# A Few Tricks to Help You Avoid Cube Rotations



## jskyler91 (Jan 3, 2013)

Title says it all. This will be a series covering Edge orientation and its manipulation, use of open slots, cube rotation saving inserts/algs, as well as some general tips and ways of looking at the cube that will help you to avoid as many unnecessary cube rotations as possible. The first few parts will be on edge orientation and its manipulation. I have parts 1-5 completed so far, more to come:



Spoiler: Part 1: Understanding Edge Orientation



[video=youtube_share;_rtSJLujpWA]http://youtu.be/_rtSJLujpWA[/video]





Spoiler: Part 2: Manipulating EO from FR and FL slots



[video=youtube_share;l9e8K7DpH3g]http://youtu.be/l9e8K7DpH3g[/video]





Spoiler: Part 3: Manipulating EO from BR and BL slots



[video=youtube_share;zYTta6UhFDk]http://youtu.be/zYTta6UhFDk[/video]





Spoiler: Part 4: Manipulating EO for Middle Layer Edges



[video=youtube_share;sOC3hZtTj0k]http://youtu.be/sOC3hZtTj0k[/video]





Spoiler: Part 5: Manipulating EO Relative to Corners FR and FL



[video=youtube_share;cccZHIV9P8M]http://youtu.be/cccZHIV9P8M[/video]





Spoiler: Part 6: Manipulating EO Relative to Corners BR and BL



[video=youtube_share;m_WbP0Lb9Ck]http://youtu.be/m_WbP0Lb9Ck[/video]


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## omer (Jan 5, 2013)

You lied :0


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## lcsbiffi (Jan 6, 2013)

Still waiting for that :s


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## mostafa (Jan 6, 2013)

I hope it will be done :-/


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## MarcelP (Jan 6, 2013)

Yeah, I find myself also checking again and again.. LOL


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## jskyler91 (Jan 7, 2013)

Sorry guys totally forgot about this vid lol I went off screen a couple of time so I am remaking it. Should be up tomorrow! I have been caught up with the 1LLL stuff.


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## mostafa (Jan 13, 2013)

you lied again>


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## jskyler91 (Jan 24, 2013)

I finally uploaded the first part for all who care, I decided to make this a series instead of just a longer vid as I realized there are many difficult concepts involved in this and each deserve their own proper attention.


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## MarcelP (Jan 24, 2013)

I watched the video's. I will have to watch them again tomorrow when I am less tired. Too much information for now  I want to master that all.


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## demontoe (Jan 24, 2013)

Man, these are awesome vids! Thanks from a cube noob w/o any lube  ( Actually I bought some heavy duty silicon from walmart ) I just got the speed cubes I ordered from cube4you site today and am building my first DIY now. When I watched these vids it inspired me to start all over so I'm not even going to time my solves anymore for a while. (no one wants to see that crap  ) but am just going to work on this edge control for a while and doing the F2L in all the slots instead of just the front right. I guess that was how all the algs I had were set up. I think I will just put the stickers on the bottom layer and two of the edge pieces in the middle layer. Then I'll just work on cross on bottom and first possibly 2nd F2L pair until I can do those from multiple slots and at some point w/ just one look. Thx again dude :tu


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## Veerexx (Jan 24, 2013)

These are some really good tricks. After more F2L practice I will definitely go over these again and try and implement this more.


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## jskyler91 (Jan 25, 2013)

Thanks everyone for the praise and just realize that these first few vids are only 1 small part of how I avoid cube rotations. Much more explanation and open slot cases, multislotting etc. to come.


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## DaveyCow (Jan 25, 2013)

yeah these vids are tots awesome! thx Skyler!


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## Schmidt (Jan 25, 2013)

From part 2 "To avoid awkward F/F' moves you can use F/F' moves" 
I know that SH can be done fast, but with practice F' U' F should not feel awkward. I rather do a rotation on 3x3, but I use F on 4x4 to pair edges.


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## jskyler91 (Jan 25, 2013)

Schmidt said:


> From part 2 "To avoid awkward F/F' moves you can use F/F' moves"
> I know that SH can be done fast, but with practice F' U' F should not feel awkward. I rather do a rotation on 3x3, but I use F on 4x4 to pair edges.



