7 years ago
Hi guys,
For quite a while, I’ve been meaning to write some more on the topic of colour neutrality. The first blog, which I wrote earlier this year, covers the basics as well as some advice on switching to colour neutrality in your solves. Before reading this blog entry, I suggest that you read the original Colour Neutrality blog, if you’re not super familiar with the topic. Based on that, there were plenty of additional questions about more specific topics, so I thought it would be a good idea to go into a bit more detail about some of those things.
The first type of question was regarding my process for actually choosing a cross colour upon starting inspection. Of course, after getting comfortable with colour neutrality and the ability to start a solve with any colour, deciding which colour to start on is a whole different art. I don’t really aim to follow any strict rules or procedures, but I think it could be outlined as follows:
Firstly, I quickly scan the cube to check out which sides already contain oriented cross pieces. After this, I’ll make my best intuitive guess as to which cross is the easiest. Sometimes this step is really easy, because there is one quite obvious optimal cross, but in other situations, spending the time to find the optimal cross from 6 possibilities may not be the most efficient use of inspection. In cases where I initially choose a cross colour, only to realise that it’s a horrible solution (7+ moves, or awkward moves), I’ll quickly switch to a different colour in the hopes of an easier start. Otherwise, if the cross is easy enough, I’ll stick with it and then plan as much of my solve as possible. In scrambles where there aren’t any oriented cross pieces on the cube, I generally do spend extra time checking more sides and their cross solutions, and try not to get worried about looking for my first pair, and instead just focus on planning my solution and fingertricks for the cross really well so that I can look around for F2L pieces during execution.
I aim to decide on my cross colour within the first 3-4 seconds of inspection, and ideally in under 2 seconds. Of course, this loose procedure isn’t foolproof, and I estimate that I only choose the move-optimal cross maybe 80% of the time. However, my goal during inspection isn’t necessarily to always find the optimal cross, but rather to choose an easy one as quickly as possible and give myself enough time to plan the first F2L pair. The main drawback with this approach to inspection (ie, deciding the colour quickly) is that sometimes I miss slightly easier cross/X-cross solutions because it’s too difficult to check every colour in limited inspection time, and give myself enough time to plan fingertricks or the first F2L pair. One thing that I really try to avoid is changing cross colours quite late in inspection, because that can be really stressful, particularly in a competition solve.
A couple of other people asked me to estimate the advantage that I get from being colour neutral. The easiest way to get a very rough estimate of this is to do a simple experiment, as outlined below.
I will do 3 sessions of 100 solves, switching between solving a white cross, being dual colour neutral (white/yellow), and being completely colour neutral on every solve. These three types of solves are stored in separate sessions on a timer. Switching the session on each individual solve aims to deal with the fact that at different points in time, I might be more or less focused, and so I may have streaks of good or bad solves. I'd be very interested to see results from other people with this experiment.
Experiment results:
Colour Neutral Average of 100: 6.28
White/Yellow Average of 100: 6.54
White Cross Average of 100: 6.52
After doing the solves, I realise that the 100 solve sample may be slightly too small. I was a bit surprised by how difficult I found dual colour neutrality, as statistically, it seems like a really good compromise if you're not willing to completely switch over to full neutrality. A perfect experiment would be to do individual CN, dual, and white cross solves all on the same scramble, 100 times, but that's not really possible. Based on this, I suppose that colour neutrality shaves about 0.25 seconds off my average over the long term. It might not seem like a lot, but that can be the difference between a first and second place result, or between a sub or sup 6 avearge :p
Another question/comment that was raised was in relation to the process of switching from using a single cross to colour neutrality. Essentially, people were wondering whether it’s a good idea to learn new algorithms and solving techniques whilst switching to colour neutrality. Because it can sometimes take a very long time (many months) to get completely comfortable with colour neutrality, I definitely think that it’s okay to learn other things during this transition phase. Whilst doing so, another useful tip is to learn the algorithms/techniques from a colour neutral perspective. For example, if you’re learning and practicing keyhole to use in your F2L, learn and practice it on different cross colours. Also, if you are even slightly thinking about practicing colour neutrality then remember, the sooner the better. An easy way to start practicing CN is to do one-handed solves, because you’re not turning as quickly and you have a bit more time to think about your F2L piece colours.
From this point onwards, this blog will serve as a Q&A. If you have any questions about colour neutrality, please leave them in the comments, and if I think they’re particularly interesting/important, I’ll add them to the section below :)
Disclaimer: I’ll answer the questions to the best of my ability, but if I think that there’s no clear answer then I’ll definitely indicate that, and ensure that I don’t state opinion as fact.
Q: How do I know if I’m completely colour neutral?
A: One way of thinking about it is that you're truly 'colour neutral' if doing any different colour makes no difference to your times or the way you think during your solve. I’m not sure that’s an accepted definition, and being CN/not CN is in no way black and white, there’s definitely a significant transition period where people only consider themselves partially CN.
