# [Series] How to Get Faster at F2L



## goodatthis (Jun 24, 2014)

Hey guys, I'm a (beginning) youtuber who just wants to help out people who are in the 20-30 second range. I started a series on how to get faster at F2L and I will cover topics like: 

Tricky F2L cases
Rotationless F2L
Lookahead 
Multislotting/Xcross/other advanced techniques

This isn't really aimed towards people who are something like sub 17, but that's not to say that you can't get anything out of it. This could also be a guide on getting sub-20, because just by following my own advice, I've dropped my times a lot in the last month, and I'm fairly close to sub 20. 

Here will be the video order:

Part 1: Tricky F2L Cases- Uploaded
Part 2: Rotationless F2L- Uploaded
Part 3: Lookahead ------ Uploaded
Part 4: Xcross/Multislotting
Part 5: Example Solves and concluding thoughts

Now I do realize I have a long way to go in the quality of the content I'm putting out, but look forward to seeing my Lookahead video scripted, because as of now I have not been scripting my videos and I personally feel that they're kind of crappy, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist so just tell me what you think, and no really harsh critiscm please! I've also been a little stuffy recently, so that's why I sound kind of nasally.

Playlist: 

[video]http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLY_xaGfn_sl6CRUz0ma1tyQnvL_OE_aZT[/video]

Part 3: (most recent, on lookahead)

[video=youtube_share;TPlSWrSW8PA]http://youtu.be/TPlSWrSW8PA[/video]

Parts 4 and 5 are on their way!


Also, tell me what you think about the technical aspect of the videos, like sound quality, video quality, angle, shakiness, lighting, etc.

Also, I know, the umming constantly is actually almost annoying to me, too.


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## TDM (Jun 24, 2014)

First case: [U2] R2 U2 R2 U' R2 U' R2
Case at 4:30: F' R U R' U' R' F R

Also, if you find the umming annoying then scripting will definitely help.

E: And the playlist is empty.


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## goodatthis (Jun 24, 2014)

TDM said:


> First case: [U2] R2 U2 R2 U' R2 U' R2
> Case at 4:30: F' R U R' U' R' F R
> 
> Also, if you find the umming annoying then scripting will definitely help.
> ...



Thanks for the tips! And the playlist seems to be working for me, but I'm on mobile so I'm not completely sure. I'll try it on a desktop.


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## TDM (Jun 24, 2014)

goodatthis said:


> Thanks for the tips! And the playlist seems to be working for me, but I'm on mobile so I'm not completely sure. I'll try it on a desktop.


Playlist is working now. I'll take a look at the next video later.


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## sk8erman41 (Jun 24, 2014)

TDM said:


> Case at 4:30: F' R U R' U' R' F R



are you referring to the inverse?
y U F L' U' L U L F' L'

OP: I like the concept of these vids. Lighting and sound and angle are all good for me.


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## Chree (Jun 24, 2014)

sk8erman41 said:


> are you referring to the inverse?
> y U F L' U' L U L F' L'



That makes the second time this week I found out the inverse to my normal alg feels way, way, way better.

Whenever I did F' R U R' U' R' F R, I was regripping to do that first F' with my right thumb, and it was causing problems for 3x3 stage on big cubes. I still liked it better than R' U' R' U' R' U R U R.

With R' F' R U R U' R' F, I can start in neutral position and it's only a very slight regrip to finish that last F.

Thanks!


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## TDM (Jun 24, 2014)

If you want rotationless F2L, some useful algs are (try to mirror them; one of them would have been helpful in your first example solve in your second video). These are all actually mirrors/inverses of each other anyway, but L/R mirroring them is useful too.
R' U R' F R F' R
R' F R' F' R U' R
l F' R U' R' U l'
l U' R U l' U R' (meh) E: Chree just found U' R U R' F R' F' R, which is very good
But tbh 1-rotation F2L is very easy to do and isn't hard at all. I don't see the purpose in trying to do rotationless F2L; you may as well use ZZ.


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## Chree (Jun 24, 2014)

TDM said:


> If you want rotationless F2L, some useful algs are (try to mirror them; one of them would have been helpful in your first example solve in your second video). These are all actually mirrors/inverses of each other anyway, but L/R mirroring them is useful too.
> *R' U R' F R' F' R*
> R' F R' F' R U' R
> l F' R U' R' U l'
> l U' R U l' U R'



Correction:
*R* U R' F R' F' R

Love that alg. Also decent from the back:
R' U' R x' U' R U l'


There's also:
R' F R F' U2 R U R'
And from the back:
l U' R' U x U2 R' U' R

... but those aren't as fun. I'll usually just rotate and do one of the first 2.


