# Are there any algorithms that your fingers know and you don't?



## adimare (Jan 22, 2010)

A couple of weeks ago I switched my N-perm algorithm. I can still perform the old one easily, but I just tried to write it down without a cube at hand and it was nearly impossible!

Muscle memory > memory.


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## Lucas Garron (Jan 22, 2010)

Depends what you mean with "and you don't."

I have so much practice in writing algs that I'm now capable of writing down practically every alg I can remember to execute.


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## adimare (Jan 22, 2010)

Lucas Garron said:


> Depends what you mean with "and you don't."


I just meant that even though I can execute R U' R' U l U F U' R' F' R U' R U l' U R' with ease, the string R U' R' U l U F U' R' F' R U' R U l' U R' is clearly not stored in my hard drive, I'm forced to reconstruct it based on what my fingers are doing.


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## 4Chan (Jan 22, 2010)

Quite a few actually.


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## CubesOfTheWorld (Jan 22, 2010)

Chameleon OLL


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## bwatkins (Jan 22, 2010)

Most if not all of mine really. 

Just today i was looking at a sticky note with an N perm written on it. I executed just as the note said wondering what in the world it was, then i realized...Following this i performed it via muscle memory and not thinking L' U' R etc...


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## Edward (Jan 22, 2010)

Almost all of the ones I use.


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## zaub3rfr4g (Jan 22, 2010)

quite a lot


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## Deleted member 2864 (Jan 22, 2010)

lots of my OLLs I have to imagine having a cube (if I don't have one at hand) before I write them down.

I "turn" the air and then write the move down for these types of algs.


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## PHPJaguar (Jan 22, 2010)

Only one or two. I get to know my algs before I start using them; e.g. I figure out how the alg is applied and how it moves the pieces around, and then let my fingers memorize it. This also help me to not forget algs when I take a break.


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## endless_akatsuki (Jan 22, 2010)

too many. Not like it matters to me, until someone asks me for it...(and I screw them over by accident).


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## shelley (Jan 22, 2010)

I can't do my 2-gen Z perm slowly to write it down or show someone, because I forget what the moves are. I can only go at normal speed.


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## Zane_C (Jan 22, 2010)

Yeah I would say so, is this called muscle memory?


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## CitricAcid (Jan 22, 2010)

ALL Of them. I can barely preform them slowly for teaching a person. I'm ALL muscle memory!


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## Jake Gouldon (Jan 22, 2010)

All of them, I can't write down ANY alg. Seriously. I can barely perform algs slowly.


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## Ryanrex116 (Jan 22, 2010)

I "know" all of my algorithms, it just takes a while for me to recite them without a cube.


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## qqwref (Jan 23, 2010)

I don't really use muscle memory for normal cubing, which I guess slows down some of my algs a bit. On the hi-games type sim there are a couple algs that I can just do as a sequence without thinking about the moves, but if I mess up there's no recourse (whereas if I mess up on a normal alg I know exactly how to fix it).


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## Zubon (Jan 23, 2010)

Almost all of my algs are only muscle memory.
When I am solving a 7x7x7, a lot of my solves have to stop half way through an alg because I forget how to finish it.

I put down the cube, do the finger movements on an imaginary 3x3 air cube in order to remember how it ends.


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## cubesolver77 (Jan 23, 2010)

what is wierd for me is that there is this one alg. that moves the edges around that when i am not paying attention i can do it but when i actually try I have no clue wat to do


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## Litz (Jan 23, 2010)

Most of them. Some of them I can't even do unless I'm doing them at full speed.


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## AndyRoo789 (Jan 23, 2010)

Yep, almost all my algs are in my fingers.

The bad thing is I can't do them at all in OH.


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## endless_akatsuki (Jan 23, 2010)

AndyRoo789 said:


> The bad thing is I can't do them at all in OH.



true dat


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## TheMachanga (Jan 23, 2010)

ALL. I can't even write a T-perm without having my cube next to me.


