I switched to Colemak because it held the promise of being more ergonomically sound than QWERTY, while still maintaining common shortcuts. I also hoped, given the more logical letter distribution, that it would possess a similar, if not greater, potential for speed, and it's this property that has now piqued my curiosity. For decades, Dvorak has been the king of that domain, holding the world record for both burst and endurance typing speeds. Despite its recent growth in (relative) popularity, Colemak, however, hasn't ever really been touted for speed the way Dvorak has, granted it's only six years old. In fact, many of the threads indicate speed is to often regarded as a secondary concern to comfort and health. Is this expected to change as people spend more time with it? Has typing speed been found to strongly correlate with CapalX's calculated total effort or has that not yet been examined?
As far as my experience is going, I learned Colemak in a single sitting two weeks ago, but haven't been using it exclusively. This is partly due to me trying to maintain my QWERTY speed and partly me getting frustrated with how long work and e-mails end up taking at times; I expected that, though, as I've only just started. On any day that I predominantly use Colemak, I also calculate my mean speed (n=10) using 5 consecutive runs each from TypeRacer and Hi-Games. With QWERTY, the mean fluctuates from 120-130 wpm with bursts and runs up to 160 wpm or so. I haven't really experience a drop in speed yet, but I did have to teach myself how to switch from one mode to the other at will. As of today, I'm at roughly 80 wpm with Colemak, which is becoming increasingly comfortable, except for the added use of the ring fingers and whenever 'g's and 'j's are involved. They still feel a bit clumsy and will most likely be the rate determining element for a while. Will have to pay particular attention to them.
