How to become a Speedcuber [New!]

Hello! This is a video that introduces people to the quickly growing world of speedcubing. You are an ideal viewer if you have just recently finished learning how you can solve the Rubik's Cube and you want to know how you can get faster. Now, before we begin, just a quick note: some of you may know that I have already made a video just like this. It is called "How to Become a Speedcuber," but that video was made more than a year and a half ago, and I believe it to be a little outdated. So this is hopefully a little better remake of that. Okay, so the most basic method that is taught to all newbies is what we refer to as the Beginner's Method. There are several variations of it all over the internet, so every one of you probably has a little different way of doing it, but they all have the same basic steps. You are usually first asked to create a cross, usually on the white side by convention. Then you are asked to put in these 4 corners to complete the first layer. Then you are asked to put in these 4 middle edges to complete the first 2 layers, and then you work on the last layer in several stages. First you do the orientation and then the permutation, and the orientation and permutation are each done in 2 separate stages as well for the edges and the corners separately. So first you orient all the edges like here, all of them are made yellow on top. Then you orient all the corners and make them yellow on top. And then you work with the sides. So first you do the edge permutation, as you can see it's finished here because all the edges align, and of course once you do the corner permutation you are left with the solved cube. So hopefully you already know all of this. If your beginner's method has completely different stages, you can check out my beginner's method tutorial, which is designed to make the transition into the speedcubing method very easy, and it uses these steps. Now, the most popular speedcubing method is called the Fridrich method, and it is used by almost all the best speedcubers in the world. There exist other methods of speedcubing, such as the Petrus method, or the Roux method, or the ZZ method, but these are very rarely used in actual competitions. So your ultimate goal here is to learn the full Fridrich method. Now, the reason that the Fridrich method is faster is simply that it takes several of these steps here and joins them into a single step. So first you do the cross, that is unchanged, But putting in the corners and the edges in the middle is joined into a single step called the Fridrich F2L. The orientation of the edges and corners is done at the same time, and it is just called the orientation step. And the permutation of the edges and corners is also done with a single step called the permutation. So you are only really left with 4 steps here. Now, this means that you have fewer steps, but for each step you have more algorithms to learn because you can simply run into more cases. But moving to the full Fridrich method will be done in smaller stages so that you don't get overwhelmed with new algorithms, and I will now describe the process. Your first step after getting comfortable with the beginner's method is to learn what we call the Fridrich F2L. It is a method of finishing the first two layers of the cube right after you complete the cross, and it is completely intuitive, which means that there are no algorithms that you have to learn for it. You just have to understand how it works and then practice it a lot. So I'll give you a demonstration. In Beginner's Method, you would put in the 4 corners here in the first layer, and then these 4 middle edges to complete the first 2 layers. In Efritjof F2L, you put in the corner and edge pairs together into every one of these 4 slots to finish the first 2 layers. So I'll illustrate by solving the blue-red slot. The corner and the edge are here. So I fill the slot. Then we have the orange-blue, orange-blue. I would fill the slot. And then we have these two, and finally we have orange-green slot has to be solved like that. So I finished the first two layers. Now, I have two very popular tutorials on how this method works, and I will post links to these videos in the video description. Also, many people complain to me right after they learn F2L that they actually get slower compared to the Beginner's Method. This happens to almost everyone and it is perfectly normal. Your times will at first get worse, but as you become more efficient with this method, it will eventually make you much, much faster. So don't give up. Now, once you have a good grasp on the F2L, you should start making your last layer faster. The first thing that you should learn is what we call the 2-look OLL. The OLL stands for Orientation of the Last Layer. Now this is a method that solves the entire orientation of the cube in 2 steps, or 2 looks. So this comes in right after you finish the F2L. In the first look, you take a look and you fix all of the edges usually. So I orient all of the edges, and then I take my second look and I solve the entire orientation of all corners using just a single algorithm. And once all the edges are oriented, there are only 7 cases that you can run into. And you will have to memorize all of their solutions. So this is one of the cases, it's called the chameleon, and the solution is that. So the orientation is finished. Now, similar to the 2-look OLL, there's also what we call the 2-look PLL, where PLL stands for permutation of the last layer, and that is what you should learn next. The method basically ensures that you can always solve the entire permutation of the cube using only 2 algorithms, or 2 looks. So usually after the first look, you do all the corners, and then you're going to run into a case and you have your second look and you solve usually all the edges. So there are only like 3 or 4 algorithms that you have to learn, and I can solve it that way. So I am posting links into the video description for videos covering both the 2-look OLL and the 2-look PLL in much more detail. The next step will be to learn full PLL. That means that you can solve the entire permutation in only a single step. Now there's a total of 21 cases that you can run into at this point, but you know how to solve 4 of them from the Beginner's Method and about 3 more from the 2-look PLL. So at this point you will only have to learn roughly 14 new algorithms. But it's actually not even that bad because many of the algorithms look extremely similar or are very, very easy to learn, and I'm including a link to a video that shows you how easily you can learn most of them. So instead of doing the corners and the edges separately, you just apply a single algorithm to solve this. While you're learning all the PLLs, you can start looking into some advanced F2L techniques. I can't demonstrate anything in specific because these techniques are really just a big collection of small tips that all put together can make a difference. For example, it turns out that some of the F2L cases have non-intuitive solutions that are much faster