Macky left me some advice in my xanga that everyone says but I've never
listened to until today:

GO SLOW!

Average: 22.26 seconds
Individual Times: 19.66, 19.66, 24.62, (24.74), 23.05, 22.20, (19.58),
24.56, 21.61, 22.01, 21.06, 24.16

Yeah... that was awesome. Every single time above 23 I know exactly
where I made the mistake. And the funny part is, I'm going so slow on
the F2L. Thanks everyone!

Tyson Mao
MSC #631
California Institute of Technology

On Aug 10, 2004, at 6:11 PM, cmhardw wrote:

> Hey Tyson,
>
> I was actually stuck at a slump right around where you are right
> now, except I was stuck there for about 2 years :)
>
> I seriously doubt you'll stay stuck there for that long though lol. 
> Anyway I noticed something in high school when I taught a lot of
> people who were pretty near the speed you're at.  Almost all of them
> rushed the cross like craaaaaaaaaazy.  Next time you do a solve,
> just relax and try to solve like you normally do.  Look for how
> quickly you turn the faces when solving the cross (full speed, near
> full speed, etc..) and also mentally time the delay between solving
> the cross and starting the moves for the first pair.
>
> The reason I mention that, when I was in my slump I always rushed
> the cross like I absolutely HAD to get it done in 2-3 seconds no
> matter what.  This of course always resulted in a huge delay in
> trying to find the first pair which totally threw off my rhythm.
>
> Now what I do is solve the cross as slowly as I can and spend all of
> my mental effort on trying to find the first corner/edge pair.  I
> seriously do at most 2 turns per second when solving the cross. 
> Even recently I've had solves where I did a terrible cross (8-9
> moves) at a slow speed but was able to find a good rhythm and speed
> up during the F2L and still get a 16-17 second solve.
>
> Personally going extra slow on the cross like that helps me to
> slowly speed up and build a steady rhythm during the F2L.
>
> Of course there are lots of different styles when solving.  At the
> US competition it looked to me like Macky was finger tricking the
> cross at full speed, and still there seemed to be no delay for him
> in finding the first c/e pair.  I would say just try experimenting
> and finding your "style".  Do you prefer finger turns over wrist
> turns most of the time, sometimes, only in certain cases, hardly
> ever?  You've probably reached the limit of just using raw twisting
> speed, now try to find out how your brain works and what style of
> solving (style not solving method) that you prefer.
>
> I may not be the best person to consult here since it took me so
> long to get over the hump you're at right now, but here are my two
> cents anyway.
>
> Chris
>