# A beginners training schedule - road to sub 30



## Werner (Feb 9, 2009)

Warning lots of text

I’ve been cubing for about 2 months now, and I absolutely love solving the cube. I do not solve it to be fast, I just love solving it at my own pace. 
I have probably only taken 25 timed solves. Nevertheless my times are hovering around a minute. I know how to improve and it is not like I am stuck. 
After asking many of the top solvers, at least in my mind there are three factors to how fast you can solve the cube. 
Finger speed 
Look a head 
Number of algorithms you know 
Intuition
As I've heard you can "easily" average under 20sec if you practice continuously and know at least 2 of these steps as the back of your pocket. 
I do not like moving my hands at light speed; I know I have to face this someday. There are no problems with my cube. 
(Store-bought, cut cornes, smooth, few lockups.) 

So my goal will be to solve 100 cubes while averaging under 30sec. 29 will be plenty for me. 

Right now I probably know allot more than a beginner about the cube, how it works and so on. Still when it comes to turns per seconds I am far behind. 

So the way I see to improve will be described bellow. Any changes on my schedule/order anything will be received with great gratitude. 


Week 1 Solve the cross in between 2 - 5 seconds
Week 2 - 4 Learn f2l properly, around 1, 5 - 2 tps with look a head
Week 5 - 6 1 look OLL
Week 7 - 8 1 Look PLL Finding all the optimal algorithms for me


I find much more enjoyment in learning algorithms than perform just a few over and over again. Bellow I will post my algorithms I currently know, and try to update it as I go along. I am currently able to learn a new sequence in between 5 - 30 minutes. Without performing it quickly 

F2L - Intuitively, full Fridrich, not optimized 
OLL - 20 / 57 Knowing about 15 them really well 
PLL - 16/21 Missing 2N`s 2Gs and the F (yea I know its similar to the V) 

For the first day or two of the first week I will take as long as I need to look at the cube, then close my eyes and finish the cross. 
I will not remember where the pieces are and I have to have finished the cross mentally before I close my eyes. 
After I have gotten good at this I will try to use a metrome or some music to get into a good pace of cross solving. 
15 seconds scramble 
10 seconds memo 
5 seconds solve 
5 seconds inspection 
Repeat Numbers may of course vary, this is just so I can get a ton of cross solves done in a reasonable amount of time. 

For the F2l I will learn the "correct" algorithms see how they work. But while doing F2l I will not use the sheet at all. First days will be getting all the algorithms down, performing them with eyes closed. 
Next will be improving my look ahead, always looking ahead when performing the algorithms. 
Then I will be pacing myself with a metronome again to stop me from unnecessary moves like cube rotations, and similar. 
Maybe I will spend some time to speed up the execution time while still remaining my look ahead. 

Learning the OLLs will be a piece of cake. But most likely I will have to relearn them at a later point as I am using badmephistos list. This list is good but the length of some of these cases are just ridiculous.
I will most likely move through the list as in shape and not by algorithm. Understanding each move here is a must. 

Then the home streak will be optimizing and adding a few cases to my PLL list. I might try to get y2 mirrors for some of them. 

After this I might spend a week removing my delay between the steps, and timing myself. If you do not want to read the rest of this post, please leave a comment and give yourself a biscuit for being a good boy and reading my inexperienced posting. Bellow is a list of the algorithms I currently know 

PLLs 
A (a) x [(R' U R') D2] [(R U' R') D2] R2 
A (b) x' [(R U' R) D2] [(R' U R) D2] R2 
U (a)	[R U'] [R U] [R U] [R U'] R' U' R2
(b)	R2 U [R U R' U'] (R' U') (R' U R')
(a) y2 R2 U' R' U' R U R U R U' R 
(b) y2 R' U R' U' R' U' R' U R U R2 
H M2 U M2 U2 M2 U M2 
R2 U2 R U2 R2 U2 U2 R U2 R2 (OH alg)
Z M' U M2 U M2 U M' U2 M2 U' (probably need to be more Oh friendly)
T [R U R' U'] [R' F] [R2 U' R'] U' [R U R' F']
R2 U R2' U' R2 U' D R2' U' R2 U R2' D' (OH algorithm)
E x'(R U' R' D)(R U R' D')(R U R' D)(R U' R' D')x
J (a) R U2 R' U' R U2 L' U R' U' L
(b) L' U2 L U L' U2 R U' L U R' 
F R' U2 R' d' R' F' R2 U' R' U R' F R U' F (do not know this properly) 
G (a)
(b) L' U' L y' R2' u R' U R U' R u' R2 
(c)
(d)[R U R'] y' R2 u' R U' R' U R' u R2
R (a) [L U2' L' U2'] [L F'] [L' U' L U] [L F] L2' U
(b)	[R' U2 R U2] [R' F] [R U R' U'] [R' F'] R2 U'
V [R' U R' d'] [R' F'] [R2 U' R' U] [R' F R F]
N (a)
(b) 

