thecubingpractice

[thecubingpractice]

First sub-40 5-in-a-row

I haven't been posting or training much in the past months. For better or for worse, I got fired up again after talking about cubing with a colleague and got back onto trying to improve instead of just casually solved.

I finally got my first sub-40" 5-in-a-row session. Sub-38", actually.

I'm not sure what to attribute this improvement. Probably just accumulation of practice. I have forgotten 25% of the OLLs I had learned, but compensated with learning more PLLs. On thing I'm doing different there is that I'm focusing more on the muscle memory and finger tricks (via JPerm, as usual) than on memorizing the alg.

But I still have got a long way to go to sub-30". As you can see, the ranking over 20 sessions in this week's Cube Station Time Trial is 43.849s

[thecubingpractice]

How to ruin a nice run…

[thecubingpractice]

Notes from CubeSkills' Advanced F2L - Full Example Solves

Find the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt_ujP1bD1s&ab_channel=CubeSkills

It never occurred to me, but you can use wide moves when solving the cross.

Love how Felix knows how OLL permutates the corners so it can predict which PLL will result 🤯.

If you notice a pair while trying to solve another, consider whether you can insert the newly found one. However, Felix says he wouldn't do that in a speed solve, but I'm not sure whether he refers to the technique itself or the particular move he's showing in this single case.

Preserving edges while finishing F2L. That's rad, but is going over my mind at my noob skill level.

Extended cross with keyhole.

ZBLL – The final step of a system created by Zbiginiew Zborowski and Ron von Bruchem which solves the last layer of a cube in one step once the edges are oriented. There are 501 ZBLL cases—LOL

[thecubingpractice]

Practicing tips

After getting back onto cubing and getting some good improvements with GAN's CubeStation, noticed a bit of a plateau. This is normal whenever learning new skills and the best way to get out of it is to find new ways to practice, deliberately.

I found "4 AWESOME Practice Drills to Help You GET FASTER at 3x3! (CFOP)" by JamieCuber on YouTube useful.

His tips are:

For the cross: Cross Counting – Solve only the cross and count how many moves you make. Every time you make more than 8, retry the same scramble to find a better way.

For F2L, do casual solves where you think creatively about the solution, rather than going as fast as you can. For me, this would also need to include trying to be position neutral, avoiding cube rotations.

For OLL: Practice transitioning from F2L to OLL and OLL recognition with CSTimer.net in 3x3x3 - "last slot + last layer" mode.

For PLL: PLL Time Attack – Run through all your PLLs one after the other. The video has a recommended order (for fewer regrips) and a formula to evaluate how good you're doing it based on your PB or average.

[thecubingpractice]

First 5 consecutive sub-43” solves

Also, sometimes you do your best but you still lose:

Also, new PB 🎉 26.932

[thecubingpractice]

First sub-60' Ao5

Out of the blue, and after more than two months not playing with GAN's Cube Station, I got a sub-60' Ao5. 50.859 to be precise.

How did this happen?

I basically beginner-method my way through F2L. Instead of trying to be smart and build and slot pairs in, I rotated my cube like the beginner I am and there you go 🤷‍♂️.

[thecubingpractice]

Learning Finger Tricks – OLL 24

All credits to J Perm. This animation extracted from his finger tricks tutorial.

Shameless Plug: If you found this useful, please consider using my referral codes for Speedcube.com.au or DailyPuzzles.com.au.

[thecubingpractice]

Learning Finger Tricks – OLL 27

Part of getting fast is knowing the right finger tricks. So here’s the first of what will be a long series of finger tricks learning posts, with OLL 27, also know as Sune.

All credits to J Perm. This animation extracted from his finger tricks tutorial.

Shameless Plug: If you found this useful, please consider using my referral codes for Speedcube.com.au or DailyPuzzles.com.au.

[thecubingpractice]

Learning F2L – 003

I run into this case today and it took me a lot of moves to solve it. Time to take a step back and learn a better way.

 The solution from the J Perm Best F2L collection is:

F’ L’ U2 L F

When learning F2L cases, it’s important to understand the algorithm, not merely memorize it.

In this instance: 

F’ moves the empty slot on the top layer, where we can move it freely without worrying about breaking what we already built. It also positions the corner so that it can build the pair with...

L’

U2 inserts the pair in the correct relative position

L undoes the previous L’

F undoes the previous F’, repositioning all layers in the correct position

This case is easy to practice because it has a 2-length cycle.

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[thecubingpractice]

New Cube Station Time Trial PB! 34.657

Cross on orange, L and R’ and it was half done. Then on F2L two pairs got made while working on the others. Sheer luck! Also found OLL and PLL that I knew.

Shameless Plug: If you found this useful, please consider using my referral codes for Speedcube.com.au or DailyPuzzles.com.au.

[thecubingpractice]

Learning OLL – 010 – OLL 29

I just run through the OLL 40 Cycle (which I'm yet to write down here) and the only case I couldn't remember was OLL 29, Awkward Shape 1 (A1). That's what you get at the 9th iteration. Or 10th? I always loose track of the count.

