# Beginners F2L: 3 easy steps for every case



## Caleb Miller (Jul 8, 2015)

Like most people when I was learning F2L, I just went online to figure out how to do it. After watching numerous tutorials on how it was done I had finally got it. During this time I found that if some things had been explained a little differently it would have helped tremendously in understanding how to consistently perform F2L. When you are first starting it is difficult to keep track of everything and there is a lot to remember.

I created a system for myself that allowed me to be able to complete F2L in a more organized manner. There are lots of tutorials online but I wanted to include some items that I wish someone had told me while I was learning. I’m sure this is how most people learn to do F2L but I never found it written down in one location that was comprehensive enough for my taste. There was no systematic approach I could reference every single time no matter what the case was. Having it written down and not having to keep rewinding a youtube video helped out quite a bit as it's much faster to reference a single case. This is just my explanation of a systematic approach to beginners F2L that makes sense to me and hopefully it helps someone else out there. I am by no means a super fast cuber (around 30 second average at the time of this writing) but wanted to get my thoughts down on paper before I forgot how difficult it was to keep everything straight.

This document is for people just learning how to do F2L and is intended to allow a user to solve every F2L case (there are 41 different unsolved cases) by following the following 3 steps no matter what the case is. I am going to assume you either have no F2L experience or very little and still need help with the basics. I tried very hard to make each step as simple and detailed as possible. It may seem like a lot of reading initially, but once you have it down, you will probably only be referencing the images anyway. 

I am more than willing to take feedback on this to help improve the document. ([email protected]) The goal is to make F2L as easy and understandable as possible for everyone. I know it seems like a wall of text initially and for a beginner it may seem like a bit much, but once you understand the content of the document my hope is that these instructions break down something as complicated as F2L into something that anyone can do by following the same steps over and over and over again. Like most beginner methods it breaks down every F2L case into 3 cases and 2 insertions. 

I looked on the forums quite a bit but haven't found anything that lays it out in this way, so I believe there is still value to post this. Again, most tutorials teach this, but for me it seemed unorganized and inconsistent. anyway, I really hope someone gets use out of this, as it was quite a bit of effort.

Document Link
Beginners F2L: 3 easy steps for every case. 

I was going to attach a PDF but its bigger than the limit. Feel free to save as Pdf, share, distribute as desired.

Apologies in advance if this was posted twice. I tried the first time and didn't see it displayed and couldn't find it in my profile. <- Forum newbie 

Happy Cubing! - Caleb Miller.


----------



## SenorJuan (Jul 8, 2015)

What kind of document is this? All I get is an "unsupported browser" , my browser isn't that ancient. And if I try and right-click to save it, It doesn't work either.


----------



## Ross The Boss (Jul 8, 2015)

it is a google documents document. 
however, it seems that most people getting into cubing are prepubescent kids. what 12 year old in 2015 wants to read an 11 page document even if it could be the best learning tool available?


----------



## SenorJuan (Jul 8, 2015)

Oh, OK, that might explain a few things. Nothing like inventing yet another new document format. ( I've only recently found out that Kindle machines have their own proprietry format, .azw)
And yes, 12-year-olds should be forced to read an 11-page document.


----------



## molarmanful (Jul 8, 2015)

Ross The Boss said:


> what 12 year old in 2015 wants to read an 11 page document even if it could be the best learning tool available?


If I were 12, I'd be willing to read an 11-page document if it meant learning something. But alas, I'm older, so I'm still reading it because I'm proficient enough at reading to do it. Besides, it really isn't that much to read (most of it's just pictures).

By the way, Caleb, you should post a member intro so we know more about you (seems that this is your first post!). But welcome anyway!


----------



## mark49152 (Jul 9, 2015)

I don't mind reading an 11-page doc and quite like that kind of format. I also like this kind of systematic approach and learned F2L a similar way myself (which I called extract-setup-insert). 

However, I also like to know that whatever material I'm investing my study time in provides good guidance from an authoritative or at least competent source. By the end of the first step I was already annoyed that all three examples ignore very basic setup cases (U R U' R' for the corner example, U' R U' R' for edge, U' R U' R' for separate pieces). It seemed to me that either the author just doesn't know much F2L (in which case they shouldn't really be teaching it), or they choose to ignore efficiency in favour of sticking to a rigid formula, which IMHO is not a good way to simplify F2L even for beginners. The core concept of breaking each case into three steps is valid because some cases do need three such steps, but of course you don't always need three steps and shouldn't teach people to waste moves doing more steps than they need.

Maybe you just need better examples.

Sorry if this sounds a bit harsh. I did like your style and approach overall.


----------



## Ross (Dec 2, 2015)

Fairly new to cubing here. The way you broke down the process has been extremely helpful for me in progressing from a beginners method; it's one of the more useful things I've read so far. Thanks!


----------



## Caleb Miller (Jan 9, 2016)

I just finished a video covering this content. I wanted to learn how to do some video editing, and though this would be a good project since I believe showing this to someone is more helpful that a document. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCtRCucwWU8


----------



## Someonex2000 (Feb 12, 2016)




----------