Ya, one of the tips will be knowing when to use F's lol so I defintely am not against them, but if they can be voided easily then I try my best to do so. Mainly because they require a regrip the way I do them and any regrip down requires a regrip up so time is wasted unnecessarily.


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## Fede (Jan 25, 2013)

Thank you so much for this super-valuable information jskyler91! I am at about 22 secs averages, and thought I had reached my limit but with these techniques I clearly see theres much improvement to make. Thank you so much


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## jskyler91 (Jan 25, 2013)

Fede said:


> Thank you so much for this super-valuable information jskyler91! I am at about 22 secs averages, and thought I had reached my limit but with these techniques I clearly see theres much improvement to make. Thank you so much



No problems at all I am here to help. I will be making more vids asap, but I am really busy so my videos will likely come out in spurths as they have been doing so lately.


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## demontoe (Jan 25, 2013)

Take your time mon as there is plenty to go over in just these I'd say. I have watched most of them several times but you are moving pretty fast like watchin some street shuckster doin 3-card monty but as far as I can grok it provides a way to look at the cube from a variety of angles with your mind rather than twisting the cube which I thought was interesting. 
From what I have gathered so far you introduced 5 algorithms in the vids: The sledgehammer (SH) = R' F R F'
The hedgeslammer (HS) = F R' F' R <-- inverse of SH, both of these are introduced in part 2

Then in part 3, you show two more algs which someone should come up w/ a name for I thought of reverse sledge and hedge hammer but when I looked at what the 
alg was doing to the edge piece I realized it was pretty unique since it did a 4 cycle rather than a 3 cycle. So until someone names them I'll just call them alg3 and alg4

so we would have alg3 = Rw' U Rw U' Rw' U' Rw

and it's mirror = Lw U' Lw' U Lw U Lw' 

to keep with the same naming convention as the SH/HS we would want to call alg4 = Rw' U Rw U Rw' U' Rw for the back right corner slot and edge

and the one that you actually show more of it's mirror = Lw U' Lw' U' Lw U Lw' for the back left slot and edge.

so maybe if we want to get technical there are only 3 algorithms if we don't include inverses or mirrors but we have to or we'd never get to say
hedgeslammer or even alg4 for that matter. Anyway alg5 would be the one in part 6 where the U2 move is thrown into the back slot alg. It seemed 
that the U2 goes in the middle of the alg so I had for alg5 using the mirrored or leftside version of alg4 as alg5 = Lw U' Lw' U2 Lw U Lw' which will alter 
the orientation of the upper back edge piece but leave all the front and right slots unchanged. None of the five algs should mess up more than one slot at a time
I think is one of their main assets. Hope this is mostly correct. Thx again dt :tu


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## Fede (Feb 3, 2013)

Hello jskyler91,

After a couple of weeks trying this (I am an around 20sec average guy, so not an expert definitely) I would like to ask you how much this no cube rotations techniques make a difference in your solves.

Is there any case where you would prefer to take a cube rotation rather than doing one of those algorithms? or on the other hand, you will take it no matter what in order to avoid the rotation? thanks a lot.


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## jskyler91 (Feb 5, 2013)

Fede said:


> Hello jskyler91,
> 
> After a couple of weeks trying this (I am an around 20sec average guy, so not an expert definitely) I would like to ask you how much this no cube rotations techniques make a difference in your solves.
> 
> Is there any case where you would prefer to take a cube rotation rather than doing one of those algorithms? or on the other hand, you will take it no matter what in order to avoid the rotation? thanks a lot.



There definitely are and you can see them in my f2l vids (not very recently updated but gives you the general idea). I will cube rotate if doing so puts a formed pair in the back two slots because that makes the last three or two way easier to recog and maneuver. Also, if I see that I will have to rotate later I will do it earlier to save time later and just get it done with.


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## Fede (Feb 5, 2013)

Thank you very much. I will go through your F2L vids and will try to plagiarize you as much as possible


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## aboeglin (Jan 25, 2014)

Thanks for the great videos, I'll watch them a third time. Sometimes you have the edge in the FR slot and taking it out with R and U would make it a bad edge, so you do a sledgehammer. But why not doing a simple F'UF or F'U'F instead ? It's one move less than the sledgehammer. Is sledgehammer that much faster to perform ? In both cases we need to go for a F move and a regrip. 