R U R' U' R U' R' F' U' F R U R'

To memorize it:

Start with good old R U R' U'

Then, notice the sort of symmetry between R U' R' and F' U' F. They'r like mirror versions of each other only one on R the other on F

The last combo, R U R', is sort of intuitive when you look at the cube

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Solution and image via J Perm. Shorthand notations from the CubingSkills.com OLL PDF.

Shameless Plug: If you found this useful, please consider using my referral codes for Speedcube.com.au or DailyPuzzles.com.au.

[thecubingpractice]

New Cube Station Time Trial PB 46.556s

I just achieved a new PB in the Cube Station app Time Trial mode, 46.556s.

My previous one was 49 and something. But, as you can see from my average, I was lucky. Half the cross was already done...

One interesting thing, though, is that I recently decided to train to be color neutral. This lucky solve happened to be on white, but the other ones in which I timed > 60s were all on different colors.

I guess it goes to show that if you aren't that good, training to become color neutral won't slow you down that much 😅

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[thecubingpractice]

Learning F2L – 002

I keep procrastinating on continuing to post about the OLL 8 cycle, and my life goals in general, and instead watch J Perm tutorials.

One thing I realized is that merely watching the tutorials is not enough. I retain like 5% of what the guy says. Instead, I need to watch a tutorial split in many sessions and practice each part individually.

Today, I watched part of Learn F2L in 6 minutes (Full Intuitive F2L Tutorial) and here's one F2L case I want to practice.

The algorithm is U (R U2 R') U (R U' R'), but one would be wrong learning it by heart.

Instead, it's best to decompose it like J Perm teaches it.

U moves the edge over to the right side

R hides it, to allow you to move the top layer without disturbing the edge

U2 moves the corner on top of the edge, making the pair

R' brings the pair back on the top layer

U (R U' R') insert the pair, which is intuitive so you don't really need to "memorize" that step

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OLL Training – 009 – OLL 57

I should be continuing posting about the OLL 40 cycle, but I just run into this one while practicing my OLLs over at JPerm.net and it's so straightforward that I wanted to track it immediately.

R U R' U' M' U R U' r'

I found this quite simple to memorize. After the (R U R' U') combo, which is a classic, comes M' which is unusual. From there, you can solve intuitively.

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Solution and image via J Perm. Shorthand notations from the CubingSkills.com OLL PDF.

Shameless Plug: If you found this useful, please consider using my referral codes for Speedcube.com.au or DailyPuzzles.com.au.

[thecubingpractice]

OLL Training – 008 – OLL 40 (Big Lightning Bolt 6; B6)

R' F (R U R' U') F' U R

Do it twice and you'll get to OLL 31, which we shall work on next time.

This is a good one for me to work on because it's cycle is quite long and results in various OLLs that I haven't learned yet.

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Solution and image via J Perm. Shorthand notations from the CubingSkills.com OLL PDF.

Shameless Plug: If you found this useful, please consider using my referral codes for Speedcube.com.au or DailyPuzzles.com.au.

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If you can solve a 5x5 like a 3x3, then you can solve a 4x4 like a…

I once watch a 5x5 tutorial. Basically, most of the solve is about making “bands” of the same color and eventually bringing the cube in a sort of 3x3 state.

For the longest time, I wondered how that worked on a 4x4.

I haven’t watched a tutorial yet, and I don’t plan to get a 4x4 any time soon. But, while I was brushing my teeth, out of the blue, I realized that you can bring a 4x4 in a 3x3 state too.

Duh!

Or, maybe you solve a 4x4 like a 2x2? 🤔

If I’ll ever get there, it’ll be fun to come back to this post and update my misconceptions.

[thecubingpractice]

OLL Training – 007 – OLL 6 Practice Drill

I like to practice OLL by executing an algorithm from the solved state, solving the resulting OLL, repeating the algorithm twice to get a new OLL, and so on till finally getting to the actual OLL case for the algorithm. I call this practice drill.

I am aware using something like CubeDesk.com or J Perm's algorithm's trainer would be more effective because the random cases are better to practice active recall. However, one doesn't always have the time to put that setup in place, and these manual practice drills are a good way to pass time.

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Here's the sequence for OLL 6 (Square 2):

Solved -> OLL 6 alg = OLL 7 (B1)

Solved -> (OLL 6 alg)2 = OLL 54 (L6) if you U'

Solved -> (OLL 6 alg)3 = OLL 25 (OCLL 5) if you U'

Solved -> (OLL 6 alg)4 = OLL 54 (L6)

Solved -> (OLL 6 alg)5 = OLL 6

Solved -> (OLL 6 alg)6 = Solved

Where to go from here?

Practice the left-handed version

There is an algorithm for the OLL 54 version you get with (OLL 6 alg)2 that doesn't require to reposition with U' in the CubingSkills.com OLL PDF.

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Solution and image via J Perm. Shorthand notations from the CubingSkills.com OLL PDF.

Shameless Plug: If you found this useful, please consider using my referral codes for Speedcube.com.au or DailyPuzzles.com.au.