I noticed that the time proportions thread had been bumped, and thought it was time I posted my "speedcubing training system" which is based around a similar idea.I took hundreds of solves from sub 10 cubers (all world class CFOP people, I'm making the assumption that they are doing it right!), and averaged all the proportions of each, to come up with an overall baseline to shoot for with regard to splits. I then made an excel spreadsheet which dissects your solves and the relative proportions of each phase, then establishes how far from the "ideal" you are in each area.Im hoping to develop some sort of app or software (help wanted, anyone?) which takes your split times and then gives you specific advice on your weaknesses, hopefully helping to a) lead people toward the type of mindful practice recommended by Escher and 5BLD and b) somewhat curtailing the incessant "what should I work on? "How can I get sub xx?" type threads which clutter the forum.The "idealised" relative proportions are: cross 12%, cross+1 24.5%, F2L (inc cross) 62%, OLL 16.5% (inc recog and AUF), PLL 21.5% (inc recognition and AUF), Total last layer 38%.To figure out your own weakness simply multiply your global average (or todays average of 12 if you are inconsistent day to day) by 0.12, 0.245, 0.62 etc, and then do an average of 5 or 12 (more accurate), just doing that specific part of the solve. If your cross (for example) is appreciably more (say 10% more) than 0.12 * your global average then that is the area you need to work on. If your f2l is less than 62% of your solve total, then this is an area of strength. You can work out as a percentage how much out of the "ideal" you are for each phase, and thus decide on your biggest problem.If you systematically work on the area you are weakest on until it is no longer your weakest area, then move on to practicing your new weakest area, your times plummet. Believe me, I've been training to this system for a couple of weeks now and I have shaved 10% off my solve time, which is a real shot in the arm for my progress, which appeared to have come to a shuddering halt, until this.The point is it forces you to do the self aware practice that really achieves results, instead of just doing lots of solves and calling it "practice" (there are loads of threads on the folly of this approach.... some wise words on this forum if you look)The idea of figuring out your worst area and working on it comes from my approach to OLL/PLL training, which is basically:1) Time all your PLLs,2) Which ever is the slowest, drill it until its not your slowest3) RepeatIf this is consistently not working over a long period, review your fingertricks/regrips or get better algs.The spreadsheet takes your PLL times and highlights which need work (and which are good) using the above system, and extrapolates an estimate of your OLL time, also figures out TPS for each phase of the solve and (most illuminatingly) tells you the metronome setting which corresponds to your F2L time. This then gives you a target for metronome solving since if you can solve to a metronome faster than this number, you are effectively solving faster than your regular F2L. Unless you already have excellent look ahead, I think you will be shocked by how slow this actually is, and if you can't keep up with it, this highlights lookahead as an area to work on. BTW, if you are already solving in perfect proportions and nothing is identified as a weakness, you should work on F2L as it always has the most scope for improvement being the longest part of the solve.From all this we can also extrapolate sensible estimates of OLL recog, PLL recog, individual pair insertion, first pair identification time etc etc, and I am devising a 4 look, 3 look and Roux versions (although a much smaller sample will be a factor there, basically it will train you to solve with 5BLD proportions, but no bad thing right?)Top tip - for accuracy on the last layer phases, do your f2l average on 5 or 12 different cubes, leaving each U face down at the end, then to test your last layer, pick them up and turn them over as you start the timer, ensuring that you get no advantage in recognition.I haven't posted this spreadsheet yet as it still needs tweaking (if enough people want it I'm happy to post it as is), and of course adapting for other methods as I already mentioned. If anyone wants to help me code this into an app or something that would be great. Imagine a touch phone app called "solve analyser" that got you to do a bunch of split times and alg executions and then spit out a prescription for improvement based on a mathematical analysis of your specific weaknesses. It could also have a built in metronome, alg list, 2-look PLL recog trainer, produce graphs of your progress in different areas, etc etc. This would be cool.To summarise basically all of the generic advice handed out, heres an abbreviated guide to how to improve each given area once you have identified it: (anyone who has been on this forum for a decent length of time has heard all this a thousand times, but here we go again...)0) Practice1) Cross - ensure you are doing it on the D face, make sure you know your colour scheme cold, utilise your 15 seconds effectively, make sure plan all four pieces in advance, practice solving cross eyes closed, if 15 seconds isnt long enough, take as long as you like to plan it (this time rapidly comes down with practice), if you can't do it consistently in 8 moves or less, go on JARCS and compare your solutions to a given cross with its optimal solutions, if you still suck at crosses just spend an entire day figuring out cross solutions and executing them with your eyes closed, watch badmephistos cross vids.2) Cross + 1 - you need