How to get faster at Speed Cubing
This guide has been written with the intention of helping cubers of all ages and abilities reduce their solving times of the standard 3x3 cube. There are many different factors that will contribute to reducing your times, of course, we will go over these one by one and also be on hand to provide any additional help via email at support@kewbz.co.uk.
How does this guide work?
We will focus on different time brackets and give you the best advice for each bracket to hopefully help you get into the next bracket (and so on). It's super important to spend time reading each step and really pushing yourself to do better, remember, practise is key.
Main Factors to consider for any speed cubers
Okay, so before you start to think you’re never going to get quicker, you need to make sure you have decent hardware. If you're new to speed cubing (or cubing as a whole) you may think that a cube is a cube, well, this definitely is not the case. There are so many different brands of cubes floating around the web these days, which one works best for you will be down to personal preference. We can’t say purchase this or purchase that as everybody has different turning styles and different likes/dislikes. However, we can give some great recommendations based on our own knowledge of the cubing world.
The Following cubes are a great starting point for those beginners cubers looking to get decent hardware from the get go.
Now you’ve hopefully got a decent cube, the next thing to start looking into is cube lube. This may seem weird and alien to most non-cubers or beginners but this is another major factor of decreasing your times. There are again, plenty of different lubricants specifically manufactured for speed cubing. Some of these are silicone based and some are water based, which you prefer is definitely down to preference again. However, much like the cubes above, we are able to offer some great advice which may help you make that all important decision.
So, now we’ve spoken about Cubes and Lubes the next step is going to be method. What method are you using? There are so many methods out there to solving the 3x3 it's nearly impossible to tell which one you should be using. We would probably all agree that the ‘Beginners’ method is the best one to start on, but you're not reading this because you want to learn, you’re reading this to get faster at solving it.
Beginners Method
We would recommend starting on this method and maybe start to think about switching or trying a new method when you get to around the 40-50 second mark. Until then this is probably a good method to be using.
CFOP Method
You can start learning the CFOP method at any point but we wouldn’t really recommend it until your fully confident In solving your cube in less than 40-50 seconds as their isn’t much difference between the beginners method and the CFOP method.
Roux Method
Roux is all about block building and using the middle slice to swap pieces around (a bit of a buffer slice, if you will). Many speed cubers also use this method but it’s not as widely used as the CFOP method (especially with beginners).
There are plenty more methods but many of them are simply adaptations and extensions of the ones listed above. Now that we have looked at Methods, Lubes and Cubes, let's look at what you can do, to improve. Simply select the time bracket you fall into below and work through the tips and tricks inside.
1:30 to 2:00
Solves
1:00 to 1:30
Solves
50s to 1:00
Solves
40s to 50s
Solves
30s to 40s
Solves