# A tip for learning to look ahead during F2L



## Zarxrax (Oct 5, 2009)

Looking ahead during F2L has been difficult for me. It's really hard to take my eyes off the pair that I'm currently working on, so that I can make sure I insert it correctly. But I came up with this little technique which I think has helped me a lot:
*After you locate a pair, close your eyes and insert it*.
This will train you to insert a pair without having to look at it. Then once you get accustomed to this, its much easier to start looking ahead.

Seems like such an obvious trick, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone suggest this.


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## gpt_kibutz (Oct 5, 2009)

Well I've heard it before.... I thought all good cubers did this as practice


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## Carson (Oct 5, 2009)

It does make perfect sense, and you would think that everyone would just figure this out on their own... but to be honest, I had never thought of it. I will have to give it a try.


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## amostay2004 (Oct 5, 2009)

You can practise like that, but it isn't entirely necessary. Speedcubing sessions alone would eventually make F2L pair insertions natural to you. After a while you just know what you gotta do without looking at the pair you are inserting. 

In fact, I'm not even sure if this will really help lookahead, as when you close your eyes you won't be able to look for the next pair. 

Just stick to the traditional 'go slow and look ahead' and it will do wonders


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## PCwizCube (Oct 5, 2009)

You've never heard of this before? Maybe I haven't either, but yeah, it seems pretty obvious. It's similar to practicing the cross blindfolded.

Yes, you should really only do this when you are just starting to look ahead, or if your looking ahead is absolutely terrible. Because when you look ahead, you look at then next pair you will solve, so you're not looking at the pair you're currently solving, so it's similar.


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## Kxg (Oct 5, 2009)

amostay2004 said:


> You can practise like that, but it isn't entirely necessary. Speedcubing sessions alone would eventually make F2L pair insertions natural to you. After a while you just know what you gotta do without looking at the pair you are inserting.
> 
> In fact, I'm not even sure if this will really help lookahead, as when you close your eyes you won't be able to look for the next pair.
> 
> Just stick to the traditional 'go slow and look ahead' and it will do wonders



It will. I've been trying to practise look ahead for a bit now but no matter how slow I go (well, not under 40 tpmin) I couldn't avoid pauses because of simple thing... I kept watching the pair I'm solving. And only today I forced myself not to pay attention to current pair. And doing it w/o looking is good way to practise it.


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## Michiel van der Blonk (Oct 6, 2009)

Very good tip!


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## DavidWoner (Oct 7, 2009)

I never really used any of these tricks. Maybe a bit of slow solving. I dunno, I guess I just decided that I should look ahead and it just starting happening.


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## Faz (Oct 7, 2009)

Yeah, I haven't actually practised "looking ahead", but when I solve the cross, I don't look at the pieces.

Some good information on looking ahead is at www.youtube.com/pcwizcube.

ULL NEVAR WIN WONER.


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## DavidWoner (Oct 7, 2009)

fazrulz said:


> Yeah, I haven't actually practised "looking ahead", but when I solve the cross, I don't look at the pieces.



Well you don't really look ahead as much either. It more like recognize lightning fast, turn 987 tps, recog, turn, etc.


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## Faz (Oct 7, 2009)

DavidWoner said:


> fazrulz said:
> 
> 
> > Yeah, I haven't actually practised "looking ahead", but when I solve the cross, I don't look at the pieces.
> ...



lol, INORITE. I do have nice LL recognition.


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## AvGalen (Oct 7, 2009)

Just to be clear, this practice will only PREPARE you for starting to look ahead. It trains you to
* No longer think about how to solve that pair
* No longer look at the pieces from that pair while solving it

But it doesn't train you to actually look for the next pieces (that is really hard while not looking!)
It is much more difficult to actually look ahead while ignoring the "previous" pair.

You could compare it to doing a blindfolded solve with your eyes open. That is very difficult for me because I actually look at a cube that temporarily looks quite messed up in between setup moves and the alg. When I have my eyes closed the cube looks much more orderly because I only see the 3 pieces I am cycling and the rest is "grayed out".


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## Tim Major (Oct 7, 2009)

DavidWoner said:


> fazrulz said:
> 
> 
> > Yeah, I haven't actually practised "looking ahead", but when I solve the cross, I don't look at the pieces.
> ...



Change that to 9870 tps.

IT'S OVER 9000!!!!! 

sorry...I guess nobody understands this reference...


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## AndyRoo789 (Oct 7, 2009)

ZB_FTW!!! said:


> DavidWoner said:
> 
> 
> > fazrulz said:
> ...



Lols!
Dragon balls z!
xD


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