I'm just about to get sub30 and target sub25 soon. My F2L average is 23sec at the moment, and I just found out yesterday that I do a whole lotta cube rotations during F2L, which messes up my look ahead since I never have a reference. Sometimes I even get confused on what slots are solved or not since they move around all the time. So, I'll be checking your F2L videos and do a lot of slow solves, avoiding unnecessary cube rotations and practicing look ahead as much as possible.


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## aboeglin (Jan 26, 2014)

So, after two days of little practice doing slow solves, trying to figure out edge orientation, I finally timed myself yesterday. I went from 32sec average up to 40. I can't seem to get the F2L done in less than 30sec anymore. Hopefully this will get back to where it was before. I think the problem is that I now focus too much on edge orientation and it takes all my attention. Instead of tracking other F2L pair pieces I figure out how I'll orient an edge and so on. Also I have to do some weird moves sometimes to keep solving a pair with R,U,L ( edge being good of course ), especially when it is the last pair. The positive aspect is still that I could move from a 5-6 rotations F2L to a rotationless F2L. I guess I'll give it a few more days and edge orientation should become more of an automatic process.


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## mark49152 (Jan 26, 2014)

My experience is similar - working on F2L efficiency leads to slower times for a while. That's OK. Practice speed, lookahead and minimizing pauses for a while without worrying about efficiency, and you'll find some of those new tricks just creep into your faster solving.


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## aboeglin (Jan 26, 2014)

Yeah, I keep on doing F2L only at the moment, my best was 19.70, but I still keep thinking way too much of edge orientation, it's kind of blocking me and start to freak me out a little. I was so close to get sub30 and I feel I have another sea to cross now.


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## aboeglin (Jan 26, 2014)

What's totally blocking me is that with my new way I have some pairs that I just cannot separate properly with R,U,L. If I have both pieces on the top layer, last slot to solve. White is on the side, and top colors are different. What I would have done before : cube rotation, I hide the corner, do a U2 to have the edge opposite, get the corner back on the U layer, do another cube rotation, put my corner on top of my slot and insert the pair. Now I have no way to separate the two pieces without "disturbing" the easy setup. I did an ao100, F2L only, I am at 35sec average, which is above my previous full solve average. I think I'm working on my upcoming panic attack.


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## mark49152 (Jan 26, 2014)

R U' R' U R U' R' U2 R U' R'


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## MarcelP (Jan 26, 2014)

mark49152 said:


> R U' R' U R U' R' U2 R U' R'



Wow, that is a nice one. I use a lot more moves for that case


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## uberCuber (Jan 26, 2014)

MarcelP said:


> Wow, that is a nice one. I use a lot more moves for that case



R' U2 R2 U R2 U R


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## Chree (Jan 26, 2014)

In Part 3, I'm betting you're trying to just avoid regrips and B moves, but I find the Back Sledge Hammer really easy to do, and accomplished the same thing:

Lw U' Lw' B

I push with my thumb to do the U', and my pointer finger will be in good position to pull that B. The Lefthand Mirror is also pretty simple:

Rw' U Rw B'

Obv the inverse of each is the back Hedge Slammer, and with some practice they're all really quick.


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## mark49152 (Jan 26, 2014)

uberCuber said:


> R' U2 R2 U R2 U R


Yeah I used to use that one but find the R2s make it slower and more awkward, for me.


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## aboeglin (Jan 26, 2014)

How do you guys recognize a F2L case ? I mean, there are 41 cases, assuming you have 3 slots solved and you have the corner on top of the slot to solve, or in the slot. But there's finally many more cases than this in real situations if you consider what actually happens during a solve and the shortcuts you might have with empty slots. I really used to brute force F2L, but I was kind of facing a wall regarding my times. I did too many cube rotations and so on. I would be happy to learn algs but I'm not sure it's the good way since I cannot even recognize cases, and I like the intuitive approach. The funny thing is, optimal solutions aren't really intuitive in the end. So, should I just keep on doing slow solves for a few days trying to focus on doing things properly and slowly increase the speed ?