At the moment I am to lazy to type in the Olls I know 
But I will write in the names of them and you can check them out on this page. http://cubewhiz.com/teambld.html

Superman

Shark

The finger

Sune

Antisune

Dead Guy

Double Superman

H minus 1

H

Dot1 Front

Dot1 Back

Diagonal

Mickey Back

T2

Edges Bar

Edges L

Lefty Edges L

M Right

M Left

31 Back

Righty L

C Dot

C Bar

Good Flower

Bad Flower

I Pi

I will most likely remove the names tomorrow and replace them with algorithms and pictures.  I really wish there were a spoiler tag for these lengthily posts.


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## DarkLightA (Feb 9, 2009)

I really find this post interesting... However:

PLL increases time more than OLL; maybe you should work on that first? IIt has less algs too (I see you know most )

I've gotta get working on my crosses


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## Weiseguy (Feb 9, 2009)

DarkLightA said:


> I really find this post interesting... However:
> 
> PLL increases time more than OLL; maybe you should work on that first? IIt has less algs too (I see you know most )
> 
> I've gotta get working on my crosses



yeah I'm really working on cross time too now that I got my F2L down well and my 4L-LL down. After that I will work on my PLL then OLL.

I suggest you learn PLL's first before the rest of the OLL's as well.

This post is very interesting, thanks for sharing


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## MTGjumper (Feb 9, 2009)

DarkLightA said:


> LL increases time more than OLL)




Decrease, right?

Also, I don't think a "regime" is necessary to get better. Nor is learning all of the algs for Fridrich either. It's possible to be sub-15 without knowing Full OLL. Just concentrate on lookahead, tracking multiple F2L pieces, and practice. Sub-30 isn't too hard


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## Werner (Feb 9, 2009)

I know that learning Full Fridrich is not necessary 
But I am the type of person who learns faster with knowing more algorithms. 
Not focusing that much on speed. 
The way I see it 4 ways to archive good times

Algorithms
Speed 
Look a head 
Originality 

Having one of these will allow you to sub 40 if you are really good at it.
Having two of these will allow you to sub 30 again if you are good at those.
Having three of these will allow you to sub 20.
Having all four of these and sub 15 should be possible.
Regardless of which of them you know. 

Some people are the speed type (learning fastest by fastening their algorithms) 
Some learn best by looking ahead. 
With brute force and basic solving and a good bit of mental strength, I think anyone can sub 30 in maybe half a year. (Of course faster with talent, and more practice.) But my idea is that you can bisect this time by organize how efficient you cube. 

After I have finished CFOP I have a few options which I am looking into 
Cross 
EOline...

First 3 pairs 
Empty slotting (only using two now and hiding pieces) 
Wrong slots (Taking them out and orienting them in the U face) 
Multislotting (I know how to preserve pairs but that’s about it) 

Last F2l pair 
ZBF2L 
ZBF2L - Intuitively
MGLS 
VH 

Last layer 
http://lar5.com/cube/270/index.html - Petrus new method 
CxLL / ELL 
ZB1LL

And to get a better cube understanding I might take a deeper look into Commutators and Conjugates as well as diffrent methods. 
Mainly Roux and Petrus

Again sorry for the length 

Oh and the cube i am using for this experiment will be impossible to solve due to the fact that i will remove the stickers and gradually add them on as i go along.


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## Weiseguy (Feb 9, 2009)

Hardcore man, make sure you update us.

