The #1 fundamental skill Speedcubers ignore

When you think about trying to achieve improvement for any event, what's the first thing that comes to mind?

Practice?

Look ahead?

Learning better algs?

These elements are all absolutely fundamental for most speedsolving events, but… 

…are these elements always the best place to start? 

In my opinion, most cubers who are trying to improve understand that they have to do solves (aka practice) to actually get anywhere

Most cubers also probably know what look ahead is (whether or not they know how to work on it is a different question)

Getting fast at every step of a solve while having a deep understanding of each step is also a fairly obvious goal to work on

But none of these things quite deserve the #1 spot to me

"so what is it then?"

FINGERTRICKS

Yep, fingertricks are my #1 choice when it comes to "things cubers ignore even if they're really trying their hardest to improve"

In my experience, the vast majority of bad habits stem from having lack luster or underdeveloped fingertricks

Every good fingertrick you don't know closes off countless algorithms from being used to the fullest

Can't do left ring finger push D'?

Well now every RUD gen algorithm you do is about twice as slow as someone who CAN do that fingertrick

Suck at doing U2' with your left hand?

Hope you like compensating by overusing U2 with your right hand, and as a result developing a habit of regripping your right hand even though it would honestly be faster to just avoid the regrip and do U' U'

Not a fan of doing U turns with a left index push or a right index pinch? (if you don't know what a pinch is, do R U R' but start and end with your thumb on front)

Again, get ready to develop a ton of awful regrip related habits that are going to take twice as long to break

And so on, and so on

Algorithm choices are entirely downstream from fingertricks

Your hands are literally what makes the solve happen, so why are you shortchanging yourself?

Work on those fingertricks, and I guarantee that just about every step of your solve will magically "improve"

Yes, practice/lookahead/improving algorithmically at each step is great too, but none of those 3 things will have a particularly profound effect on your WHOLE solve in the same way

Fingertricks are THE fundamental of “the fundamentals”, so make sure yours are top notch where your main event is 3x3, Square-1, Pyraminx, or any other speed based event you can think of