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## TDM (Jun 24, 2014)

Chree said:


> Correction:
> *R* U R' F R' F' R


It was actually supposed to be R' U R' F *R* F' R  But I do actually love your alg for that case; I'll edit it in to my previous post.


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## goodatthis (Jun 24, 2014)

TDM said:


> If you want rotationless F2L, some useful algs are (try to mirror them; one of them would have been helpful in your first example solve in your second video). These are all actually mirrors/inverses of each other anyway, but L/R mirroring them is useful too.
> R' U R' F R F' R
> R' F R' F' R U' R
> l F' R U' R' U l'
> ...



Yeah, I agree with you on the rotationless F2L part- this video was mainly aimed at slower solvers who use too many rotations who could easily cut down on the number of rotations used. Before I started making this video, I thought it was going it turn out great, but then I realized that rotationless F2L isn't really all that useful. 

Also, everybody, the next video on lookahead is uploading as we speak. I think it's much better than my previous two videos.


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## TDM (Jun 24, 2014)

goodatthis said:


> Yeah, I agree with you on the rotationless F2L part- this video was mainly aimed at slower solvers who use too many rotations who could easily cut down on the number of rotations used. Before I started making this video, I thought it was going it turn out great, but then I realized that rotationless F2L isn't really all that useful.


Trying to avoid rotations completely isn't a good idea, but minimizing them is definitely useful. My 1-rotation method isn't amazing, but it's definitely better than rotationless F2L and isn't very hard to learn at all if you can do F2L.


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## mark49152 (Jun 24, 2014)

As someone who is right at the level you are pitching this at, my view is that fancy tricks, rotationless F2L, multislotting and even avoiding rotations simply aren't that important. I've explored all those things and found them a distraction from the basic "bread and butter" F2L techniques which I have become convinced are fundamentally more important, and sufficient on their own to get sub-16/17 at least.

The core techniques are: knowing good and efficient simple/intuitive (not necessarily optimal or rotationless) solutions for all cases; being able to mirror them to all four slots comfortably (intuitive solutions help with that, but tricks/algs hinder); having them committed to muscle memory and being able to solve them eyes-closed to aid with lookahead; reasonable tps and being adept at quickly transitioning between pairs, including quarter rotations; and lookahead or at least the ability to find pairs quickly (which is how lookahead starts to develop, at least for me).

There are tons of videos out there on lookahead and on F2L tricks, as well as beginner F2L, but I would really love to see some good videos focusing in-depth on developing those fundamental techniques for people at about my level.


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## goodatthis (Jun 24, 2014)

mark49152 said:


> As someone who is right at the level you are pitching this at, my view is that fancy tricks, rotationless F2L, multislotting and even avoiding rotations simply aren't that important. I've explored all those things and found them a distraction from the basic "bread and butter" F2L techniques which I have become convinced are fundamentally more important, and sufficient on their own to get sub-16/17 at least.
> 
> The core techniques are: knowing good and efficient simple/intuitive (not necessarily optimal or rotationless) solutions for all cases; being able to mirror them to all four slots comfortably (intuitive solutions help with that, but tricks/algs hinder); having them committed to muscle memory and being able to solve them eyes-closed to aid with lookahead; reasonable tps and being adept at quickly transitioning between pairs, including quarter rotations; and lookahead or at least the ability to find pairs quickly (which is how lookahead starts to develop, at least for me).
> 
> There are tons of videos out there on lookahead and on F2L tricks, as well as beginner F2L, but I would really love to see some good videos focusing in-depth on developing those fundamental techniques for people at about my level.



Thanks for the ideas! Is there any specific video that you want me to include into this series or do you want me to just include some of that in the concluding video?


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## mark49152 (Jun 24, 2014)

goodatthis said:


> Thanks for the ideas! Is there any specific video that you want me to include into this series or do you want me to just include some of that in the concluding video?


I'm just offering "customer input" on what I think would be useful but isn't currently available. I guess of the things I listed, the one least catered for is solving to all slots. There are all sorts of things I learned about that through experience, like how to choose rotations or solutions to minimize shifts between left and right, etc. I don't recall seeing that taught anywhere, and I wasted a lot of time on things like fancy algs to solve tricky cases into FR before realising later that mirroring them is too hard and y2's and AUFs would often cancel out any move count benefit. 

F2L is an art form, but it seems most of the videos out there fit into the same boring old moulds - more tricks, more lookahead, etc. There's surely a gap for something much more interesting.


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## goodatthis (Jun 28, 2014)

I just want to let you guys know that I'll be away for about a week, so I probably won't have the next part of this series up until about a week from now. I might, however, upload some competition footage from CCFC BLD Day tomorrow!


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