Q: How do you memorise the colour order for every single cross?
A: You actually might be surprised to know that I haven't memorised the colour order around the cube in any fashion for 3x3 speedsolving. So, if I'm thinking about a red cross, and let's say the red-white edge piece is in front of me in the DF position, then off the top of my head, I'm not really sure whether the red-blue or red-green belongs on the right. I don't think this is something that should be memorised - it would require far too much thinking whilst doing a cross.
Essentially, how I do all colour crosses is by looking at the positions of center pieces around the E slice (middle layer) whilst planning out the cross. Again, let's pretend I’m solving the red cross on the bottom layer, and let's say we have the blue center at the front and the white center on the left. If my red-blue piece is in the DR position (requiring a D' to be solved), then I can deduce that the red-white piece belongs in the DF position, which will also require a D' to be solved.
Opposite cross pieces should be fairly straightforward to solve relative to one another (eg red-blue and red-green). The trickier part is fitting the others (red-white, red-yellow) in the other two positions, correctly.
Another thing we can do with the centers is easily figure out whether two adjacent cross pieces are wrong. In the red cross example, if the red-blue piece is under the yellow center, and the red-yellow piece is under the blue center, then clearly this arrangement is incorrect because you can't solve both of them at the same time with just one move.
The main point is that because you have the centers easily visible on a 3x3 cube, you can just look at them to plan your cross instead of memorising the colour order around the cube, which I think is very impractical.
Q: How do you choose which cross to do on big cubes? (5x5, 6x6, 7x7)
A: It’s pretty random, and I don’t really think that being colour neutral helps very much for the 3x3 stage. If I have to perform parity, then that gives me a couple of seconds to look around for edge pieces, but if I don’t have any edge parity, then I just force myself to choose a colour. I think I choose the U or F face colour a fair bit - if one of those two faces already has an oriented cross edge after finishing edge pairing, then I’ll almost definitely do my cross there. Also note that it’s often easier, quicker, and safer to solve most of your cross on the U or F face when solving big cubes.
Q: On which puzzles is it most important to be colour neutral?
A: As a general rule, the smaller the puzzle gets, the more important it is to become colour neutral on it. Being CN on 2x2, pyraminx and skewb will have the biggest proportionate impact on your times. Also, if you’re CN on those puzzles but not 3x3, that should be an encouraging sign of your ability to become CN on 3x3. Colour neutrality for 3x3 stage on bigger cubes isn’t very important at all, but it is important to be colour neutral when solving centers and edges in order to take advantage of easier starts and other cases.
I hope you guys enjoyed the blog, and if you have any more questions about colour neutrality then please leave them below! :)
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Mahor Nagda Posted 7 years ago
hey feliks, im a sub 20 cuber and i want to get to sub-15, i use one look pll and two look oll, what should i do next to get ty goal, learn the 57 oll's, switch to roux or learn more f2l tricks. i really need advice as i have become a little stagnant since the past 1 month, will color neutrality help?
Connor Liu Posted 7 years ago
thoughts on CN with Yau?
Andrew Linfoot Posted 7 years ago
Hi Felix,I'm a big fan by the way,I've been CN for around 5 months and wondered if others use a method that I still do now.
When I've chosen the cross colour, I say in my thoughts that colour, so say I choose orange as my cross I make an effort in my mind to say Orange,then repeat whilst inspecting. There's nothing worse than forgetting the cross colour whilst doing the cross, it really adds lots of time. I know you can just look at the top centre to remember which cross you have chosen whilst solving if you forget but that also adds time be it only a fraction of s second.
Since I used this method whilst learning CN and still do I wondered what ,if any,method you use to not forget cross colour?
Gab Lambino Posted 7 years ago
Hey Feliks, how to improve fast at cross and f2l in colour neutral? And last layer?
Isaac Chen Posted 7 years ago
To add on to Connor Liu, wat about CN on YAU 5?
Sean Fei Posted 7 years ago
Hey Feliks,
I started out color neutral, and thus have never had experience switching, what is it like switching from one colour to six?
Chris B Posted 7 years ago
Hey Feliks,
Any update on when or if you'll be uploading OH OLL & PLL execution and fingertricks?
Feliks Zemdegs from CubeSkills Posted 7 years ago
Mahor - Marginally. You'll find that solve efficiency, knowing OLL & other techniques will give you more immediate improvement. Learning CN will not really help to immediately lower your times.
Connor & Isaac - It's definitely good to do, but the general consensus is that it's not as advantageous as CN on 3x3 and smaller puzzles. Also, if you're starting with white/yellow centers, you're already effectively dual CN, which is pretty decent. Also, the approach I use to plan cross and solve F2L pairs (by using the fixed centers as a reference point) doesn't really work on 4x4, so I would personally need to completely memorise and practice my colour scheme to implement it in my 4x4 solves. I would like to switch one day though.
