Cubing

Why you should cube with your right hand

For you rising speedcubers, I will now try to convince you to cube one-handed with your right hand.

I am unusual among speedcubers in that I am absolutely terrible at normal speedsolving (14 seconds) but quite good at One-Handed (18 seconds). Among the one-hand bandits out there, I am even more unusual in that I solve with my right hand. I only know of a few other right-handers, and it has always confused me why there aren’t more of us.

Yes, like the general population, most cubers are right handed. Thus, we typically learn to solve two-handed first, usually gripping the left and middle with our left hands and flying around doing turns with wrist flicks and triggers with our right hands. By the time we decide to transfer to OH, our algorithm library mostly uses {R,U}, and it just looks and feels more natural to be turning the same faces of the cube. Additionally, while training 2H, our OH will also reap the benefits of any improvements. However, the advantages seem to end there. Your right hand is probably substantially stronger and better coordinated from handwriting, from daily use, and from natural physiology. Why waste that advantage?

The strategy for OH is quite distinct from 2H, as you focus to turn only {R, U, L}, while many 2H strategies and algorithms involve {F, B}. Using another hand for turns and cube rotations will enable you to also develop new habits to accommodate these differences. If you’re finding it hard to break old habits, you can hold your cube to the right of your body, U and L look more like R and U, so you can still mimic your old algorithms when starting. Most F2L insertions will involve things like R U R’, R U2 R’, and R U’ R’, and (for me, at least) it’s actually easier to execute the less predictable U moves with your pinky and ring fingers and leave the R and R’, which are easier to perform naturally with the less nimble index finger.

All of that pertains to CFOP, which is probably what you use. If you really want to learn a completely distinct method for OH, learn the ZZ method, which is virtually perfect for OH. Seriously, ZZ is awesome for OH. after the setup EOLine step (comparable to the cross), you can complete the entire F2L with just {R, U, L}, and have the LL edges already oriented. This can lead into COLL (~40 algorithms solving corners while retaining edge orientation) and reduce PLL to just the 4 edge-only cases (EPLL), which are the best for OH. Here are a written tutorial and video tutorial for ZZ.

One last excuse might be that there are not enough resources out there for right-handed cubing. Not anymore! Here are some resources for OH. I have spent considerable effort developing my OH algorithm library and typing them out, so please check them out.

Algorithms:

External links: