and the whole solve is regripless if you have good fingertricks.

L2 F2 U2 B2 U2 R2 D F2 R2 B2 F2 R' U2 R U L F' R2 B U2 L2

x2 y'
U U R' R D' R' F y' u2' y' R2' // cross
U' y4 U' R U' R' y U' R' U R // 1 (green red)
y' U R' U' R U2' U y' R' U R // 2 (blue orange)
R U' R' y R' U' R // 3 (blue red)
U y' R U' R' U2 y' R' U' R // 4 (green orange)
U' r U R' U R U2 r' U2 F R U R' R R' U' R U R' U' F' U' F' (r U R' U') r' F R // OLL
M' U M2' U M2' U M' U2 M2' U' // PLL (Z)
Cross
It's a good solution, but if you plan it better you can avoid mistakes (you forgot a D' so you did U U R' R D' R' instead of U2 D' R') and avoid really stupid insertions like y' u2' y' R2' instead of D2 R2.
(y' u2' y' is really really really really bad)

F2L
1st pair : y2 is unecessary, but y4 is really useless. You can solve this pair with U2 L F' U F L'.
2nd pair : this one can be solved with U2 L' U' L U2 L' U L
3rd pair : ok
4th pair : you can solve this one without rotating, either with U F U' F' U2' L' U' L or with U L' U' L U2 L' U L U' L' U L

LL
OLL: I'm going to guess you did the wrong OLL here, and had to do 2-look after that
PLL: ok
L2 F2 U2 B2 U2 R2 D F2 R2 B2 F2 R' U2 R U L F' R2 B U2 L2

x2 y'
D' U2' R' F D2 R2 // cross
The first thing I see is the solved blue orange corner, and that the corresponding edge is on top. The edge is misoriented so I'm going to insert it with F moves. I'm going to regrip while doing the D' move.
D' F' U F D // 1 (blue orange)
R' U R U' R' U' R // 2 (blue red)
U L' U L U' L U L' // 3 (green red)
L' U L U2' y' R U R' // 4 (green orange)
U (R U R2' U') R' F (R U R U') F' // OLL
U2 A perm U // PLL

Your solves:
+ : fingertricks: you're doing double flick U2s with both hands, and push U / U' with both hands
Insertions in the back
- : F2L efficiency: you don't take enough advantage of free slots, your solves are all RU moves. RU gen solutions are fast, but not when there's 2 rotations in every single one.
Rotations: There should be at most 3 rotations per solves. You have 14 rotations in two solves, including a y4 and two rotations in a cross solution.

What you can do to improve:
- Know when it's useless to rotate.
If the edge is in the U layer, look at the top color. If it matches the color in the front/back, it's correctly oriented and you won't need to rotate
If it doesn't, you'll need to rotate/use F moves.
If the edge is in the E slice, look at the front(/back) color. If it matches the color in the front/back, it's correctly oriented and you won't need to rotate
If it doesn't, you'll need to rotate/use F moves.
Use at most 1 rotation per pair

- Watch example solves.
You'll find ways to pair pieces without doing too many moves/rotations.
Do untimed solves to start to implement them.
4 hours of practice every day is useless if all you're doing is reinforcing bad habits.

- Reconstruct your solves
Filming your solves seems to stress you so either don't do it, or don't publish them. Use them to reconstruct your solves, and see if you could have done a more efficient solution for a particular pair.

- Drill your LL algs
I wouldn't worry about full OLL yet, 2 look is good enough for now.
If you still want to be full OLL, work on both recognition and execution.
Click to expand...
WOAH. Holy crap! That is so nice of you to write me all this, and how did you find out what my hand scrambles were? Did it take long to do? I would have written down my shuffles and listed the moves to save you some time and effort. I have so much I can learn from these useful critiques, thank you very much for writing all this. I have to cram a weeks worth of online homework assignments for BUS3A Taxation for Individuals before the due date tomorrow at midnight, and balance work in between, but I will use my time at work to read through the criticism is more detail and take notes of my bad habits, and if you want to do a solve critique I can make the video a lot better with the shuffle given and solution I did to save you some effort next time. Thank you!
 
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