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## ChickenWrap (Jan 26, 2014)

aboeglin said:


> How do you guys recognize a F2L case ? I mean, there are 41 cases, assuming you have 3 slots solved and you have the corner on top of the slot to solve, or in the slot. But there's finally many more cases than this in real situations if you consider what actually happens during a solve and the shortcuts you might have with empty slots. I really used to brute force F2L, but I was kind of facing a wall regarding my times. I did too many cube rotations and so on. I would be happy to learn algs but I'm not sure it's the good way since I cannot even recognize cases, and I like the intuitive approach. The funny thing is, optimal solutions aren't really intuitive in the end. So, should I just keep on doing slow solves for a few days trying to focus on doing things properly and slowly increase the speed ?


 I use completely intuitive F2l. No algs at all, and I still average 13-15 seconds for f2l (about 20 seconds for the whole cube). Look up intuitive F2L on youtube!


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## aboeglin (Jan 26, 2014)

ChickenWrap said:


> I use completely intuitive F2l. No algs at all, and I still average 13-15 seconds for f2l (about 20 seconds for the whole cube). Look up intuitive F2L on youtube!


I know what intuitive F2L is, I do it since I actually started with CFOP. Like stated earlier in the thread I was about to get sub30 with this, my F2L was averaging 23sec more or less, but I felt like I had a lot of inefficient moves while solving F2L pairs. That's more or less where I started to get aware of edge orientation, which is somehow helping, but confuses me a lot at the moment. I was doing a lot of cube rotations which I'd like to avoid to help my look ahead. I had the feeling that cube rotations made me loose track of the current state of the cube and the pieces I was tracking. The problem I have with edge orientation is that now I hardly get my F2L done under 25sec, which means that my global averages bumped by 5sec or so which is really hard to deal with.


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## mark49152 (Jan 26, 2014)

Not sure what you mean by asking how to recognise cases. They are fairly obvious. Recognising them quickly enough during a solve is a challenge though. I'm not the fastest so maybe not the best to advise, but I think it's about lookahead. By the time you finish the last turn to insert a pair, you should know where the next pair is, where its target slot is, whether the edge is good or bad so what moves you would use, and the whereabouts of any empty slots that might be useful. Probably you track the pieces on their way to arriving at the case so not sure that is "recognition" in the usual sense.


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## aboeglin (Jan 26, 2014)

Here we can find the 41 cases : http://www.opticubes.com/cubing/f2l/, what I mean is that each single case, is actually a subset of the real case, meaning that each case can actually be found under different variants. Also if you look at the website, number 1 and 3 are almost identical since the edge and corner orientation is the same. Now my problem is, while solving, I found out that sledgehammer is doing some great stuff in a few particular cases, like orienting and pairing the two pieces, which is something I wouldn't do intuitively, but since I've been playing with it .. So, in some cases I avoid a cube rotation, and I have an easy case. My problem is that I just can't seem to identify these cases and reproduce it while I'm under time. Instead of this I actually see that my edge isn't properly oriented, which is something I believe I should not even be thinking about, and I then need to make the decision, should I do a sledgehammer, or should I just rotate the cube and solve the thing the way I'm used to. I mostly take the wrong decision apparently since I find my pairs harder and harder to solve somehow. Otherwise, the fact that I solve the pairs intuitively makes it hard for me to recognize a case and instinctively remember I should be using this or that way. I'm not even sure I solve two times the same case the same way actually.


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## aboeglin (Jan 26, 2014)

Actually I just had a thought while doing a slow solve. I'm always doing slow solves when focusing on doing my F2L. But maybe I'll rather try to take every case one by one. Try to reverse them in a first place, and then solving them over and over, focusing on one single case at a time. This may help later to make quick connection between recognizing a case and automatically performing the moves to solve the pair. I could finally get an ao5 that was not that bad tonight even though it's still a little higher than what I'm used to, but I think it also comes from the fact that I may be integrating new ways of solving pairs after my last experiments. I'm quite sure I changed my way of solving a few cases, which is a good thing I guess, also I really like using the sledgehammer on BR and BL as I got efficient at doing the moves and that I can avoid lots of cube rotations this way. Anyway, I'll try to really focus on one case at a time, and I should feel the ones that are the least obvious and work out these over and over.


