How To Improve Your F2L — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:16Doing anything fast is all about being efficient or wasting as little as possible.
2. 0:21Efficiency usually means using fewer moves,
3. 0:23which is just one way to be efficient, but when solving the first two layers, there are actually four things
4. 0:28you need to be efficient at if you want to be as fast as possible.
5. 0:311. Move count
6. 0:33If you've just learned Intuitive F2L then you understand the process of solving corner edge pairs,
7. 0:38but without using algorithms.
8. 0:40So sometimes it takes a lot of moves.
9. 0:42I tried a few Intuitive F2L solves using only what I taught in my tutorial
10. 0:46and on average it took me 37 moves to solve F2L
11. 0:49versus 30 with Advanced F2L.
12. 0:52Another factor is actually cube rotations; with the most basic Intuitive F2L,
13. 0:56you would probably rotate 7 or 8 times a solve
14. 0:59versus only 2 or 8 with Advanced F2L.
15. 1:01Cube rotations are deceptively slow because of
16. 1:04repositioning your hands.
17. 1:08So if you want the best F2L algorithms for every single case
18. 1:11then the link is in the description and it is a great resource for advanced solvers
19. 1:15but if you've just learned Intuitive F2L
20. 1:17then that's probably too much and most of the cases there can be learned
21. 1:21intuitively. Like this:
22. 1:22When you take pieces out of slots into the top layer
23. 1:25always make sure that the way you take it out pairs up the corner and the edge
24. 1:28So in this case, if you just take it out in the easiest way then they don't pair up in order to be inserted.
25. 1:33So instead for this case if you took it out like this then they pair up right away.
26. 1:37So you kind of just have to recognize how this works for all the slots
27. 1:40and for both edge or corner in the bottom layer.
28. 1:42It's usually not hard to figure out how to do the case, but it's hard to remember how to do it during a solve.
29. 1:46So make sure if you get these cases in a solve you don't take it out randomly,
30. 1:49you always make it so that it pairs up right away.
31. 1:51You can also reduce rotations by inserting into the back slot.
32. 1:53So for this case, what I teach during Intuitive F2L is you want the slot to be on the front, but it's okay
33. 1:58if it's on the back. If you understand how they pair up then you can just insert that into the back as well.
34. 2:03This takes a lot of practice,
35. 2:04It doesn't necessarily come naturally,
36. 2:05but it is just something you have to do because
37. 2:07double cube rotations to get a slot into the front does take a lot of time.
38. 2:122. Turn Speed
39. 2:15So let's briefly look at turn speed. If you can do three TPS
40. 2:18or 3 turns per second, F2L will take you about 10 seconds.
41. 2:22But that's a bit misleading because we're assuming you never stop turning.
42. 2:25Maybe you take one second to find each F2L pair. So F2L actually takes 14 seconds.
43. 2:30Well, that's pretty good considering three TPS is not all that amazing. So let's double the turn speed.
44. 2:38For reference, that's about the same as my usual turn speed and I finish F2L in 6 seconds
45. 2:42So it looks like turn speed is not the whole story.
46. 2:453. Pauses
47. 2:46Reducing pauses can be the most difficult out of all these at a high level.
48. 2:50But pauses are the ultimate limit on your solve speed so this is really important to consider.
49. 2:55To start you need to think about looking for the next pair, while you solve the current pair.
50. 2:58This is called Look Ahead.
51. 2:59But at an advanced level, you want to know where the next pieces will be and
52. 3:02what case it will make, not just being able
53. 3:04to find them. So that would be predicting the next pair.
54. 3:07But I can't do that! the pieces are moving too fast!
55. 3:09Well, you can slow down your turning just a bit.
56. 3:12Remember:
57. 3:12your turn speed is not as important as how much you pause, and slowing down just a bit can go a long way for
58. 3:18improving your Look Ahead.
59. 3:19But even if I find the pieces right away, they're moving. And then I have to pause and recognize the new case...
60. 3:24Well, I hate to say it
61. 3:25but this just comes down to practice. And I had the same problem before,
62. 3:29but a useful exercise you can do is locate 2 F2L pairs and then close your eyes and solve them both.
63. 3:414. Focus
64. 3:43So by focus, I don't mean focus harder because that doesn't really help much.
65. 3:47Remember we're talking about efficiency.
66. 3:49So what I mean is you should be focused but in a way that's not wasteful. At any point,
67. 3:53you should just be focused on the next thing you're going to solve. if you're thinking about
68. 3:57the turns you are currently doing and how you're pairing up those pieces,
69. 4:00it's very hard to spread your focus, and also look at what to solve next.
70. 4:04So that's why I think that when you start getting comfortable
71. 4:06with something like Intuitive F2L or more F2L algorithms
72. 4:09I recommend turning fast and ignoring look ahead.
73. 4:13When you're turning fast it forces you not to think because your brain can't catch up with
74. 4:17how fast you're turning so
75. 4:18you're really forcing your brain. Just stay out of it
76. 4:20So then everything naturally becomes muscle memory. then at that point, if you focus on the next pair
77. 4:24you're really only focusing on one thing. Now for more advanced solvers,
78. 4:27I'm sure a lot of these F2L cases are in your muscle memory already and it can still be hard to
79. 4:28focus on the next pair.
80. 4:32So what I personally did to help my look ahead a lot
81. 4:35was to not really focus on what times I was getting during the solve, because,
82. 4:39you know, when you get a good time, it makes you feel good
83. 4:40but what you should really reward yourself for is when you
84. 4:43Do a solve without that many pauses. That helped reinforce
85. 4:45the idea that Look Ahead is a really important thing and
86. 4:48the turn speed is not really that important. And I've seen the results.
87. 4:51I don't turn as fast as I used to but I can get much better times than I used to.
88. 4:55So Look Ahead is super important
89. 4:57and you can click here to learn more about specific Look-Ahead techniques
90. 4:59and I also have an advanced F2L playlist that will come up on the end screen,
91. 5:02if you just want to learn some more F2L techniques.
92. 5:05Special thanks to my awesome supporters on Patreon.
93. 5:07If you want to see more tutorials like this or even vote on what video comes out,
94. 5:11then I'd be really grateful if you
95. 5:12check out (patreon.com/jperm).
96. 5:15Thanks for watching everyone, I hope you learned something new,
97. 5:17and I'll see you guys next time.