Andrew - This is definitely something that people do as they're transitioning to CN, and I agree that looking at the top colour is a neat little trick so that you don't have to tilt the entire cube to look at the bottom face. In the long run, you should actually try and work on not thinking about this at all in your solves though.
Gab - you'll just have to accept that you may be slower for a while, using other colours - there's no magic solution. I'd suggest checking out the first blog about Colour Neutrality (~6 months ago) for some tips to switch, if you're interested.
Sean - I've never had experience switching, either. Maybe I'll document that process if I ever try it for 4x4.
Chris - Hmm, I definitely will, but I'm working on some other videos over the coming weeks. I definitely suggest watching Antoine Cantin's LL algorithm execution videos on Youtube, he has some fantastic stuff.
Cheers,
Feliks
Sam Durocher Posted 7 years ago
Hi Feliks. It's Sam again. Huge fan by the way. Great job on the 5x5 WR Avg's. When did you start being CN? I use it at home when practicing, but not during comps.
Sam Durocher Posted 7 years ago
And I will post my experiment as well.
p1ngubek ツ Yengkopiong Posted 7 years ago
Dear Feliks and other advanced cubers,
This has absolutely nothing to do with cross neutrality but how do you learn oll much more easily. I am a sub-30 average solver and I know full PLL.
Thankyou
Omprakash Mohanty Posted 7 years ago
Hi feliks! I am a 30 second cube solver.i have speed but how can i solve a cube more faster in begineers method.
Mikael Weiss Posted 7 years ago
GubeCube Y: Hello! I also average about the same (25.65) and I thought I had some good thoughts on this. So what I am doings is first I watch videos on YouTube for “OLL’s everyone should know”. Then as I watch I pause the video write down the algs. Then after collecting a few I go to the ZYXTimer app in the train section for OLL and only select the algs that I just got ( don’t do more then 10 at a time ;). Then the app will at random give me one of the algs I have selected and if I can I try to solve it without using the algs especially because the algs in the videos for that typically have good finger tricks. After I feel confident I know the OLLs I just learned I go on to look through an OLL alg sheet and find some that seem easy to learn. Then I repeat the process with all the possible inverse’s of that alg. (If you don’t have ZYX timer I would suggest just doing flash cards at random or something.)
let me know it this was helpful!
Baha Shwaiki Posted 7 years ago
I can solve white, yellow and blue. Shall i practice the rest of the colors at once or practice green first, because i'm used to blue and green is opposite of blue which might make it easier for recognition than red and orange, or maybe that doesn't make a difference at all?
Samuele Zucca Posted 7 years ago
Hi Feliks, you've posted three avg100: CN, dual CN and White.
But how can CN increase the chances of a good single?
The Twins Gravityboy Posted 7 years ago
Hey Feliks
1-Can you Make a video about more f2l algorithm for one-handed
2-Can a sub/sup 20 second do a CN solve..
The Twins Gravityboy Posted 7 years ago
Hi Feliks
Do you think i had to learn G-perm first or Oll
Adhithya Jayabaskar Posted 7 years ago
Hi Feliks,
What subsets do you know for 3x3x3 (excluding OH)?
also how many algs do you know ?
Kieren Marsh Posted 7 years ago
I'm a fairly new cuber (6 months) and I have started out CN from the start after, say, just a month initially on white. I think this has made my improvement, mainly in f2l, quite slow so any new cuber may have to bear this in mind. Picking a cross colour and immediately being able to pick the edge colours really does take some getting used to and I still have to pause to remind myself what pieces I'm looking for. OLL and PLL don't cause me too many problems. OLL recognition is fairly simple because it's the opposite colour to the cross. For me PLL recognition is about "bars" "headlights" and where and where aren't stickers of opposite colours.
I will admit to getting frustrated in the past month or so as my time improvement has barely moved, mainly because of recognition during f2l (and pretty lousy cross as well!). I could probably do with a handful more pairing and insertion moves to tidy up my f2l as well but that will come from watching a few YouTube videos. Right now though I'm just doing lots of solves trying to get the piece recognition into my subconscious so I can start working on getting a bit of look ahead which will hopefully give my times a real boost.
M G Posted 7 years ago
Hey Master!
1: I think I've seen you start 6x6 center stage on every color but how do you do that without knowing the order of the colors? Comparing with edge pieces or corners seems slow so I guess you don't do that.
2: For 3x3, don't you think it would be easier to find a nice cross solution (and save time in inspection) if you instantly knew which cross piece that goes where instead of checking the E-layer? Especially when there are no obvious cross solution and you have to check the color order for every side to determine which side that looks good to start at.
I can solve the cube on all colors but I only know the color order for blue, green, white and yellow crosses. And I have a much easier time planning my cross on those colors than on red or orange. So when I have no edges solved I rarely do red or orange because then I would have to compare with the E-layer first.
