I searched and found a ton of unrelated topics so I decided to post my question...

I realized a while back that my F2L is really slowing me down. On average it takes me about 20 seconds, but can be as low as 15 and as high as around 23.

When I do well on my F2L, I get sub 30 everytime. I'd really like to improve on this a lot because I have a feeling this will be the hardest part about shaving my times down.

I have read a few things that give you tips, but are there any specific things that any of you have done that helped a lot?

P.s. I use intuitive c/e pairing.

Thanks.

I'm pretty slow at the F2L too. I average about 33 sec for it (yeah I really have to work
on my F2L)

http://www2.u-netsurf.ne.jp/~katsu-k/cu ... p_stop.asf

Katsu is the bomb

I am also getting frustrated with how slow my F2L solve times are.

I first learned how to solve the cube (LBL beginner's) early December 2006, and since then I have learned F2L and a 3-look LL. However, my best average is still 48 seconds, with a fastest single solve of 37 seconds. My F2L takes 35 seconds on average. I too could use some help with how to speed up this process (other than simply practice, practice, practice)

Its all about looking ahead.

Someone once suggested to me to use a metronome while doing F2L.
For every beat, you must do EXACTLY one move. So get used to seeing where everything else is while you're slowly doing your CE pairs.

When you say "for every beat you must do one move", are you saying to make one move per second (err, per beat...same thing)?

It would be one move per second if it were one beat per second.

I'm about where you are right now Clayne, my F2L is around 20 seconds, sometimes a bit faster (often a bit slower too). I think the main thing you can do is practice slow-solving. I like to warm-up with some slow-solves, where I carefully analyze my moves and try to look ahead, and then do my speed solves. You said you do intuitve f2l which is good. But I also recommend looking up the algorithms for any cases you aren't good at, and figuring out how the algorithm works. The way I do remember the harder cases is just by the first 2 or 3 twists, and then I can remember where the pieces need to go.

I need to work on F2L alot too, especially at looking ahead. I'm terrible at that. I think that is one of the major keys, because in reality it is all the delays and thinking time that slows people down.

A metronome is a musical tool that accurately tells tempo. Tempo is measured in bpm (beats per minute).
Therefore, 60 bpm is 1 beat per second. 120 is 2 beats per second (the tempo of about every march out there) ... etc etc

The sub20 guys can get up to between 150 and 180 bpm on their f2l.

http://www.metronomeonline.com/
Try it out

TBTTyler Fox

Tempo vid of katsu

http://www2.u-netsurf.ne.jp/%7Ekatsu-k/ ... empo60.asf

http://www.planet-puzzle.com/

Katsu's site is madness, fridrich users should browse all 3x3x3 pages.PLL especially.

Too bad I can't read the site

Yeah, I've seen those videos. It always seems like I do better after watching him solve...either that or I screw up even more because I try to mimick him.

I've heard the metronome thing and have put it off and forgot about it. I think I'll try that!! (but school and work wont let me until friday..eh).

I agree on learning those strange F2L algs. I'll find some good ones on that. Hopefully this will help me.

I'm also in the process of doing the cross more efficiently (7 moves or less). It's a pain, and I think it's slowing me down in the meantime. Hopefully, though, it'll pay off.

Can anyone recommend any good sites to learn the Cross efficiently? Currently it takes me around 10 seconds, and I would like to get that down to consistently under 5 seconds.

The cross is all practice, take timew looking for the best solutions. I havn't seen any sites talk extensively about the cross, its all about intuition.

Dan (I forgot his whole name and webpage name)'s site has some good tips.

I would suggest getting out of the habit (if you have it) of positioning the pieces on the top layer then bringing them down. Try bringing one piece down and your doing another. Also try using the bottom (cross) layer primarily instead. Put them in the right order (by memorizing color scheme) so that when they are all on the bottom you either have to do D, D', or D2 to finish it.

Dan harris: http://www.cubestation.co.uk

Thanks. I feel a bit silly for asking about the Cross - I feel as if I learned it "incorrectly" the first time around. What I have always done is to first put all 4 White Edges (White being the top face) in place, then "fix" the rest. I don't know if this is even presented as a method for how to do the Cross anymore, but it is quite inefficient, so I doubt anyone talks about it...?

Does anyone know what I mean?

Yeah I know what you mean. I used to do it that way and the same with the
first layer corners. I figured it was too inefficient so I placed them in the
correct place first.

My F2L is around 13 seconds now, all because of thorough practise.
Try to work out your own F2L algorithms, but try to commit them to memory eventually, this will help with looking ahead.
Learn to do the algorithm without thinking and constantly look ahead.
Not much more to it then practise slowly and work up speed after a while.

is there a metronome on the internet that anyone knows of, like one that beeps every second?

ooh, nvm, i feel stupid, i just saw the link for it

I've tried solving to my metronome I have on my desk, I can't keep in time, I like to speed up mid alg (I can still keep track of pieces) and so don't think it helps me. It's also not useful for PLL when you get to speeds of 7 Tps.

the metronome teaches you pace.for example you should do F2L the same speed as pll. if your f2l seems slower then pll then you definately need f2l practice :/

Well when I do OLL/PLL, I need not look ahead that much (not at all with PLL) so I just blitz through the alg getting it done as quickly as possible.

I would do that as well, but my cube locks up whenever I get in the "zone" and start moving crazy fast.

I'm going and going and then *click*...all movement stops. I move the layers a short distance back and forth only to get to same response.

I give up on life.


Stuff like that.

it's because you aren't used to that pace. make yourself used to an extreme pace and you won't lock up.

Kyle is right.
there is no point in trying to turning really fast if you can't control it, make sure you align each face instead of just quickly turning.

If you need to practise, just keep repeating the same PLL case over and over and over again.

Clayne,

It's good to do the F2L intuitively to see what's going on, but after a certain point, you should look at the algs (or work on your own). You need to get to the point that you can pair and place CE pairs without watching what you're doing. Also do the F2L slow enough that you can find the next CE pair to work on.

It's pretty hard for me to do this. I have to remind myself to actively look for the pieces I'll need instead of watching myself pair and place the CE pairs.

Also, try to keep cube whole rotations to a minimum, and try pairing and placing the CE pairs that belong in the Back slots without rotating the slot to the front.


Good luck -mike

Up until this point, I have been doing the F2L completely intuitively. However, I notice that there are many cases where I have to do several moves in order to get it to a case I know I can do. Perhaps this is where the algorithms will come in handy...?

Thanks for the excellent advice. I think I'll follow through on it! : )

Yer, that is a good time to learn the more optimised algorithm, if it is taking you a few extra moves to do now, it's not going to hurt learning a shorter one really.

Have you tried a google search?

You can probably find adjustable ones. Start slow, missing nothing, and gradually speed up.

Cheers,

David J

*

What should the ratio between each step be? MY f2l takes around the same time as all my other steps.
F2l= cross+OLL+PLL

Once you've learned all the PLL and OLL algs, the F2L should take up the bulk of your time. So I'd say from F2L to LL it'd be like a 2:1 ratio. But I'd have to think about it more.

2:1 seems decent.

Think about the current world record average, 11.76.
That is *roughly* 8 seconds F2L, 4 seconds LL.

Mine is close to a 2:1, but my last layer is a bit too slow. I do the F2L in roughly 16-20 seconds, and then 8-12 seconds for Last Layer.