Tips and Practice Techniques

Many of these were introduced to me on Japan Speed Cubing Club and the Yahoo! speedcubing forums.

Buy/Make/Maintain a Good Speedcube

For durable stickers, I recommend Cubesmith. Serious speedcubers should learn to create and maintain a speedcube that best fits his solving style. Experiment with several top cubes (see speedcubes.net), different screw tensions, and different lubricants (silicone spray of various brands (Tempo, SNAP, CRC, Jig-a-Loo), shock oil of various weights, etc). WD-40 quickly wears out the plastic; good speedcubes should not need it. (Leaving WD-40 on a very tight cube for a few days may make it tolerable, but it would never become a good speedcube.) Disassemble and clean out the dust inside the cube once in a while. Gilles Roux has a helpful guide on lubrication with pictures. With some brands of silicone spray, it can help to completely disassemble the cube, remove excess lubricant with paper towels, and blow-dry.

Exactly how much to lubricate is each speedcuber's choice. Very lubricated cubes will allow faster execution for last layer while less lubricated (but smooth) cubes can help looking ahead during F2L. It's also a good idea for competitions to use a cube that almost never POPs.

I lube my cube every three months or so and usually about two weeks before any competition. From that point, I play with each lubed cube to make sure that the lubricant sinks in and the cube is not too slippery. Although slippery cubes let you turn more moves per second, you are more likely to lose control and make them lock up than with a less-lubricated one. For loss of just a bit of speed, you can gain a lot of accuracy and look ahead much more easily, which is very important.

Preinspection - Cross

Learn your color scheme by heart. From the center colors of any two adjacent sides, you should be able to immediately tell the colors of the other sides.
Taking as much time as needed for each scramble, form the cross in 7 or less moves. You should be able to do this over 99% of the time.
Repeat 2, but solve the cross blindfolded. Practice until there are no mistakes.
Repeat 2, gradually decreasing the inspection time until you can always read the cross in 15 seconds. Once you get faster, you don't need to always follow the 7-move rule. Some solutions will be slightly longer but easier to execute.
The transition from cross to F2L is important! This is where even fast cubers have to stop most often ("cube amnesia").
Slow down during the cross to prepare for the first corner-edge pair of F2L. You may want to avoid using finger tricks for the cross to help look ahead.
Solve without preinspection. This forces you to slow down and lets you move from cross to F2L more smoothly.
Form the cross in such a way that, when it is completed, it ends up where you want it during F2L. This eliminates a cube turn before F2L and also helps the transition. (There are a few top speedcubers who do not do this.)

F2L

Before you even start learning F2L, read this page.
If you've just started learning, try to make sense of each "algorithm" and group similar algorithms together. Not only will this help with memorization, but also an intuitive understanding of F2L is essential for looking ahead and using advanced tricks.
Reduce regripping as much as possible. This requires, among other things, being able to perform each "algorithm" from every direction.
Find your perfect style. Some like to keep the centers fixed; others use a lot of double layer turns and tilts (this is what I do). Watch speedcubing videos and learn how fast cubers handle F2L.
OK, here's the best speedcubing advice anyone can ever give you: GO SLOW, and LOOK AHEAD.

GO SLOW, and LOOK AHEAD!

GO SLOW

and LOOK AHEAD!!!

This is a good technique for practicing to look ahead. Using a metronome, restrict yourself to doing a fixed number of moves every second. 2 tps (turns per second) should keep you busy for a while. For a sub-20 average, you should aim for 3 tps. In reality, people cube faster than they can manage on a metronome, but even then, you should learn to do 3 tps comfortably. If you have trouble keeping yourself back, use a cube with less lubrication. 3 tps is very manageable with a metronome and should be enough for a solid sub-20.
Once in a while, try going as fast as possible while still looking ahead. This SHOULD feel very frantic, but it helps to get used to that speed.
It's very difficult to anticipate the OLL effectively. Finish the final pair as fast as possible. You will need to stop to recognize the OLL anyway.

OLL

Learn to recognize every case from only 2 sides.
For the easier cases, learn to solve from all directions.
Don't rush. You still have one more step.
Try to use algorithms that end with the last layer on top so that there is no need for whole cube turn in the transition to PLL.
Learn some COLL. Use only the ones you can execute quickly.
Time yourself doing all 57 algorithms in a row. Get faster.
Last layer is just recognition and fast execution...practice, practice, practice!

PLL

Watch videos of fast cubers and imitate. PLL execution videos are great for this; check out Yu Nakajima's. You can use download YouTube videos with this tool and slow it down using VLC media player.
Again, learn to recognize all patterns from only 2 sides. (This is something I should work on myself.)
Again, for the easier patterns, learn to solve from all directions.
As you're making those last turns, be thinking about putting down the cube and stopping the timer. Take this into consideration when choosing algorithms.
Time yourself doing all 21 algorithms in a row. Get faster.
Periodically check the Yahoo! group for better PLL algorithms. Use ACube to try to find better algorithms.

Overall

Videotape yourself and compare your solve with that of fast cubers.
For inspiration, talk to fast cubers online. Better yet, live close to a fast cuber. =)
Learn other aspects of the cube other than speedcubing - cube math, blindfold cubing, FMC, etc.
Take every chance you get to cube under pressure.
Participate in online contests.
Experiment starting with block methods like Petrus and Roux. The point is to have a good variety of opening strategies to handle special cases. Opposite cross is also worth a try.
I heard this one from Ron: have one scrambling algorithm and its full solution using your normal method memorized. You can see how nervous you are by comparing your time with your average for the scramble.

Theoretical Average

Theoretical average is the sum of average times for the individual steps: cross, 4 F2L pairs, OLL, and PLL for Fridrich. You are allowed inspection before each of these 7 steps. Your theoretical average more or less represents your potential if you look ahead 100% and never stop. If your theoretical average is much lower than your actual average, you're wasting a lot of time looking for pieces during F2L. For instance, my theoretical average is only about 1 sec faster than my actual average. This time difference mostly comes from recognition time for OLL and PLL, which can't be cut down too much.

Special Thanks

I have to thank everyone in the cubing community, especially Katsuyuki Konishi, Masayuki Akimoto, and Suehiro Kondo for helpful advices on the JSCC forum. Much thanks also go to Ron van Bruchem, Lars Vandenbergh, Thomas Templier, David Wesley, Chris Hardwick, and Jessica Fridrich for their inspiration. Tyson Mao also deserves a massive thanks for organizing his fantastic competitions. I couldn't have come this far in the world of speecubing without you all!