I have a strong dedication to getting Sub-25 (I'm around 40-45 right now) too. but this is a lot.

I'd love to get into ZB and everything too, as you progress let me know how its going at least (PM)


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## DAE_JA_VOO (Feb 10, 2009)

You want to learn OLL in a week? I don't want to be raining on any parades, but that's probably not going to happen, unless you go back after that week and relearn those that you have already forgotten.


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## Werner (Feb 10, 2009)

Well i will only practice OLLs so i think i can do it and its two weeks.
First week to learn them second week to instant recall them. 
Also i will never do anything other than what my schedule says. 
When starting i will not solve the whole cube in two months. 
Likewise when doing the OLLs i will not do anything other than doing OLLs, doing cross, F2L etc are all prohibited  Could be tough but should definitive be doable


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## DAE_JA_VOO (Feb 10, 2009)

That means that after learning F2L, you won't be doing it for a month because of OLL and PLL.

This is a bad idea IMO. The trick to getting good at cubing is constant practice. You can't learn something brand new and then just stop doing it almost immediately. The moment you want to start again, you'll struggle.

Dude, just cube a few hours a day. If you're still on LBL, get to 55 second average, then learn intuitive F2L, 2-Look OLL, and the PLLs at the same time. All of that should take you about 3 or 4 weeks, depending on how much time you put into it. Once you've learnt those 3 things, practice until you break 30 seconds, and then learn OLL. That's a far better method of progressing than the method you've described above.

Forcing 37 algs (you said you know 20 OLLs) into your head in a week is a terrible idea.


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## blah (Feb 10, 2009)

I love newbies who take the time to find out so much before asking stupid questions  Anyone else thinks he deserves a good praise for all that hard work put into research after all the other noobs have been flamed?  He probably knows more than I do


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## Weiseguy (Feb 10, 2009)

I already mentioned that, lol.

I do have to agree with Dae Ja Voo though (Deja Vu btw...).

Cramming never helps anyone in any situation be it cubing, math homework, etc. Don't force things upon yourself, gradually take it. Most people say they learn 1 OLL a day and up to 2 PLL's a day, but not at the same time.


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## MrExtra (Feb 10, 2009)

blah from Malaysia?? Me too. I don't have much comments on your training programme. So good luck..


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## shicklegroober (Feb 26, 2009)

I definitely would not go about it like that, I'm working on 2 look PLL and OLL right now and last night I spent three hours straight doing the 2 look OLL algs and I had them down and was extremely satisfied, but this morning I tried to recall them from memory and I only could remember 4 of the 7 algs for 2 look. Don't cram dude, you'll be bummed.


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## piemaster (Aug 16, 2009)

Sorry everyone.


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## brunson (Aug 17, 2009)

Piemaster, useless bump of an old post: -1. 

I deleted all the useless bickering. Chill, people.


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## fundash (Aug 17, 2009)

Great that your so dedicated to research about everything cubing!

I wouldn't do it how you want to though, I just practice all the time, and try to set goals of when to learn things, (my current goal is to get a sub-30 PB and then i'll start learning F2L) that should get you at about like 15 seconds by the end of the year, lets hope it works for me to, because i'm in the same timezone your are. (45-1:00 for me) 

keep us updated!


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## trying-to-speedcube... (Aug 17, 2009)

It said in the post right above yours that this thread was bumped for no reason...


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## oskarasbrink (Aug 17, 2009)

i see you are really experienced (spelling) but i don't think all this is useful . 
just practice and learn an algorithm or two .


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## LNZ (Aug 17, 2009)

Learning all the algs for full F2L, OLL & PLL is not pretty. There's over 100 of them. And is a daunting ask too. Good luck to you if you're learning all those 100+ algs.

I will take a break from cubing for a week or two as it is now getting a little boring for me now. And when I return, I'll devote my time to the 3x3 and 4x4 cubes. But I'll still contribute here of course in that time.


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## oskarasbrink (Aug 17, 2009)

and the algorithm idea is good. but later on it's really useful to learn several "algos" for every case but from another angle or for Edge control


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## Werner (Aug 17, 2009)

Long time no see eye... 

Anyway, i think that everyone is diffrent when it comes to how you can maximize your training so to speak. 
And people focus on diffrent things for speed. 