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## uberCuber (Jan 26, 2014)

mark49152 said:


> Yeah I used to use that one but find the R2s make it slower and more awkward, for me.



I only use it for the back two slots; in those cases you can use the opposite hand to do all the U moves similar to the 2-gen Pi OLL so it's really fast. But for the front two slots, I agree that the algorithm is awkward.


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## mark49152 (Jan 27, 2014)

I think of the cases differently. For example, consider cases 11 and 12 (numbers from the SS wiki http://www.speedsolving.com/wiki/index.php/F2L). These are documented as two different cases. Instead I think of this as one case with a mirror. Do a y rotation to case 11 and you get a left-right mirror of case 12. 

The more interesting case variants are target slot positions. With a top layer piece arrangement like case 12, the actual target slot could be in any of the four corners. If the edge is good for an insert to FR then it is also good for an insert to BL - just do U2 and mirror your solution to BL. However, if your target slot is at FL or BR the edge is bad and you need a different solution e.g. R' U2 R d' R U R' or the same mirrored to FL.

So instead of learning cases 11 and 12 as shown on the wiki, I learn case 12, and case 12 with slot at BR (after applying a d turn) and how to mirror them left-right and front-back. Case 11 plus U' is just the f/b mirror, but it helps me to think about target slot positions and mirrors rather than fix the target at FR and just treat 11 as a different case.


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## aboeglin (Jan 27, 2014)

I see, a bit like the case 39 and 40 or 41 and 42. So what you're saying is that basically I should take care of mirrors to simplify things a little ?

I started from this list here : http://www.opticubes.com/cubing/f2l/. I got the 5 first worked out this morning. The most tricky one was the first one, this is what I came out with : R U R' U2' R U2' (R2 F R' F') U' R U R'. Another possible version would be : (R' F R F') R U' R' U R U' R' U2 R U' R' ( just found out this one is in the wiki actually ). I highlighted the sledgehammer in the algs. I'm definitely happy I've worked this one out, I'll try to reproduce it until I can integrate this in a solve ( that's the kind of case I would probably have done 2 cube rotations before ).

Has anyone of you guys tried to work on your F2L this way ? Like taking a case and doing it over and over until you found the moves that suited you the best and until it felt natural to solve the case that way ? I hear a lot of people say do slow solves, but then while going fast again it's like I forgot it all and I never really focus on a single case by doing slow solves ( even though I usually do the same scramble 5 times before moving to the next one etc ).


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## mark49152 (Jan 27, 2014)

Cases 39/40 and 41/42 are a bit different because the edge stays good or bad when you rotate.

Here's another example, case #13. Instead of learning #13 and #14 both for FR target, I learn #13 for FR and BR targets, as shown here:-









Rotationless solutions are R U' R' U (R' F R F') R U' R' and R' U R U' R' U' R respectively. Now it's easy to cope with other slots using mirrors (e.g. R U' R' U R U R' or L' U L U' L' U' L or L U' L' U L U L') and even to utilize empty slots to keep work on your preferred hand (e.g. R U' R' U (R' F R F') U2 L U' L'). Note that rotations aren't always bad - in the first case you might prefer to do a d move then solve it like the second case.

It does amount to the same thing really, since case #14 is just one of the mirrors. I just find it helpful to think about all the slots, and not focus everything on FR.

(Oh and sometimes sledgehammer solutions don't mirror well to the back, in which case I might learn a different rotationless solution for the back slots.)



aboeglin said:


> R U R' U2' R U2' (R2 F R' F') U' R U R'


R2 U2 F R2 F' U2 R' U R' - one of the few non-intuitive algs I use. Start with thumb on U face, use left for both U2s, and pull up with right ring for the F', for a regripless execution. Don't know if anyone else uses this but I found it myself using Cube Explorer 

EDIT: of course the best way to deal with these stuck-slot cases is to try to force them out early by using the slot to solve other cases.


