Training: a plan that improves your times
Split practice between full solves, stage drills and algorithm work, and let the numbers pick the next focus.
Find where the time goes
A solve is a chain of stages, and each has its own cost: inspection and the first stage, the pairs or blocks, recognition of the last-layer cases and their execution. Solve with a smart cube or review recordings, and compare stage splits rather than totals. The stage that costs most against your own average is the next focus, not the stage that feels weakest.
Balance a session
- •Full solves keep everything connected: they are where lookahead and transitions are practised under real conditions.
- •Stage drills isolate a weakness. The guided solve's stage starts give endless fresh starts of the stage you are working on.
- •Algorithm work adds and polishes cases. Drill a set on the solve desk, then let spaced review bring each case back just before you would forget it.
- •Slow solves at a pace where you never stop to search train lookahead better than fast ones.
Learn algorithms in small batches
Pick a handful of cases from the same group, learn their recognition and fingering, and drill them until recall is reliable before adding more. Mixing new cases into full solves early is what makes them stick; a case known only from a drill is often missed in a real solve.
Measure, then change things separately
Track averages over many solves, not individual results. When you change a fingering, a method step or the puzzle's setup, change only that, and compare averages before and after.
Training: a plan that improves your times: the whole walkthrough
Find where the time goes
Balance a session
Learn algorithms in small batches
Measure, then change things separately
All systems