One of my co-workers said he could type over 140wpm using Colemak; I was skeptical stating that wpm is subjective and its results depend on the tools used. After he had fired up the typeracer website and posted 143 wpm on first try, he wasn't kidding. Using qwerty I'm only able to set 90 wpm on that website. He watched me type a few times and noted that one of my technique was wrong. He said I wasn't alternating my thumbs accordingly when spacing. After watching him a second time, I'm perplexed at how he was achieving this. I tried doing so but failed miserably. He described to me that using the thumb opposite to the last character typed will net me a faster typing speed. Does anyone else alternate their thumbs when typing? Therefore have I've been typing incorrectly this whole time by using only my right thumb to space each word? I'm thinking of learning Colemak using this technique to see if it helps.
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Typing over 140 wpm
- Started by steve.
- 6 Replies:
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The alternate thumb topic has come up in the past.
https://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php?id=559
But if you do use the alternate hand for thumbing from the last finger, surely that only makes sense if the next word also begins on the opposing hand to the one you've just thumbed?
I'm doubtful that his alternate thumbing is his master stroke. But maybe it helps. What else did you observe with his typing, is he a floater or a palm rester?
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I'm skeptical that alternate would cause anything more than possibly a very minor increase in speed. There's no such thing as "right" technique either. Alternating your thumbs just might end up confusing you and making it harder to learn colemak. I'm weird in that I only use the left hand to hit the spacebar.
I make this recommendation a lot to people who wonder about increasing speed:
Type faster than you are comfortable with.
You'll probably notice that the speed at which you type is fairly consistent. You've likely reached a plateau where you're not actively trying to increase your typing speed, therefore your typing speed won't increase. You'll have to push yourself past this.
I can only speak for myself, but using this technique allowed me to make significant gains in wpm. I'm not the fastest typist, but I believe that just simple practice whenever you're typing can help to improve speed. On QWERTY, I used to type at 70wpm max. Before I switched to colemak I was typing at over 100wpm. I'm not anywhere close to 140wpm, but I did improve.
As for accuracy, using this technique you'll probably make a lot more mistakes. I would recommend using control backspace to delete every word that you mess up, forcing yourself to type the word correctly from start to finish before moving on.
Getting a decent mechanical keyboard might help as well.
Also, try to make sure that your finger movements are deliberate and not over-exaggerated.
(or just learn steno and then 1 up your co-worker by typing at over 200wpm.. easier said than done)
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Steve, now that you have some time training on alternating your thumbs on the spacebar, what are your thoughts on any differences you notice? Ergonomics, speed, etc.
Ever since I saw this post I have been curious about switching, but from all the videos I can find online of the extremely fast typist (120+ wpm) who show their fingers I can find no one else who uses this alternating technique --though I found a ton of crazy typing techniques, one person even often hit the spacebar with his index finger about half the time.
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Only secretaries and data entry operators benefit fully from 100wpm+ typing speed. Most of us have to type what we think, i.e. the brain has to think along with the fingers, so 60-80wpm is more than enough.
More than 80wpm, and typing becomes a sport.
My fastest typing records http://hi-games.net/profile/4314
My switching experience https://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php?id=970
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Tony_VM, while I do agree in part that you can reach a point where typing is a sport, I don't believe that 60-80 wpm is that threshold. While I program a lot and for that 60 wpm is fine, often times I find myself writing papers, responding to emails, etc. For these tasks I actually do want to write faster so that I can get closer(albeit still very far away) to how fast I'm thinking.
Also I'm just curious how it feels ergonomically to get both thumbs in on the typing action. My left thumb is getting bored just hovering around all day.
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Of course anyone will want to type emails faster but those are just short bursts. Since we just stare at the screen for most time of the day, thinking speed is the true bottleneck for us.
I use the left thumb exclusively, which I think is good since the right hand in Colemak is working more than the left. By using the Capslock as Backspace as well your hands can be pretty balanced.
My fastest typing records http://hi-games.net/profile/4314
My switching experience https://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php?id=970
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