As you guessed in your blog, I was really suprised to read that you haven't memorized the color order. It seems like such a small investment for a speedcuber of your caliber. For me it feels like it would require less thinking but I guess I have to trust you since your the Master and I'm barely sub-17. But it kind of blows my mind that you, so very often, make such good cross solution and can plan so far ahead during inspection without this ability.
Samuel Lai Posted 7 years ago
I've been cubing for 9 years while strictly solving on red cross and using Yau on 4x4-6x6. Never saw the point to switch to CN and this vlog further confirms that. Especially with lines like "switch as soon as possible" and "the smaller the puzzle gets the more important CN gets".
Feliks Zemdegs from CubeSkills Posted 7 years ago
Baha - In the long run I don't think it'll make a difference, but some people do like to practice on opposite colours to gain familiarity.
Samuele - Well hypothetically, on any individual scramble, being colour neutral will give you the easiest start to a solve. This may or may not translate to an easier middle and finishing stages in a solve, but these easier starts sometimes lead to better singles.
The Twins - Check out the one-handed tutorials section, yes, and learn PLL :)
Adhithya - OLL, PLL, COLL, most of WV, most of BLE, some easy VLS + CLS, and a variety of ZBLL algorithms.
M G - As I'm doing my third center, I figure out which colour belongs above/below it in the M slice based on the blue-yellow-red clockwise colour circle. Eg, if red is on my right, and I've solved the blue center, then I know that yellow belongs above it. If green is my solved center, then white belongs above it (holding red fixed). You are correct though, maybe it would be such a small investment, but I've just learned it subconsciously over the years. I feel like if I tried to switch and memorise the colour order, and then try and solve my 3x3 cross without looking at the centers, I would make many mistakes. Also, I need to look at the E slice centers in inspection anyway, in order to plan the actual cross solution and what I need to do to align it.
Samuel - Yeah, for 4x4 to 6x6, the benefits are very very marginal, and the cost is so huge. Completely agree that switching would be a bad idea. For 3x3 it's a bit less clear cut, in my opinion :p I've heard heaps of success stories from people who've switched, but I've also heard of some people who have completely "wasted" their time. Still not sure if I believe that absolutely anyone can fully switch.
Cuberious The SpeedCuber Posted 7 years ago
Does solving the cross on all the colors mean that you are color neutral? Because I just solve which ever cross looks the easiest, but I won't know what color is on the right face if blue is on the bottom and white is in front.
Feliks Zemdegs from CubeSkills Posted 7 years ago
Yep, that sounds similar to me haha.
Kong Hoo Tin Posted 7 years ago
Sometimes I do colour neutral,I am always like thinking too much on that for how to do the cross, F2l, OLL and PLL.
Mahor Nagda Posted 7 years ago
Hey feliks, i've heard you use reduction for 5 by 5 and yet win every competition, i use reduction too and i have reached a standstill at about 3 minutes and at best 2 minutes. should i switch to Yau, or should i continue reduction to get sub-1
also are there any algs you use to improves the efficiency of reduction, like any easy edge pairing algs or centre forming algs? if yes, then could you post a tutorial
Nick H Posted 7 years ago
Super interesting to hear you haven't specifically memorised all the colour orders for different starting crosses. I always am double checking the E layer, no matter how many times I seem to do a cross on that side.
Baha Shwaiki Posted 7 years ago
For example, i know how to solve white, yellow and blue and i wanted to make green a familiar color during f2l, is it a good idea to solve 100 solves using only green cross so i can get used to green? or practice green and the rest may benefit more?
Thank you Feliks.
Owen Morrison Posted 7 years ago
Hi Feliks,
I know you said that it is impractical to memorize the color order for each cross, but if I wanted to switch to color neutral for yau on 4x4, I should memorize the color order for each cross, right?
Harsh Maheshwari Posted 7 years ago
Hey Feliks,
I average around 18-23 Secs, My individual times are :
Cross-2-4 Secs (can memorize 3 edges)
F2l-7-10 Secs
Oll-2-4 Secs
Pll-3-5 secs
so i m not CN....i do only white cross...and can only sucessfully memorize 3edge...so wt should i practice in order to memorize all 4?
Thanks FELIKS :)
GurRulz Rockz Posted 7 years ago
Hi Feliks so I am like sub 20 and cubing for like 10 months. I do only white cross and also on Yellow.i tried to Become CN. I can do Cross on any side but the problem is in F2L , I tried to Do Red side and It took me Like 4 seconds to Identify the F2L case which is really bad
Pranav Murthy. Y Posted 7 years ago
Hi Feliks,can u make a tutorial on BLD solving the 3x3?
pranav aithal Posted 7 years ago
Hi Feliks, which is better yau or freeslice for 5x5?