to execute than what you would do normally. So most of us actually end up learning a small number of algorithms, even for the F2L. So keep that in mind. Again, check the links for more info. And finally, the last thing you should learn to achieve the full Fridrich method is the full OLL. That means that you do the entire orientation in just a single algorithm. Now there are about 57 cases in total, but you know about 15 already, and the exact same thing applies here as well. Most of the remainder is actually very easy to learn, so do not be discouraged by the high number. I have naturally made videos on this as well, and the links are in the video description. So to illustrate, instead of doing the edges first and then orienting the corners, you just do the whole thing in a single algorithm. So at this point you know the entire Fridrich method and you will be averaging roughly 25 seconds. Now to get below 20 seconds and beyond All you have to do is practice the speed of execution, all the PLL OLL cases, as well as get much better in F2L. And now I think I can start talking about everything else that can help you on this journey. First and most importantly, if you are serious about becoming faster, you should definitely consider purchasing one of the special cubes that are meant for speedcubing. These cubes are called the DIY cubes, or the do-it-yourself cubes. And they cannot be purchased in regular stores. They must be ordered through the internet. They cost roughly $7 each plus shipping, which can be anywhere up to $20 based on where you live. The cubes I use are called the Cube4u Type A. Another popular speedcube is the Rubik's DIY, and I'm posting links to these in the video description. The main difference with the DIYs is that they are much easier to turn, and they can also stretch to some degree, and they cut corners very well as a result. Also, you can pop the centers off like I did with this one, and you can adjust the tension on the cube with a screwdriver. There's a small screw in there, so that can come in handy to, you know, tune in your cube. In addition, you should be lubricating your cubes to make them even faster. The lubricant I use is called Jigaloo. But people use all kinds of things, and there's a lot of dispute on what lubricant is best. If you don't want to purchase lubricant like this, you can also use stuff like vegetable oil. I think that worked for me once, it's better than nothing. In any case, a well-lubricated cube will do wonders to your solving times. The way you do this is you do a 45-degree turn so that you can pop an edge out, and then you can just take the lubricant and spray some in there. Pop the edge back and do this to like 6 edges all over the cube and then work it in for like 2 minutes or something like that. Then let it stand for an hour or something like that and when you come back the cube should be much smoother. It will make a lot of difference. And lastly, here are some links that I think you will find useful. First, here's a timer that I use to record my times. It is located at cubetimer.com. And this is how it works. It gives you a scramble sequence right here. These are the moves that you apply to a solved cube to scramble it. The computer generates these scrambles to ensure that you always get a random cube. We usually don't trust ourselves to scramble our own cubes because humans are very bad at being random, and you may be giving yourself cases that you have already solved before, stuff like that. So basically, you apply the scramble, then you hit space, you solve the cube, space again, and it's going to record the time here. Now my times here are filled because I did an average of 100 some time ago. So these were my times and it also shows you the average. Next we have the speedcubing forums located at speedsolving.com. The community is made up of a very large number of people that discuss speedcubing in all of its forms, so there are sections, as you can see, for beginners, speedcubing puzzle theory, Blindfold cubing, hardware area, which is for cubes, how you can mod them, make them faster, all kinds of stuff. So do check it out. This is also a place where you can ask questions, but keep in mind that a large majority of questions were already asked and answered on this forum. So please, please, please, if you have a specific question, first try to use the search feature right here to make sure that your question was not already answered before. A quick mention also goes to the SpeedSolving wiki page located at speedsolving.com/wiki. So this is a wiki page, so everyone can edit this if you just create an account. So we all sort of collaborate to create this body of knowledge, and it has some very useful information. For example, here we have the frequently asked questions that you can check out, or here we have types of cubes and other puzzles. So these are all the cubes that you can buy online, and people write short reviews on how good or bad they are. And we have some other useful information here, and of course you can help us add to this information if you just create an account. Next, we have the very important website of the World Cube Association, or the WCA. This is basically the organization that holds all of the official speedcubing competitions. So here they have a news section, but I think the most important part is here, competitions. This lists all the competitions that are going to happen in the future and that have happened in the past. And you can see all the dates and the locations for every competition, and you can click on every one of them to get more information about it. I encourage you to attend these competitions even if you are not that good. There are many people in these competitions that are just as bad as you, or maybe even worse. I've seen people that average even 2 minutes or more. The most important part is that you will meet other speedcubers, exchange tips, tricks, talk about speedcubing, and just have a good time. Another interesting part of the website is Persons, where you can search up every speedcuber and see his or her official times. So for example, let's look up Joel, Joel van Noord from Netherlands, one of the best speedcubers, and you can see all of his times in all of the competitions that he participated in. Now, if you are from Canada, there is a more targeted website for you called CanadianCubing.com, so do check that out. And if you are from USA, there's also a website for you called cubingusa.com. So here are all the upcoming competitions only in USA. So if you live in any other country, then there may be a website for you as well, but I do not know them. And with that, I would like to conclude this video. I hope that you continue speedcubing, get involved with the community in the forums, and most importantly, attend a competition when one happens close to you. Those are always a lot of fun, and we would love to see the community grow. So happy cubing, and bye-bye. In addition, you should be lubricating your cubes to make them even faster and smoother to turn. To turn. To turn. To turn. Frick.