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## foxdi (Jan 23, 2010)

all the algos is in my finger . 

i cant do OH too  , unless i practice OH algo fingertrick ?  . 

i cant recite or write out any algo except for those like F (R U R' U') F'


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## 1996iscool (Jan 23, 2010)

Well I sometimes forget an algorithim but my fingers remember it's like it has a pattern.


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## V-te (Jan 23, 2010)

All. 

I was showing a kid what PLL does, and he showed me the alg, and I tried to follow the paper. Later on when I tried it fast, I forgot it in my fingers. I had to stop for about 5 mins before it came back. It's so strange.


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## vgbjason (Jan 23, 2010)

all my plls, and most of my olls. i have to sit and envision myself doing each move to write it down


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## Deleted member 2864 (Jan 23, 2010)

TheMachanga said:


> ALL. I can't even write a T-perm without having my cube next to me.



R U R' U' R' F R2 U' R' U' R U R' F'

Lol I had to pause like five times to get that down.

I find it incredible how these algs become so second nature, that we barely have to think to execute them. We notice the pattern, and the alg automatically comes out.


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## spdqbr (Jan 23, 2010)

Ask J-Fly, my entire cubing style is based on this phenomenon. 
That's part of the reason I really really suck at OH.


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## Enter (Jan 23, 2010)

I only know notation for 10 algs the first 10 I learned  and the rest is just muscle memory more than 100 algs in my fingers cool


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## lorki3 (Jan 23, 2010)

most of my algs as well but mostly my f2l algs


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## linkmaster03 (Jan 24, 2010)

Just about all the ones I know.


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## Fox (Jan 24, 2010)

Hum... yeah, some OLLs and PLLs.


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## Escher (Jan 24, 2010)

I thought this would be more common, but every algorithm I know (about 250-300), I can do slowly, or write down in notation. Almost all are stored in my muscle memory too, but I also just know how they go.
Maybe I learn them weirdly? :confused:

EDIT: It made starting OH easy though!


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## Novriil (Jan 24, 2010)

T perm mostly.. When I try to do it from my head I'm very slow.. and Y perm I can't do by head at all.. but I guess that comes from BLD..


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## PEZenfuego (Jan 24, 2010)

About half of my olls (two look) and plls I can sort of visualize and write down. A quarter of them I can figure out and write down if I move my hands without a cube in them. The remaining quarter I can't reconstruct without a cube.


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## driftboy_wen (Jan 24, 2010)

i easily do fast or slow of all of my algs *_*


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## PeterNewton (Jan 24, 2010)

Every single one of my PLLs. Its sad, I know. xD


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## iasimp1997 (Jan 24, 2010)

Both A-Perms


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## rubiknewbie (Jan 25, 2010)

There are algorithms that I can write down without the cube, there are algorithms I need my fingers to execute before writing down. There are a couple where the fingertricks depend on how I place my hand and if I place wrongly I screw up the whole algorithm.

However as I do more one-handed practice, more of the algorithms become logical rather than instinctive because when you do one-handed you really need to know which direction to turn.


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## eastamazonantidote (Jan 25, 2010)

All my COLLs are just ingrained in muscle memory but nowhere else. I can't even do them slowly. I don't know if I really knew the letters to go with the alg in the first place. I just remembered the fingertricks. That's how I know all my algs now. But when you start out you remember by the letters. COLL, being the last set I learned, apparently passed that step.


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## HALLU (Jan 25, 2010)

I don't know 1-look OKK, but I tend to learn some OLLs by looking at the PLL algorithms. For instance, I learned the OLL case #33 (One of the T-shape algorithm) by looking at my y-perm algorithm. Then the other day, I "intuitively" learned another OLL by looking at PLLs, and then a few solves later I got that OLL, and I was thinking "Oh! I know this! But then I couldn't remember what to do. Then I just decided to do it 2-look. But even though my mind told me to do it 2-look, I did it 1-look with the algorithm I just learned, and I was like "Wow!! I don't know that algorithm!! How did I do that?"

So in that case, the fingers knew the algorithm without me knowing it. The fingers just did it even though I said 2-look.


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## Hyprul 9-ty2 (Jan 25, 2010)

OKK xD


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