Thanks Feliks
Zigmund A Posted 7 years ago
"You actually might be surprised to know that I haven't memorised the colour order around the cube in any fashion for 3x3 speedsolving".
This made my day, I was desperate to do the same thing now I know it's normal ;)
Feliks Zemdegs from CubeSkills Posted 7 years ago
Baha - practicing something to improve your ability at it is generally a good idea, if that's your goal :p
Owen - Yes, definitely! I'll add this into the main post, it's quite important.
Harsh - to help you practice doing all 4 cross edges, give yourself unlimited inspection time for a little while. Also, make sure that you're not individually solving each cross edge into its position, because that would make it really difficult to plan the entire cross. Make sure that your cross solutions are efficient enough so that you are able to plan them entirely - I know that sounds a little bit like the chicken and the egg problem, but it's doable.
Pranav - I do want to eventually get 3BLD material up on this website, but probably in the longer term. Check out J Perm's tutorial if you want to learn 3BLD.
Pranav - I think they have similar potential.
Zigmund - Haha, I think many others were surprised by this as well! :p
Feliks
Ferry H Posted 7 years ago
Hey Felix, I dont know if this is the right place to ask this question, but I will ask it:
Do you plan making a timer on this site? Although there are already many timers online, a timer on this site could track improvement over a long time and would be a motivation. Maybe you could even add achievements and make a whole speedcubing network out of it :P Also a timer would fit this site really well :D
This is just a suggestion, didnt know where to post it else :P
Btw sorry for my bad english, have a nice day :D
Feliks Zemdegs from CubeSkills Posted 7 years ago
Hey Ferry,
Hmm, whilst I do agree that a timer would be really nice to have on this site, the reason it isn't a priority at the moment is probably because there are so many other timers out there, and many of those actually have the capability to track your improvement over a long period of time. Certainly something that would be cool to add in the future!
Feliks
Charbel Chalhoub Posted 7 years ago
Hi Felix I know how to solve one colour but not the whole thing
Revan Vishwakarma Posted 7 years ago
What about Lucas Etter? How is he so fast with single cross colour? (Is the answer very motivating?)
Feliks Zemdegs from CubeSkills Posted 7 years ago
Not really that motivating, he's just really fast! That's still very possible with only one cross colour.
Le quan Tran Posted 7 years ago
Hi feliks how to increase the achievement of 3 × 3
Richard Adams Posted 7 years ago
Hi feliks, would you be able to talk about your UWR 3.01 rubik's cube time? We're all really curious!
Austin Chuong Posted 7 years ago
Richard, he did talk about it in a podcast with Shawn from SpeedCubeReview. You can find it when you go about 25 min in! Basically he says it was an easy solve with a pll skip.
Liam Gerard Posted 7 years ago
Hey, Feliks. I was wondering if you could make a "General Comments" section, or something of the like. I feel it would be very helpful, and we would not need to post our ideas in the "Color Neutrality Part 2" section. It would also provide a way for us (everyone on the website) to communicate and put ideas out there that others might look over. This is not urgent, but it might be a good long term idea.Thanks for everything you have done for us!
Cheers!
Liam
Cole Erwin Posted 7 years ago
I am a CFOP user, I average around 20s flat. I traditionally solve on White Cross (Because I have been doing so for 6 years) [6 years is an astonishingly long time for my solve time now] {I got serious about speedcubing about 3 years ago} <which is still embarrassing> and I am really wanting to be able to hit a phase where i "get" how to solve 'properly' and I'm wondering if CN is the thing to do that. I have found that it is quite difficult to change colors (after white for so long) but all CN examples seem like they improve averages and skill/knowledge. I am color neutral on 2x2 and Pyraminx, but it seems near impossible to transition that onto 3x3, due to the F2L differences among the colors, as well as cross always ends up wrong. Sometimes my times are discouraging, because i know i should be doing better, but i find a lot of difficulty. Any ideas for a larger improvement? (CN or Not)
Liam Gerard Posted 7 years ago
For CN, I am not CN yet, but a big thing is to not time your CN solves, it will discourage you. I do not know when to switch to CN, because I go to competitions almost every month, so I do not have much time between them.
Feliks Zemdegs from CubeSkills Posted 7 years ago
Hey Liam - thanks for the suggestion! I think that something like this would be a useful addition, I just need to think about the best way to do it. At the moment, comments on blogs and videos are generally relevant to the specific content, and for other questions, I generally answer them via email. I'm not sure that I want to turn this site into something like a forum - I want to have it mainly focused on the content and tutorials. So, I do agree that this is something I want to add in the future, but I also want to maintain the simplicity of the site :)
Cole - 'getting' how to solve 'properly' is a bit ambiguous, and I don't really think that being colour neutral will have any significant impact on the way that you think about your solutions, apart from the fact that they'll be on a different colour. In a way, knowing that you can do better is probably a good thing, rather than thinking that your solves at the moment are at your maximum potential speed. I recommend checking out the practicing module as well as the original blog on colour neutrality, for more specific advice.
