How to Analyze Your Solves and Find Areas for Improvement

Why Self-Analysis Matters

The difference between cubers who improve steadily and those who plateau is often not practice volume but practice intelligence. Self-analysis — systematically reviewing your solves to identify specific weaknesses — allows you to direct your practice time toward the areas with the highest improvement potential. Without analysis, you're practicing blindly, reinforcing both good habits and bad.

Top speedcubers regularly review their solves, sometimes frame-by-frame from video recordings. They identify inefficient F2L solutions, slow transitions, recognition delays, and unnecessary rotations. Each identified weakness becomes a targeted practice item, creating a feedback loop of continuous improvement.

Method 1: Split Timing

Split timing divides your solve time into individual phase timings. Most advanced timer applications (csTimer, Twisty Timer) support manual or automatic split recording. Record your splits for 20-30 solves and calculate averages for each phase:

• Cross: Time from timer start to cross completion
• F2L: Time from cross to last F2L pair completion
• OLL: Time from F2L to OLL completion
• PLL + AUF: Time from OLL to solve completion

Compare your phase averages to the targets for your skill level. If your F2L averages 8 seconds but your target is 6 seconds, F2L is your priority improvement area. If your PLL averages 3 seconds but your target is 2 seconds, your PLL needs work.

Method 2: Video Recording

Record 5-10 solves using your phone camera positioned to see both your hands and the cube faces. Review the footage and look for:

• Pauses: Moments where your hands stop moving. Note when they occur (between F2L pairs? before OLL?) and how long they last.
• Rotations: Count whole-cube rotations per solve. More than 2 in a sub-15 solve indicates room for improvement.
• Regrips: Moments where you reposition the cube in your hands. Frequent regrips suggest suboptimal algorithm choices or grip technique issues.
• Recognition delays: Visible hesitation before OLL or PLL execution indicates slow case recognition.

Method 3: Reconstruction Analysis

A reconstruction is a move-by-move record of your entire solve. Smart cubes (GAN i-series, GoCube, Rubik's Connected) automatically record move sequences that can be analyzed later. Without a smart cube, you can manually reconstruct solves by solving along with a video recording and noting each move.

Reconstruction reveals:

• Move count: How many total moves did you use? Efficient sub-15 solves average 50-55 moves. If yours average 60+, your solutions are suboptimal.
• Movecount per pair: Each F2L pair should average 8-9 moves. If any pair regularly takes 12+ moves, you're using inefficient solutions for those cases.
• Algorithm choices: Are you using the fastest algorithms for your OLL/PLL cases? Some algorithms have faster alternatives that you might not know.

Method 4: Weakness Journaling

Keep a simple journal (physical or digital) where you note specific issues after each practice session:

"Sept 15: My F2L pair 3 consistently takes too long because I always rotate to see back-right slot. Need to learn back-slot insertions."

"Sept 18: OLL case 36 (W-shape) consistently takes 3+ seconds. Recognition is fine but execution is awkward. Need to try alternative algorithm."

Review your journal weekly to identify recurring themes. If the same weakness appears multiple times, it's your highest-priority improvement target.

Creating an Improvement Action Plan

After analysis, create a concrete action plan:

1. Rank your identified weaknesses by impact (how many seconds would fixing this save?)
2. Choose the top 1-2 weaknesses to address this week
3. Design specific drills for each weakness
4. Allocate 15 minutes per practice session to the targeted drills
5. Re-measure after one week to verify improvement
6. Move to the next weakness once the current one reaches your target

This systematic approach ensures that your limited practice time produces maximum improvement. Unfocused practice might be enjoyable, but focused, analysis-driven practice gets results.