# Lookahead Training Stickers



## Spaxxy (Jul 17, 2013)

So I recently got an idea for cube lookahead training. One of the main training methods for lookahead is to go slow. However, going slow is no fun. You want to turn the cube as fast as possible. It's quite difficult to go slow unless you are using a metronome or something. So I came up with an idea, sort of a sticker mod. The colors of these stickers would only be discernible if you turned slower, forcing you to turn slower. This could be achieved, I believe, by using the same technology that holographic postcards use, to direct light in a certain direction. You could put this on a sticker, so if the cube was turned too fast, the color would be imperceptible. This could be used as a training method for f2l or any other cube substep that requires lookahead. Maybe sometime in the future I'll try to make a prototype. What do you guys think of this?


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## BrainOfSweden (Jul 17, 2013)

Good idea, but would it not require a lot of cube twists to see the colors correctly, as different angles might also mess with the colors the same way as fast turning would?


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## mark49152 (Jul 17, 2013)

The difficult thing about lookahead is training your eyes/brain to tracks pieces other than the ones you are solving. Slowing down alone isn't enough because you can still turn slow and watch the wrong pieces. Could your sticker idea be adapted to help with that?


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## jayefbe (Jul 17, 2013)

Is it really that hard to do slow solves? Plus, turning slow is relative. What is slow for a sup-30 solver is not the same for a sub-10 solver.


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## 5BLD (Jul 17, 2013)

jayefbe said:


> Is it really that hard to do slow solves? Plus, turning slow is relative. What is slow for a sup-30 solver is not the same for a sub-10 solver.



Yes it is hard. Turning constantly slow while thinking properly and not pausing between turns is hard.
Nice idea but I'm no sculptor, I have no idea how these could be practically made
Also it encourages pauses *between* turns rather than slower turning as you have to actually take time to recog it from a certain angle.
Another sticker mod idea could be simply tiny dot stickers. I haven't tried it but it could work.


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## PedroSabioni (Jul 17, 2013)

I recommend using a 4x4 (or other big cube) scrambled as a 3x3, so your turns will be slower and you will be able to practice your lookahead


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## mati1242 (Jul 17, 2013)

5BLD said:


> Another sticker mod idea could be simply tiny dot stickers. I haven't tried it but it could work.



Yeah - I was thinking the same. 
Putting 5x5 or 6x6 stickers on 3x3 may also help.


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## AvGalen (Jul 17, 2013)

Or just remove all the stickers of the last layer


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## scotzbhoy (Jul 17, 2013)

Surely this idea will be detrimental to look ahead, as it'll just make the stickers harder to recognise? There's no point in turning slow if you're not going to be looking ahead while doing it. If the colours are difficult to see, tat's not going to help with your look ahead, it's just going to mean more pauses between steps while you try to find and recognise the pieces needed for the next step


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## kcl (Jul 17, 2013)

5BLD said:


> Yes it is hard. Turning constantly slow while thinking properly and not pausing between turns is hard.
> Nice idea but I'm no sculptor, I have no idea how these could be practically made
> Also it encourages pauses *between* turns rather than slower turning as you have to actually take time to recog it from a certain angle.
> Another sticker mod idea could be simply tiny dot stickers. I haven't tried it but it could work.



Give me a month, I'll chip mine into dots


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## 5BLD (Jul 17, 2013)

PedroSabioni said:


> I recommend using a 4x4 (or other big cube) scrambled as a 3x3, so your turns will be slower and you will be able to practice your lookahead



But then you end up being unused to the feel of your own main cube


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## Spaxxy (Jul 17, 2013)

Hmmm... maybe my previous idea wouldn't work, but I'm still interested in trying to make lookahead training easier in some way.


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## jayefbe (Jul 17, 2013)

Spaxxy said:


> Hmmm... maybe my previous idea wouldn't work, but I'm still interested in trying to make lookahead training easier in some way.



Aren't we all. Find a fast and easy way to gain fantastic lookahead and I think you've found the holy grail of speedcubing.


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## PedroSabioni (Jul 17, 2013)

5BLD said:


> But then you end up being unused to the feel of your own main cube



Isolve my main and once in a while practice my look ahead with big cubes, learn algorithms, "boring" things that are important


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## IamWEB (Jul 18, 2013)

I think you stick to practicing lookahead with the same stickers that you speedsolve with, you will grow accustomed to those stickers. That's very helpful, and you would be taking that away by using a completely different kind of sticker set to train on.
One observation of this effect is noting that speedsolving on a cube with badly chipped stickers is easier when you practice on that cube, and the stickers chip slowly over time. Solving on that cube would be more difficult if you suddenly switched to it from a cube with brand new stickers.


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## kcl (Jul 18, 2013)

IamWEB said:


> I think you stick to practicing lookahead with the same stickers that you speedsolve with, you will grow accustomed to those stickers. That's very helpful, and you would be taking that away by using a completely different kind of sticker set to train on.
> One observation of this effect is noting that speedsolving on a cube with badly chipped stickers is easier when you practice on that cube, and the stickers chip slowly over time. Solving on that cube would be more difficult if you suddenly switched to it from a cube with brand new stickers.



Yes that happened when I finally put half brights on my main. I dropped into high teens for a while.


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## marvin2699 (Jul 18, 2013)

are you thinking of something like this?


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## Spaxxy (Jul 18, 2013)

jayefbe said:


> Aren't we all. Find a fast and easy way to gain fantastic lookahead and I think you've found the holy grail of speedcubing.



Lol no. I'm not trying to make something that instantly and easily gives you world class lookahead. I was just musing about finding a better way to train your lookahead, like how athletes train using special equipment. Though you could do it the old fashioned way (And some will), some would prefer using it.


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## AvGalen (Jul 18, 2013)

Nobody saw this?



AvGalen said:


> Or just remove all the stickers of the last layer


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## mark49152 (Jul 18, 2013)

AvGalen said:


> Nobody saw this?


I used to do that. It doesn't help practise the main, most difficult thing about lookahead, which is tracking pairs other than the one you're solving. 

The most helpful technique I've found is mentally tracking one pair while solvng another, blind. It's the only way I've found of forcing my brain to not watch or think about the pair being solved.


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## jayefbe (Jul 18, 2013)

I find doing blind F2L to be very helpful too. 

I actually used to really dislike doing slow solves and did not find them to be very helpful in the early days. It wasn't until I got faster and started to learn what lookahead really was that I started to gain something from slow solving. I used to think I was using lookahead, but I wasn't. I wasn't actually tracking pairs, I was just getting better at finding them. So slow solves were just slow and infuriating. Now that I know what lookahead actually feels like, I find slow solves much more helpful and enjoyable.


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## pipkiksass (Jul 19, 2013)

jayefbe said:


> I find doing blind F2L to be very helpful too.
> 
> I actually used to really dislike doing slow solves and did not find them to be very helpful in the early days. It wasn't until I got faster and started to learn what lookahead really was that I started to gain something from slow solving. I used to think I was using lookahead, but I wasn't. I wasn't actually tracking pairs, I was just getting better at finding them. So slow solves were just slow and infuriating. Now that I know what lookahead actually feels like, I find slow solves much more helpful and enjoyable.



This! I thought I was looking ahead, I was just looking!! Finding pieces quickly <> looking ahead. 

Look ahead is just starting to click for me, all it took was the patience to listen to advice and slow down. People seem to be after a way of learning lookahead overnight, and I have one... Spend the while night doing slow solves!


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## speedcuber50 (Jul 19, 2013)

More on-topic, I think the best "lookahead stickers" is a cube with no stickers. Absolutely none. Not a single sticker. That's right.



Spoiler



A stickerless Dayan.


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## Username (Jul 19, 2013)

speedcuber50 said:


> More on-topic, I think the best "lookahead stickers" is a cube with no stickers. Absolutely none. Not a single sticker. That's right.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



No, since it gives you an advantage you don't get with solid color cubes...


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## speedcuber50 (Jul 20, 2013)

I know, that's what makes it good for lookahead! (If not slightly cheating, however.)


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## Username (Jul 20, 2013)

speedcuber50 said:


> I know, that's what makes it good for lookahead! (If not slightly cheating, however.)



But that makes your lookahead horrible with "regular" cubes


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## AFatTick (Oct 18, 2013)

mark49152 said:


> The difficult thing about lookahead is training your eyes/brain to tracks pieces other than the ones you are solving. Slowing down alone isn't enough because you can still turn slow and watch the wrong pieces. Could your sticker idea be adapted to help with that?



If you are a sub 10 solver, you already know look ahead xD, but I get what you mean. lol


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## mark49152 (Oct 18, 2013)

AFatTick said:


> If you are a sub 10 solver, you already know look ahead xD, but I get what you mean. lol


And if you have already mastered lookahead then you don't need the training stickers, so I don't get what you mean, lol


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## rubiks3 (Jan 1, 2014)

Why not just get a dollar store cube? Many of the colors are almost identical and the turning is very stiff with very little corner cutting.


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