Cheers!
Feliks
Baha Shwaiki Posted 7 years ago
Hey Feliks,
What was your first color that u got used to, for example was it white like most people or from the time u began cubing u were CN?
Thank you.
Feliks Zemdegs from CubeSkills Posted 7 years ago
Hey Baha,
I think I switched to colour neutrality on my second day of cubing :)
Feliks
ZAp troic Posted 7 years ago
Hey Feliks, do you prefer Stickerless plastic or Black plastic? Btw could you include tutorials beyond 3x3, 4x4 and 5x5? Maybe something like 6x6 and 7x7?
Thank you.
Feruz Gulomov Posted 7 years ago
Hi Feliks, I have a question for you: I always solve from white or yellow, but when I start to solve from other colour, like orange, I can't find F2L pieces well. So, can you tell me some advices?
Thanks for answer!
Ferry H Posted 7 years ago
Feruz Gulomov
I have the same problem but I guess the only real answer to solve this problem is just practice. Just solve by starting from other sides and you may get used to it. Its the same thing when we all started speedcubing. We didnt knew at all for what to search, but now we know for our "main colours".
Mahor Nagda Posted 7 years ago
Hey feliks, i've heard you use reduction for 5 by 5 and yet win every competition, i use reduction too and i have reached a standstill at about 3 minutes and at best 2 minutes. should i switch to Yau, or should i continue reduction to get sub-1
also are there any algs you use to improves the efficiency of reduction, like any easy edge pairing algs or centre forming algs? if yes, then could you post a tutorial
Feliks Zemdegs from CubeSkills Posted 7 years ago
Mahor - general consensus is that Yau and reduction probably have similar potential for speedsolving. Check out all the tips and example solves here, they should be useful - https://www.cubeskills.com/categories/5x5
Sergio Rodríguez Posted 7 years ago
I love your blogs Feliks! They are so useful.
Feliks Zemdegs from CubeSkills Posted 7 years ago
Thanks for the kind words Sergio! :)
Felix Yu Posted 7 years ago
I have a question. How do you memorize all those F2L algorithms?
Mahrukh Zahoor Posted 7 years ago
Hey!
Do you think that having your prefered shades on your cube make a difference to your journey to becoming colour neutral?
Celine Tran Posted 7 years ago
Hi!
Great job on the blog, always a great read! I have been cubing for a couple of years, but just recently got into learning some new algorightms in addition to OLL and PLL. Are there any alg sets you consider more useful and worth learning, both time-consuming and actual usage in a speedsolve?
Would you also consider making more tutorials and videos for bigger cubes (555, 666, 777) in the future?
Celine
Feliks Zemdegs from CubeSkills Posted 7 years ago
Felix - You don't need to memorise F2L algorithms, learn it intuitively :) (Tutorials are in the F2L module)
Makrukh - Maybe slightly, if you struggle to distinguish colours.
Celine - Cheers! I recommend taking a look at winter variation and some easy VLS cases. COLL is also useful as a general skill, and for its applications in OH solving and big cubes. I have tutorials for 5x5 on the website, and I plan to do 6x6 and 7x7 ones eventually, but they are lower priority compared to other content. Solving the 6x6 and 7x7 after you know how to do the 5x5 is pretty straightforward, and Kevin has a bunch of great tips and tricks on this YouTube playlist, which I think is reasonably comprehensive.
Sean Fei Posted 7 years ago
Probably not the most related comment, but I'm still curious, what GES do you use for your SM? I know you used yellow for the UM, but the GES v2 nuts are very different from what I hear.
Feliks Zemdegs from CubeSkills Posted 7 years ago
I still use yellow on the SM :)
Gab Lambino Posted 7 years ago
Thanks Feliks for the tips and love the blog it helped me fast
D Tarun Karthik Posted 7 years ago
Hey Feliks,
Can you make a blog upon which is your main and backup cube for all the events?
Thanks.
Adhithya Jayabaskar Posted 7 years ago
Hi Feliks ,
In Your 4.75 Solve You Have mentioned That Hard-core Zeroing on the Last F2L Pair
•What Is Zeroing?
•At What Stage Should We Use It ?
•Will You Make a Tutorial For It?
•When did You Start Using
Zeroing ?
Feliks Please Answer My Questions
Eating For Your Answers ;)
Richard Adams Posted 7 years ago
Feliks Zemdegs, is there anything you can tell us about your 3.01 PB? e.g. Reaction, PLL or OLL skips, zeroing :P? I've seen it on your spreadsheet for a while... but I've never heard any elaboration from you or anyone else.
Thanks!