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## aboeglin (Jan 27, 2014)

mark49152 said:


> EDIT: of course the best way to deal with these stuck-slot cases is to try to force them out early by using the slot to solve other cases.


Or you might just stuck them while using the slot to solve another pair 

Edit: also, it seems quite interesting to me to work on reversing the cases. It's not as easy as I would have thought to recreate the case the other way around. Interestingly, once I could reverse it, it seems easier to solve. Also sometimes I can get the reverse for on slot, say FR as a start usually, and when working on the back slots it seems a little harder depending on the case. What I'd like to achieve all in all is to get all the cases in muscle memory, in a reliable way. Meaning I know I'm performing optimal moves and I can solve them eyes closed in order to work on lookahead properly and go towards sub25 and later sub20 having a robust F2L. It just felt so clumsy until now. I could increase speed, try to minimize pauses, but it didn't felt "right". Keep jumping from solves and F2L case workouts ( solving every slot for each case ). I should hopefully see some benefits by this weekend and finally reach sub30.


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## peterbone (Jan 27, 2014)

mark49152 said:


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


I find (R U' R' U2)(R U' l R U' R' U l') faster and better for look-ahead.

For tricky rotationless cases I often do this method of making a pair at the back and then inserting with l R U' R' U l' or its mirror.


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## aboeglin (Jan 27, 2014)

peterbone said:


> I find (R U' R' U2)(R U' l U' R' U l') faster and better for look-ahead.
> 
> For tricky rotationless cases I often do this method of making a pair at the back and then inserting with l U' R' U l' or its mirror.



Is it possible that something is missing in your alg ? I don't even end up with my bottom cross anymore except I omit the last l'. But if the pair is on the back I find the sledgehammer for BR and BL really fast to perform also.


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## mark49152 (Jan 27, 2014)

peterbone said:


> I find (R U' R' U2)(R U' l U' R' U l') faster and better for look-ahead.


How do you finger that? I can't get it to flow.

For lookahead I guess each to his own, but generally I find it easier with the really typical RUL and sledgehammer moves. The brain just gets used to how the other pieces move. Any special cases wreck my lookahead and I often use longer solutions just to keep it good for lookahead. If you use that insert a lot maybe it works for you, but I sometimes use sledgehammers at the back (l U' l' B etc.) and even those seem to mess with my lookahead. Rotationless inserts like r U R' U' M too. Maybe it's the wide moves.


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## peterbone (Jan 28, 2014)

aboeglin said:


> Is it possible that something is missing in your alg ? I don't even end up with my bottom cross anymore except I omit the last l'. But if the pair is on the back I find the sledgehammer for BR and BL really fast to perform also.


Yes, I've corrected it above. You can read about this insert here under 'Reducing # of cube rotations'.
http://badmephisto.com/f2l.php
The problem I have with sledgehammer on front is that you tend to lose sight of the U face.


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## aboeglin (Jan 28, 2014)

Still quite some work to do on optimizing my F2L I suppose. There are solves where I can do the whole F2L within 16-18sec, almost no cube rotation, others where I have to rotate a lot ( due to the stress of the timer I believe ), and I finish my F2L at 25sec or so ( sometimes almost 30 ). Working on a single case at a time takes way more time than I thought since you need to work on it for the 4 slots and I'm still not fluent on the only 5 cases I've been working on. If I can at least integrate these in my solves, then I could work on improving them while solving, but it doesn't seem to be the case yet. But I still think it's a good thing to focus on getting F2L pairs solved properly before increasing speed or getting into lookahead.

Edit:

So, it looks like I start to use my new F2L algs in my solves, I haven't worked on every case yet but still I find that when solving I use much more back slots than before and also I do way less cube rotations. Still I could come back to my previous averages and I am back at around 32sec. I'll keep working on all my F2L cases until I feel comfortable with them, my PLL algs are still improving constantly ( my LL takes about 8-12sec so there's big room for improvement there ). So all together I should gain a few seconds in the coming 2 weeks and I'll then focus on look ahead. So, thanks a lot for your videos ! It helped big time even though it's quite a transition.


