Finger tricks

A finger trick is a turn made by one finger moving while the rest of the hand holds the cube still. That is the whole idea, and it is why a solver who looks like they are barely moving is turning four times a second.

The alternative is a regrip: letting go, taking hold of the cube somewhere else, and carrying on. A regrip costs about as much as two turns and it breaks your grip on the cube at the moment your eyes are busy elsewhere.

The ones everybody ends up with

• U with the left index finger, which carries the front of the top layer to the left; U' with the right index finger, carrying it back the other way. Neither hand lets go of the cube. Left-handers often swap these and it makes no difference.
• U2 as two pushes of the same finger, one after the other — a double flick — rather than one big shove.
• R and R' from the wrist. The right hand rolls; the fingers do not reach round. The left hand holds the cube still throughout.
• F and F' from the left thumb and index finger on the front face, so the right hand can stay where it is for the turn after.
• M and M' pulled with the fingers of the left hand on the middle column. Awkward for a week, then invisible.
• Wide turns like Rw with the same motion as R, with one more finger on the cube.

Triggers

Your hands do not learn algorithms. They learn triggers — short groups of turns that come out as a single motion — and an algorithm is a handful of triggers strung together. Once you have the triggers, a new algorithm made of familiar ones takes a few minutes rather than a few days.

• R U R' U' — the sexy move. You have been doing this since your first solve.
• R U R' — the F2L insertion, and the first half of half the algorithms you know.
• R' F R F' — sometimes called the sledgehammer, and its reverse F R' F' R the hedge.
• R U R' U R U2 R' — sune, which is a trigger in its own right by the time you have done it a thousand times.

Learning an algorithm properly

1. Work out the fingers before the speed. Run it at one turn a second and decide which finger makes each turn.
2. Find the regrips. If there are more than one, look for another version of the same algorithm.
3. Do it thirty times slowly with the same fingers every time. Slowly means slowly.
4. Only then speed it up, and stop the moment it stops being the same motion.
5. Come back to it tomorrow. Fingers learn overnight in a way they do not learn in a long sitting.

None of this is worth doing before the lookahead work. Fast hands attached to slow eyes produce the same solve time and more mistakes. Fingers are the polish; sort the pauses first.