to identify your first pair either during the solution of the cross, or ideally during inspection (more advanced, basically to get this down take as long as you need for inspection as before then track the pieces whilst you cross, your times will come down and 6 pieces isnt too much for your brain even if it feels like it at first) so you can immediately go on to insert your first pair after the cross, if you have to watch the cross pieces as you solve them you can't do this so eyes closed cross solving practice removes the need to look. Work on look ahead in general (see F2L). For learning X-Cross check out Chris Hardwicks tutorial and Lars Petrus' block building stuff on their websites, once again taking as long as you like to plan the whole X-Cross and executing eyes closed as before, your required inspection time will rapidly fall, an X-cross of over 11-12 moves is probably not as efficient as it could be.3) F2L - SLOW DOWN AND LOOK AHEAD, make sure you dont need to look at the pieces when solving, if you do have this problem: find the pieces, close your eyes and solve them, as you get more advanced try identifying two pairs and solving them both eyes closed, try solving to a metronome (after around 200 bpm this is less productive), learn to solve in all slots (Macky's site if you are stuck, I have written about this before: http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?8710-The-One-Answer-Question-Thread&p=720540&viewfull=1#post720540 ), make sure you have decent algs (8 moves or less) for each case, the only cases which should take more moves should be tricks that can be executed v. fast (RUR'U' * 3 for example), long winded intuitive solutions can usually be optimised by checking the wiki, if you struggle to spot pieces try finding a corner first, minimise cube rotations to 2 or 3 per solve, never do y2, look into edge orientation to reduce this, try forcing yourself to solve slowly without any cube rotations to figure out creative ways to deal with different cases (or check Macky's site), do lots of slow solving trying to minimise move count and keep continuously turning (U,U,U, doesn't count!), practice at a speed that is as fast as you can go without pausing, try not to learn crazy trick ways to solve cases if they interfere with lookahead, go through good cubers reconstructions continuously asking yourself what you would do here and figuring out why they have done what they have done, some people find it it helpful to practice f2l using a cube with no stickers on the U layer (if you are into this I advise getting a coloured plastic Guhong/Zhanchi and an unstickered black on and then you can make a cross only cube, and f2l cube or whatever variation you like by interchanging pieces), watch badmephistos F2L vids.4) OLL - Learn 1 look OLL, AUF as opposed to rotating the cube, get good algs that suit your turning style, algs that minimise regrips during execution, drill drill drill, maybe learn multiple versions to reduce AUF (if you are crazy into learning algs, or absolutely have to shave that last 0.2 seconds off), learn a bit of basic edge control (I have super simple edge control system tutorial on this to follow at some point), try to predict your OLL case during the last pair insertion, drill some more, work on fingertricking the individual elements of the alg, try OLL recog software if recog is an issue, drill drill drill, watch badmephistos OLL vids, (then investigate alternative algs from the Wiki or Breandans videos or whoever)5) PLL - Learn 1 look PLL, AUF as opposed to rotating the cube, get good algs that suit your turning style, algs that minimise regrips during execution, drill drill drill, maybe learn multiple versions to reduce AUF, learn to predict what colour will be at the front at the end of the alg so you know what your AUF will be, learn 2-look PLL recog to reduce time identifying the case (some cool new software is floating about on this at the mo), drill some more, fingertrick the algs as much as possible, try PLL recog software if recog is an issue, drill drill drill, watch badmephistos PLL vids, (then investigate alternative algs from the Wiki or Breandans videos or whoever)6) Practice a lot, specifically targetting your weaknesses. Go through reconstructions to find new ideas, film yourself solving and examine it critically, read the How to Get Faster with the Fridrich Method and How to Practice threads. If you aren't colour neutral it really helps with X-crosses and such, but if you aren't and you are already pretty quick its probably not worth switching as the time could be better used elsewhere, try solving opposite colour cross (e.g. yellow if you are white) as this doubles your options and isnt as difficult as full colour neutrality, but if its not for you dont worry about it, learn a bit of COLL, WV, VHLS, RLS etc, some cases are really worth knowing, play with different methods as there is a lot of helpful crossover (Petrus/ZZ/Roux teaches you a lot about edge orientation, block building, using restricted movesets etc), continuously set specific achievable goals, and work to achieve them.7) Practice.I think thats basically everything, but Im in the process of writing a book on this stuff (200 pages in..... ) so further contributions are welcome, and I expect theres going to be a lot of TLDR here......Spreadsheet available further in the thread, along with blank f2l case documents:There has been some discussion of having a weighted PLL calculation based on frequency of cases occurring, a spreadsheet which calculates this can be found here: http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?39406-A-method-of-CFOP-speedcubing-training-that-yields-systematic-progress&p=824093&viewfull=1#post824093