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## aboeglin (Jan 31, 2014)

What are the cases where it is best to rotate ? I find that usually I rotate more for the last pair than any other. I usually use 1-2 rotations in my timed solves, and one of them is the last pair usually, the others are cases where I have a RUR' setup, which is setup FUF', I find it so much easier to go for y'RUR'. But mostly I try to either orient my edge if I'm gonna insert in front slots or insert them with sledgehammer for back slots. I find that as long as I have 2 or 3 empty slots it is really easy to solve / insert a pair without cube rotation ( except solved slots are diagonally opposite each other ).


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## mark49152 (Jan 31, 2014)

I can only speak from my experience trying to improve, and I am not fast, but I think avoiding rotations is over-rated. The key thing is to avoid breaks in flow. If a rotation requires a regrip and break in flow, it's bad. But awkward rotationless solutions could also cause a break in flow, or perhaps interfere with lookahead and indirectly disrupt flow. In some cases a rotation might be the most natural thing to do, if it flows well between the moves before and after it.


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## aboeglin (Jan 31, 2014)

mark49152 said:


> I can only speak from my experience trying to improve, and I am not fast, but I think avoiding rotations is over-rated. The key thing is to avoid breaks in flow. If a rotation requires a regrip and break in flow, it's bad. But awkward rotationless solutions could also cause a break in flow, or perhaps interfere with lookahead and indirectly disrupt flow. In some cases a rotation might be the most natural thing to do, if it flows well between the moves before and after it.


Yes I totally agree, that's why I try to include rotations back into my solves now, but I just try to do it smart and avoid rotations that aren't needed. I think it's not as bad for the last pair since you then directly jump into LL algs and rotating the cube isn't going to change anything at your recognition for LL ( except you do a x or x2 which doesn't make sense anyway ). But definitely, having too many rotations even though you can keep the flow is working against look ahead in my opinion. Even though I have much slower moves at the moment on my F2L, I get more and more 15sec F2L which never happened before. I greatly think this comes from the fact that I can spot my next pair more easily at the moment than I could before. And each time you rotate, you somehow need to rotate the image of the empty slots you have in mind. Not that I constantly think of my empty slots while solving, but somehow you're aware of them. They are very important since they may hold pieces for your next F2L pair ( no need to loose time looking at a solved slot ), and they allow you to solve other pairs with more ease.

I just thought that among the 41 cases there's maybe one or two that are messy to solve without rotation, where a rotation would be more beneficial somehow. anyway, I'll go on with my F2L practice. Have been solving F2L only for the past 3 days and there's definitely a great improvement, I'll probably give it another week to get more consistent results.


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## mark49152 (Jan 31, 2014)

Yeah there's no right or wrong answer and I change my opinion week to week. At the moment for lookahead I favour RUL solutions avoiding U2s where possible, so all nice fast quarter moves. I include sledghammers at the front where I immediately know how it will affect the pieces I'm tracking. I find back sledgehammers mess with lookahead more but occasionally use them if I would need to pause and think otherwise. I try to focus more on never pausing than on finding the ideal solution in each case. I do separate untimed slow solve practice to train efficiency, but then don't force that into my timed solves. Efficiency improvements creep in over time.


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## aboeglin (Jan 31, 2014)

I think focusing on not pausing and focusing on efficient moves is going in the same direction, they work together. Since efficient moves should allow you to keep track on the pieces you look for, if you execute them subconsciously it should definitely help to look ahead. At least that's what I'm trying to reach at the moment. But of course I always try not to go full speed on pair solving, except in a few cases like when there's a lot of F2L pieces on the U layer, I clear one or two easy pairs in a blink and slow down, which I should probably avoid anyway. I try to track pieces but I think it's come together once I master my F2L moves.


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## Mia (May 21, 2014)

Thank you so much. I'm just trying to get less cube rotations. This helps a lot.


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## NZCuber (May 21, 2014)

Learn the ZZ method.


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## TDM (May 21, 2014)

NZCuber said:


> Learn the ZZ method.


Or Roux.


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## DeeDubb (May 21, 2014)

TDM said:


> Or Roux.



:tu


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## guysensei1 (May 22, 2014)

TDM said:


> Or Roux.


Or just learn to use weird B turns and stuff.


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