Saayan Prasad Posted 7 years ago
What spread sheet
Baha Shwaiki Posted 7 years ago
Lets say in 3x3 we can easily figure out the right order of the cross pieces relative to one another because we have fixed centers which means we dont need to memorize the color scheme, also most cubers use one or two colors when creating the first 2 centers in 4x4 using yau, which results in memorizing one color scheme and its opposite. However in 6x6 it is recommended to use CN if using reduction method, so does that mean i have to memorize the whole color scheme of the cube?
Thank you Feliks.
Feliks Zemdegs from CubeSkills Posted 7 years ago
Karthik - bit.ly/FAZPBS is your best bet for that info! :)
Adhitya - Zeroing is a joke :p It's not a real method.
Richard - It was at Worlds 2017, I was warming up next with Max and got a really easy solve with a PLL skip. I believe it was 36 moves in total :)
Baha - Yep, you'll need to memorise your scheme, but there are certainly ways to do this easily so that you can minimise active thinking in your solves. I do plan to make a video about how I think about my colour scheme when solving 6x6 centers.
Feliks
Mahor Nagda Posted 7 years ago
hey feliks, could you just tell me your n by n mains, also, recommenced which 5 by 5, 6 by 6 and 7 by 7 i should buy if my turn style in big cubes is very inaccurate and i use reduction in all there puzzles.
Also, your megaminx tutorial is incredible
Liam Gerard Posted 7 years ago
Mahor, All of his mains and PBs are on the site "Bit.ly/FAZPBS"
Liam
Simon Cummings Posted 7 years ago
Are you ever going to make any 7x7 beginner-advanced tutorials? If so, when?
Simon
Mahor Nagda Posted 7 years ago
thank you so much for the link, liam gerard
but, feliks i also wanted to know your inputs on my second question.
Mahor
Feliks Zemdegs from CubeSkills Posted 7 years ago
Simon - Next year :)
Stanley Wang Posted 7 years ago
Hey Feliks, as a sub-13 CN solver who knows full CFOP, I don't know what next steps I should take. I started VLS and know about 50 algorithms, however, seeing as you and many other top cubers don't use it, I don't know how much it'll help me. What should I do next to reach sub-12, and with what practices and/or techniques?
Thanks a bunch,
Stanley
Stanley Wang Posted 7 years ago
Another question, have you ever started a Cubing Club when you were in school? If so, do you have any tips on how to start one? I'm trying to, and I have just about all the necessary items, but I don't know how it'll go through the school year.
Thanks,
Stanley
Mahor Nagda Posted 7 years ago
Stenley, i am the head of my school cubing club. so, what i did is I had like 5-6 friends who were like average sub-40 cubers, and i was already sub-20 at that time. what we did is that we formulated an entire word document of our aims and policies and stuff of the cubing club. Then we all 7 approached our principal. She said she will have to take legal permission form the management. Then, in 2 weeks or so, our official cubing club started and we host competitions, group solving sessions and studff now.
oscar colqui Posted 7 years ago
hello feliks, well what I want to know if you can put subtitles in Spanish to your videos if it is within your possibilities, it would be very helpful for those who speaks hispanic
Choo Di Shen Posted 7 years ago
do color neurality will reduce the time more when using yau on 5x5 compare to reduction?
nathan agan Posted 7 years ago
hi feliks, can you post a video on how to inprove look ahead? I am sub 20 and I find myself not being able to complete cross during inspection most of the time and I end up pausing a lot while I am doing F2L.
Raman Kumar Posted 7 years ago
I think CN not effect only cross it also affect the further solve because sometime i find a 2x2x1 block of any other color than white. that may be useful if i am color neutral. express your views about this and please tell me how i start practicing for color neutrality. Some people say switch to a diff. color than white and then move to another color till you get comfortable with previous one. is this the correct way ...
please answer
Phillip Andrews Posted 7 years ago
Hey Feliks are you going to Sydney Champs 2017?
Cuberious The SpeedCuber Posted 7 years ago
Is it true that you, Feliks The Great, practiced slow turning so much that you eventually mastered reducing pauses and LookAhead?
As theorized in Skewby Doo's Youtube video: "What Makes Feliks So Fast?"
Shankar S Posted 7 years ago
It's true man, for everyone. No cuber should turn at their max tps unless they know what the next "thing" is. for ex: PLL or u know that this PLL occurs after this OLL, then spam tps
Shankar S Posted 7 years ago
Raman don't care about anything else. Just look at the scrambled cube and think which cross looks easy. Execute that cross until you're confident about it(u can do it even blindfolded) then track an edge/corner after that, again slowly. Time yourself between each major phase
Felix Yu Posted 7 years ago
Would you recommend learning OLL of Winter Variation?
Karl Adriel Romero Posted 7 years ago
How to be Sub 15??
Mahrukh Zahoor Posted 7 years ago
Hey again! I'm doing a school project and for my own experiment, I need to find the shortest possible algorithms for all the OLL and PLL cases. However, these algorithms don't have to be the most efficient. Do you recommend any websites where I can find a ton of algorithms other than cubeskills and cyotheking's website?
