Any speed cubers out there?

[Leevibe]

Apologies in advance for the TLDR nature of this post

Like every kid in the '80's, I had a Rubik's cube. I used to be able to solve the first two layers by myself, and I could finish the solve using a book we had. A few years ago, my sister, remembering how I liked playing with the cube as a kid, bought me one for Christmas. That rekindled my interest and motivated me to learn how to solve it by myself.

Since then, I've been solving it using the "beginners method" but I recently picked up a speed cube, and now I'm wanting to learn how to speed solve. I think it would be fun to get down in the 30 second range. Right now, my fastest times are about a minute.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I started looking into it and learned that I need to: 1) get more efficient with solving the first layer cross, and 2) learn F2L. I found a video explaining F2L. I understood it while I was watching it, but it was a bit overwhelming. I decided to focus on getting quicker with the cross, and then I got completely sidetracked wanting to learn to solve the 4x4 cube.

I got my 4x4 cube last week and it only took me a couple hours to get where I could solve it unassisted, since I really only had to learn a few intuitive moves and 3 new algorithms. Now, I'm kind of hooked on solving the 4x4, and I really want to get a 5x5! Haha!

So, here's the funny thing. After a week of playing with the 4x4, I went back last night and watched an F2L video, and it's suddenly making sense because of how the 4x4 was helping me understand edge moves.

I've been playing around with F2L the last couple hours, and as expected, it's REALLY slowing me down. I know it's normal. My question, for anyone who has already been through this, is how long is it going to take before F2L will get my times quicker? I'm also interested in opinions on speed cubes to try out. My fastest cube is the Rubik's brand speed cube. It's actually pretty quick the way I have it tensioned and lubed, but I know it's not exactly a favorite. I'm kind of interested in the stickerless Dayan Zhanchi. Any opinions are most welcome!

[matmosphere]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cO5DLbpp3-M

Haven't picked up one in years, but they are fun.