I learned Full OLL in about a week time. Spread over a period of one month. 
I finnished learning all of the OLL`s about the same time as PLL 
Because to me learning OLL cases is easy as 3,14159265 
Right now i avreage around 22 - 23 with slow turning. 
Meaning i look ahead and dont go mind blowing fast. But instead going smooth throughout the whole solve. 

My best time so far is 14 with a skip, and 15 no skips. 

I mean if you like learning algorithms I dont see why not learn them. 

I knew full OLL and full PLL before i broke 30 seconds.

Stuff that helped me allot was not focusing to much on cubing when i was turning. I was 100% into the solve i would do terrible.
But now if i think about Usain bolt, ice cream or if it is posssible to shave monkeys in the velocity of light. I tend to do allot better.


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## blakedacuber (Dec 14, 2009)

Weiseguy said:


> Hardcore man, make sure you update us.
> 
> I have a strong dedication to getting Sub-25 (I'm around 40-45 right now) too. but this is a lot.
> 
> I'd love to get into ZB and everything too, as you progress let me know how its going at least (PM)





I'e been cubing for around six months now and im averaging 42 seconds using the fridrich method I hope to get sub 20 before the bristol and uk open in november 2010 at the moment im not satisfied with my f2l it takes me just under 30 seconds to complete my cross and f2l which i hope to get down to around half the time and in doing so get my oll and pll down to around 5 seconds!for the moment i will be using crappy store bought but at christmas I will have a white type c(diy) i am currently doing around an hour of cubing a day but now I'm going to use this tie table to get to sub 30 but i will also be doing an hour of soling aswel if anyone has any advise on how to get sub 30 or lower please share. I hope to hear from you soon so thank you


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## Innocence (Dec 14, 2009)

I average 28-ish...When I'm not actually trying to record an average. >.<. Anyway, I've almost learned OLL. and I don't see why not.

I like the things you think about when cubing.


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## blakedacuber (Dec 15, 2009)

blakedacuber said:


> Weiseguy said:
> 
> 
> > Hardcore man, make sure you update us.
> ...





By the way I'm not going to cram the oll in to 2 weeks im guna spraed it out over around 2 or 3 months


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## jms_gears1 (Dec 15, 2009)

the biggest barrier to getting sub-xx is the barrier you make, basically the barrier is that you cant wrap your mind around getting faster. Im pretty sure this was said in another thread by cmhardrw(sp),

at first the thread seemed like bull crap, i mean really you cant get there because you set a barrier? if that were true youd just remove the barrier and get faster right?

the thing with me was i had no clue what i was doing or how to get faster, i felt like i was stuck. i Started attempting to learn COLL (i use roux fyi) so that i could cut the time of my corners down by 2-3 seconds.

at this time i began to take breakdown of my solves, and realized that my step 1 and step 2 were really good for the times i was getting. my breakdown w/o recog looked something like 7-8-5-7 however i was still around the 30-32 second average mark.

finally i saw what i could do to get faster, i had to cut down pause time between step 1 and 2, which meant i had to slow down slightly during my last edge insertion on step 1 and look for the DR edge during that.

also i worked on step 4 quite a lot, i solved it in as few moves as possible, and reduced my average move count about 5 moves, which means about one second.

basically to cut down your times just know you can. 

i would suggest to do a break down, and see what you need to work on. if your using fridrich i would suggest that you be able to do the cross from any situation in no more than 7 moves. and try and find the most efficient F2L "algs" possible for you. dont necessarily go for the ones with the least number of moves but go for the one that you can execute the fastest, work on OLL and PLL recog, and start doing OLL and PLL time attacks.

hope this helps


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## rubiknewbie (Dec 16, 2009)

Werner said:


> Long time no see eye...
> 
> Anyway, i think that everyone is diffrent when it comes to how you can maximize your training so to speak.
> And people focus on diffrent things for speed.
> ...



I was shocked when I thought you got to 14s a few days after posting, then I saw the post was in Feb .


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## blakedacuber (Jan 5, 2010)

im now sin my type c and my erspnal best is 27.80 and my aavg is about 34.xx so hope to break sub 30 very soon


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