After a certain point while dealing with anything – especially cubing –, improving can get harder and harder. Lowering your average gets more and more difficult the faster you get. In mathematics, this resembles asymptotic regression. However, we already know that deliberate practice is one of the best ways to improve your times quickly. One of the best things to deliberately practice is cross to F2L transition and predicting first pair. This article will show you the best way to improve this and extra tips and tricks on how to look ahead.
Cross To F2L Transition
Most people who average anything below 15 seconds may consider themselves pauseless because they find themselves being able to solve F2L fluently without stopping. This means that the only scope for improvement is increasing TPS and efficiency which can be much harder than reducing pauses if you already know most algorithm subsets and practice enough. However, there is a part of the solve that most people pause in which they may not realize and that is between cross and F2L. The transition between these two steps is often not fluid and has a large gap. This can be easily improved with just a bit of deliberate practice.
Predicting first pair
The best way to improve cross to F2L transition is to predict first pair. If you already know where your first pair is going to be during inspection, you can go straight into F2L right after you finish cross. This completely eliminates any pausing and even lets you turn faster since you don’t have to look ahead because you already know exactly where the pieces are going to be.
How To Predict First Pair
Predicting first pair consists of tracking the pieces in inspection while finding a good cross-solution. To start, try to just track the corner piece. You can check if your prediction was correct by trying to solve the cross + the edge with your eyes closed. Once you feel that you have mastered this, try adding the corner to your inspection. Once again, see if you can solve both the cross and the first F2L pair all in one go with your eyes closed. Keep in mind that when you are starting out, it’s okay to take more than 15 seconds to plan your first pair. It may even take a minute or two but make sure you are being consistent and are able to track first pair on most crosses before working on getting it in 15 seconds of inspection.
Can You Still Lookahead Without Planning First Pair?
While doing RUR’, pay attention to the blue-orange pair which you can go straight into after inserting the 3-mover
While planning first pair in inspection is the best way to improve cross to F2L transition, there are also other ways to decrease wasted time. One way is to slow down while solving cross and focus on the other pieces to, “look ahead,” for potential F2L pairs. This is closer to traditional F2L lookahead and is easier because it requires less brain power and focus. Start as slow as you need and make sure you are turning fluid while looking at corners and edges of the first two layers instead of the cross pieces that you already know how to solve
Some Good F2L Resources
Here are some good Youtube videos and tutorials that may help you even more to decrease your times:
Jperm:
CubeSkills (Feliks Zemdegs):
Videos like this article:
Let me know if you would like more tips on getting faster and improving your cubing skills. If you enjoyed this article, consider liking it and subscribing to this blog. It helps me out and I would really appreciate it. Thanks!
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