double flick

eliminating U2’

Adventures in Cubing1 Comment

Over the past month or so, I’ve been trying to eliminate U2’ from most algorithms that call for a double-U turn. When I first began cubing, I realized the exact equivalence between a U2 and a U2’ in terms of the position of the cubies. What I didn’t realize was that U2’, in most cases, is more awkward than U2 and often leaves hand/finger positions incompatible with more efficient finger tricks. Also, now that I do double-U flicks with my right hand (while struggling to do double U’ flicks with my left), it’s just a lot slower to do U2’.

This video (and the chart below it) shows that I’ve replaced U2’ in most algorithms, but have purposely left it as U2’ in a couple others:

(cube: Dayan Zhanchi w/ Cube Specialists fitted bright+ stickers)

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Double M’ Flicks

Adventures in Cubing3 Comments

I’ve been working on double (ring-to-middle finger) M’ flicks for H Perm, rather than the paired single (ring finger) flicks that I’m used to. This wasn’t so much about speed as smoothness; at about 2.2 seconds, H is already one of my fastest PLLs. But I did pick up speed. With just a few minutes of practice, I got H Perm down to about 1.75 seconds. Here’s a quick video (my first edited in Final Cut Pro X), showing both approaches.

(music: “Cissy Strut” by The Meters)

Transferring this to Z Perm is going to take some work. It’s easy in H Perm to just go double-double-double-double. Much harder in Z Perm to go double-double-single-double-single. Working on it, though. More helpful, still, would be double U flicks. I’ve been having a hard time with those (these stumpy fingers of mine!). Maybe I’ll get the smaller 55mm Zhanchi to try to work on mechanics.

As for the Camcuber Zhanchi popping montage at the end: That might have been a little too (indirectly) critical of a cube that I’ve come to like even more since reviewing it last week. More than anything, I was just surprised to have so many pops on it — especially since I almost never pop a Zhanchi. I suppose I was pretty rough on it when I was learning the double-flicks….