Thanks!
nathan agan Posted 7 years ago
Hey Feliks
i average 18.1 with my weilong gts2 while only using white cross, i don't think that i am going to be full colour neutral, but i also want to do crosses on yellow. Feliks do you think that i should switch between white and yellow if one color has a bad cross case?
Mahrukh Zahoor Posted 7 years ago
Thank you, Mano Segransan!
Shankar S Posted 7 years ago
nathan yes
Danish Adam Posted 6 years ago
Nice
Leo S Posted 6 years ago
Hey there!
I have been cubing for about 4 years now and my average is around 14 seconds with solves on the white cross. I allways wondered if its a good idea to start learning CN as it will take quite some time to actually become familiar with the different f2l collors. I obviously tried to do some CN solves but I got extremely confoused with f2l each time. So I stopped practicing as it was to hard. Would you say its allready too late for CN? Does anyone know how long it might take to become CN?
Thanks for advice :D
William Yang Posted 6 years ago
Leo S it is never too late to become CN it just the amount of commitment that it takes the shorter amount of time it takes the solve the cube
Jonathan Liu Posted 6 years ago
Hey Feliks,
I have been cubing for almost 2 years, and I am currently fully CN on small cubes (3x3-5x5), except for 4x4, where I use White & Yellow Cross (PB avg. ~54 secs). I have recently considered switching to full CN on the 4x4, so I decided to solve with blue & green cross (in addition to white & yellow) for a while, and add the remaining red & orange later on. Within about 15 solves with blue & green I was already averaging near my PB, so I was pretty confident about switching by then. However, after a few more solves, I noticed that building the cross edges and centers in order has been quite challenging, and my times have been fluctuating sometimes by 10 seconds or more. Since you are CN on the 6x6 (which means you'd know how to build the centers in the correct order), I was wondering if you have any tips for this?
Btw it was nice meeting you at WCCT Cupertino :)
Jonathan Liu Posted 6 years ago
In one of your (relatively) older videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBtzz_5JlS8), I remember seeing you do a really cool LSLL alg: R' D' R U' R' D R U' R' D' R U' R' D R U'. I had to slow the video down because I couldn't find the algorithm online. Where did you find/learn LSLL algs like this one, and what are your thoughts about learning these algs and using them in your solves (since they only pop up once in a while)?
William Yang Posted 6 years ago
I'm color neutral on all cubes and my recommendation is to solve the cross relative to the position of where everything else would be if you were solving on White or yellow. What I mean by this is that when solving say the red Cross I recommend you solve a white red Cross edge first and put it on the bottom from there you can sort of think of the cross as if you were solving the centers for white and place the cross edges in their proper place in this case green would go in the front and blue would go in the back for white it is the complete opposite so you can reverse it in your head and put green in the back and blue in the front eventually things will become easier and you will be able to do this subconsciously.
Silas Lickliter Posted 6 years ago
I can only do white or yellow no matter how much I practice.
bob bill Posted 4 years ago
I became color-neutral today.
I am being 100% honest in saying that I became color neutral in one day.
I was practicing slow solves to improve lookahead and I decided to try doing solves on every color.
After only about 10 or 15 solves I was solving all sides fluently and about without making mistakes.
I'm not averaging the exact same speed using all color neutral but I can fluently solve the cube on every color now. I have no idea how this happened and I am not saying that it will work for other people but that is what happened.
I hope I will be able to solve color-neutral tomorrow too
bob bill Posted 4 years ago
I consider this to be a cubing miracle
Lucas Begala Posted 4 years ago
nice
Lucas Begala Posted 4 years ago
u became color neutral really fast
bob bill Posted 4 years ago
yeah, i am not normally color nuetral then i decided to try it and boom, then i was
Jamie A Posted 4 years ago
It took me like 2 weeks
and my average is still 2 seconds slower
A SpeedCuber Posted 4 years ago
It took me about 3 days
Tanush K P Posted 4 years ago
I'm not even colour neutral!
Speed Cuber Posted 3 years ago
Colour Neutrality took me about a week to get better.
Eli Carr Posted 3 years ago
I don't think CN is for me. Not even yellow cross. (btw I'm a white cross solver)
bob bill Posted 3 years ago
I had been solving white cross for years before a tried to switch to color neutral and it took MONTHS. I suggest you become color neutral ASAP because you will regret it later
Akash Sreedharan Posted 3 years ago
how fast were you when you became cn?
for me i was white only until 2-3 months, then i became full cn. i averaged 25-30 at that point(now i average 9-10)
bob bill Posted 3 years ago
I averaged 25-30 now I average sub 20
Keith Reed Posted 1 year ago
Color neutral is alot easier then you think. For me it's just doing the same moves. Slow down and look at what you know and trust your instincts
bryce wootton Posted 1 year ago
sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood