New to the forums! Question regarding improving typing speed.

[roper]

Hey all, new to these forums I have lurked a bit and bought a Filco Majestouch-2 w/ Brown switches based on discussions here! Love the keyboard BTW and it's such a breath of fresh air after using crappy non-mechanical keyboards for so many years.

So, my question is how does one get faster at typing having already been typing the same way for many years? I am around 120-130wpm w/ very few errors in normal passages, but I saw a guy recently who did 163wpm average which was very impressive to me. More impressive is he averaged at around 120wpm doing very complex/random passages with lots of numbers, very rarely used characters, etc. It was at some typing convention/tournament.

Anyways, I'm 30 and gained the majority of my typing ability through using IRC every day during highschool/college years as well as in games like Everquest before voice chat was popular. The problem is I never learned how to type with the home row.. I learned via hunt/peck which is how I still type today except without having to look at the keyboard. I don't use all the fingers on both of my hands to type which I think is what's holding me back. I use all my fingers on my left hand but only seem to use my index finger and middle finger on my right hand

The problem is I'm so used to typing this way I can't see myself being able to change or whatever.. Anyone have any tips?

Thanks!

[pitashen]

I believe it is quite important to be able to use all your fingers to get the maximized speed. And the only way to fix that is to force yourself to practice typing in the "correct/standard" way. I doubt there is any shortcut to it.

[roper]

I believe it is quite important to be able to use all your fingers to get the maximized speed. And the only way to fix that is to force yourself to practice typing in the "correct/standard" way. I doubt there is any shortcut to it.

Yeah, I'm not looking for shortcuts.. Rather, has anyone drastically changed the way they typed after being in the habit of typing a certain way? If so, do they have any pointers?

Also, is the home row method the "best" way to type for speed/efficiency?

[alaricljs]

The home row is *a* method.  I don't use it.  I grew up on a keyboard and pretty much use whatever finger is in the vicinity of what I need to type.  I do use all of my fingers, although my pinkies don't see too much use and my left thumb never gets a chance at the space bar I use it for some ctrl/alt/win combos.  I do not need to look at the keyboard except for obscure symbols and I do not need to look at the keyboard to get my initial hand position.  As long as the keys are standard sized I know where I'm at once my hands touch the board.

I can type 90wpm.

[forTruce]

In my opinion, your best bet is to slow down your typing and do it all correctly.  There are lots of websites that will show you the "correct" finger combinations if you do not already know them.  I actually struggle a bit from a few habits I have made and need to break, namely hitting the shift key with the wrong hand.  I am looking for a way to correct that myself, but it seems the only way to fix it is to slowly make yourself do it correctly until it becomes muscle memory.

I wish you luck though.  It has been extremely hard for me to even change the slight errors in my typing habits, but I believe you will benefit greatly from learning touch typing correctly.

[Lanx]

if you want to learn the "correct" way just for the sake of it then it's really no point, the correct way is just a style, if however you want to learn the correct way in hopes of also typing faster and maybe increased ergonomics then yea, you're gonna have to find one of those programs that tells you, that you are doing it wrong. Currently from my point of view being taught the "correct" way in grade school I still find myself doing it "wrong" because i've just gotten a true "matrix" type kinesis to test out and my right ring/index finger isn't quite lining up properly from all those years of using stagger.

it took about 2 days of pure dedication to get used to the kinesis tho, i literally put away my own modded keyboard (so i wouldn't fall back on it) and just learned through lots of errors.

[redpill]

Practicing tough passages with lots of punctuation or uncommon symbols can really speed you up overall, typically those are the things that slow you down otherwise.  You could also look into learning an alternative layout like DVORAK or COLEMAK depending on your commitment to faster speeds, as they typically result in much less finger travel and thus more efficient typing.

That being said, at some point there is an issue of natural ability as well.  Some people are just blessed with great dexterity, and other people will never type 130wpm no matter how much they practice or what method they use.

[elef]

Honestly, at 120+, I wouldn't worry about it. That's plenty fast - it would put you in the top 3 on the Official Geekhack Typing Speed Leaderboards... And there's no guarantee that you'd be significantly faster with correct technique.
Of course that's just my opinion. You could switch to the correct technique and practice a lot, and maybe hit 140, 150 or 160, who knows.

Re: your question if anyone managed to switch; I used to be a slow hunt-and-peck typist. Around 40wpm on typeracer.com. Then I learned to touch type and got up to about 75 wpm, so it's definitely possible. It just may not be much use if you're already well above 100 wpm as it is.

[alaricljs]

So yeah,  maybe I should have mentioned that aside from typing 90wpm I have no use/need at all to type faster and most of my life is spent at a keyboard.

Do you have some need other than 'oooh, shiny!'

[hashbaz]

Normal typing speed for me is about 80 wpm.  I thought I was an excellent touch typist until wrist strain brought some bad habits to my attention recently.  I'm now forcing myself to type slowly with the "correct" fingers and I've already noticed improvements in my wrists and the overall cadence of my typing.  I'm also considering switching to Colemak.

[uberstuber]

At those speeds any practice you put into 'correcting' your form or switching layouts won't net you much speed improvement if any. If you really have a need to type faster than 130wpm learn stenotype.