adventures in cubing

After a brief hitaus from learning new algorithms, I posted over the weekend about learning Y Perm (and its two constituent OLLs). Feeling emboldened, I ventured into V Perm this week.  According to smart people, 1/18 of solves should see a V Perm.  Maybe something about my F2L technique puts a thumb on the V Perm scale, but I feel like I see it at least every 6 or 7 solves.

In any event, I learned it.  It was hard.  About as hard as I expected.  And I’m still slow at it.  But it works.  Here’s a quickie video showing me clunk through it:

Part of the challenge I had (and still have) is finding the proper grips to keep the algorithm flowing smoothly. There are loads of common algorithms to choose from, but this one boiled to the top for me:

(R’ U R’ d’) (R’ F’) ([R2 U’] R’ U) (R’ F R F)

The main issue was figuring out the (R’ F’), since my right hand is already cocked back from the two R’s. So, I swapped the R’ for a Lw’, allowing me to keep my right hand still and move the left. That required a couple corresponding changes, resulting in:

(R’ U R’ d’) (Lw’ U’) ([Lw R] U’ R’ U) (R’ F R F)

At five seconds, this is not a very fast permutation for me right now. Still, it’s faster than the alternative three-look (two A Perms followed by a U Perm).

Getting there….