TL;DW 1. Work on understanding how to solve pairs with confidence (As in you find two pieces, can close your eyes and let muscle memory take over, and be ultra confident that the pair will be solved). This will minimize mental resources needed to solve the pair you're currently doing which opens up the opportunity for mental resources being used on your next pair(s) 2. If you're still having trouble with look-ahead after implementing the above try upping your knowledge on how pieces get affected with certain triggers and eventually whole pair solutions (IE knowing that R U2 R' U' R U R' preserves pairs in the FR slot as well as with the UBL/UL pieces) 3. If you're STILL having some trouble with look-ahead (very unlikely after impementing #1 and #2), make your rotation decisions more efficient. If you're a right hand dominant solver my suggestion is to prioritize solving in this order, BL, BR, FL, FR. The rationale being that righty solvers don't hold the cube straight on or in what I call a tunnel vision fashion. Rather, they hold the cube with a slight tilt to reveal the face of the dominant hand, in this case the right layer because righty. Please don't ask what order is optimal for lefty solvers because the logic should be clear 4. Slow solves and metronome practice and anything along these lines won't do crap after a certain point, which is usually the point where you try them for the first time honestly. These methods of improving look-ahead are doodoo and don't address why you're pausing in the first place
Personally I suffered from poor lookahead for a very long time. I tried all the things I was given as advice (metronomes, slow solves, BLD pairs etc.) and nothing seemed to work. For me the breakthrough was realizing that blindly following advice is not the way to go. I have to put in effort too. My preferred, and seemingly most effective method was to slow down and force myself not to look at what I'm currently solving. Even though it's nearly identical to just doing slow solves, the added effort from my part is what actually caused me to improve. It's a tough skill to learn, and by no means am I amazing at it, but I think it just goes to show how personal effort is rewarded more than just following advice you don't quite understand. I'd imagine different things work for different people, but I completely agree (based on personal experience too) that lots of the advice given online is pretty bad. Lookahead isn't the only thing that suffers from bad advice. A lot of advice seems to just be "get better at X" or "work on your Y" without explaining how or why.
But doing slow solves doesn't just mean turning slow. It means to turn slowly enough so that you can look ahead to what you need to do next. What you said you did was actually the real definition of slow solving. I for one think that the methods I found are pretty great and often times my F2L is sub-4 when I time it, but I do understand that we all have our poisons to pick.
Yeah that's the base. After that you can start actively trying to devote your mental resources to looking for the next pieces. If you try just going from nub intuitive F2L to trying to look ahead you're gonna feel like you're bashing your head against a wall, and not in the fun way
I really liked the part about confidence during pair solving at a higher level - I completely agree with it and it's something that really helped me get better lookahead
Yesss I agree so much. A couple weeks ago I was solving with really slow turning, and I realized that I don’t need to turn slower to increase look ahead, but instead turn faster and just put more effort into it, and I’ve improved so much from that. IMO your brain can always be faster than your hands.
This is the best F2L video on RU-vid hands down!!! Like you said I’ve been banging my head against the wall trying to look ahead while using intuitive F2L.
Nice vid Jay, i I'd mention another thing: do FOCUSED practice sessions. Idk if I'm alone on this, but I often find myself not focusing when solving, and then I start just looking at the pair as I'm solving it even if the pair is as easy as R U R'.
I think the development my look ahead was natural. As you get faster and get used to the moves you do with a cube during solves, literally not looking at it will still get the job done. I think it is similar to a solve where you have gotten to PLL, you can just look away and perform the alg and AUF without errors since you've already done it so many times. You are confident enough while doing it, and that confidence was built by those hours of practice. Back when I was slower, I watched a lot of how to look ahead videos but where I am right now........ I never really applied anything that were said in those videos.
I suggest not just learning to solve cases blind but also learn to solve cases while tracking other pieces. Like, pick a random U layer piece, and try running the alg unconsciously, as if it's not even you doing it, while following the random piece you picked and watching where it goes. Every new alg I learn, I practice running it on pure muscle memory while tracking each piece that it moves. Now that you've divorced yourself from needing to attend to that current alg, you then need to practice looking at the pieces with specific intention, aka: to find your next pair. Anyway, I've noticed that in spite of being able to run all of my F2L algs kinesthetically, I have trouble letting that happen while ACTUALLY looking around for the next thing. It's sort of like letting go of your security blanket. Like, ok, I can do it but...but...what if I still fuck it up? So yeah, it's a security/confidence with what you know you already know kind of thing.
@7:46 F U r U' r' F' is also nice for that case, and I think the remaining F2L pieces move more "intuitively" for the purposes of lookahead. Anywho, great vid
Thank you for confirming what I already found out on my own. At one point I kinda just stopped solving altogether and spend a lot of time with each and every case, drilling it into muscle memory. Tried to have fun doing it. (Successfully :D) Suddenly I had attention left to spend on other things. I also did exactly what you did with the solved state and applying cases, beginning with insertions that I mapped out thoroughly even drawing stuff down, kind of taking time figuring stuff out (That was fun, too). When I started timing again I got from 40 to 20 without even noticing. I'm about one year in and constantly dropping in time. Next stop sub 15. Having so much fun right now.
@@Goo_Gle. Update. The next year (this year) I got my very first sub10 a 9.94. Now I'm trying to construct good crosses and plan first pair, if possible second to get there more consistently. Early recognition - I.e. predicting pieces in F2L is the other thing I train, easy multislotting cases and so on. I know half of T and half of U and one L set of ZBLL and I do EO stuff if possible sometimes VLS (Winter Variation only when there's a sune case or so in favor of ZBLL) I get close at least once a day like 11s and 12s. Still having a ton of fun on the way. So my next goal is to get consistently close. That's as far as I'm looking right now.
There are different kinds of top speedcubers: one is can solve it pretty fast but couldn’t explain the concepts well to help others just because everything comes pretty intuitive to him; while the other type is like can explain the concepts in great details to others. And Jay is one of the latter.
I cube for around 5 months now. I average around 18 secs, I just learned full pll and still trying to adjust to it. So now I started practicing look ahead because of numerous videos saying that it is the next step but I find myself solving so poor because I'm not use to solving f2l slowly. I just let muscle memory to took over during f2l but during slow solves I tend to think about my next steps and I mess it up. I can do all my f2l with my eyes close but I still can't track my next pair
i average sub-20 CFOP. Should I start doing look-ahead or wait until I am a little faster? If I have to wait, then what do I have to average to start actually improving lookahead?
biggest thing i work on is not to look at whatever I am solving. Force myself to look at something else on the cube. When i have a pause, I think why did I have it? In other words, what was I just looking at and why wasn't I looking at what i need to be solving next?
Lmao I basically realised this when I started cubing and learned the way it worked best for me... Now I can do all my F2L blind with enough inspection (like 30ish seconds).
Will it helpfull if I solve an f2l pair.. but b4 solving the last 3 to 4 moves, I find another f2l pair and predict how the moves(3 to 4) will affect that pair? I felt that this way is more practical in real solve So guys.. any advice or this practice is useless?
I don't see why you would ever need to do that when you're prioritizing your rotations properly on top of inspecting well (IE seeing first pair) I think if you need to look at the B face you might be better off rotating because then at least you can see everything and probably solve everything at a better angle anyways. On top of that I feel like mini rotations to find pieces hinders fluidity to a large degree and could be a bad habit you have to break later...
I did improve a ton from metronome practice, but getting it has its limits. Your advice is very good nevertheless. in fact, without your advice, metronome practice is useless. What metronome practice does is that it forces you to step out of you habit and apply the kind of advice you are giving instead of defaulting to do the same thing again and again.
