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    Fastest way to learn Colemak

    • Started by Determinant
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    • Registered: 10-Jan-2015
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    10-Jan-2015 03:28:23#1 Fastest way to learn Colemak

    Hi everyone,

    I've been trying various methods of improving my typing in Colemak so I'm sharing my experience in hopes of helping others to improve their speed and reduce the effort to learn Colemak.

    I used to type about 70 wpm in querty but I started getting pains in my hands (backside of hands, joints on fingers, & wrists) so I started researching and stumbled upon Colemak.

    I was going to switch cold turkey so I waited until I was on vacation so it didn't affect my performance at work.  I practiced typing 2 hours every day working on the online typing courses from www.typingweb.com.  I quite liked it.  It was a painful 2 weeks for the backside of my hands as it felt like I was moving my fingers in unnatural ways (sort of like the various finger movement tricks that kids try to do) but I got to 50 wpm in 2 weeks of dedication.

    After reaching 50 WPM, typingweb.com didn't seem to help improve my speed anymore so after trying for several more weeks with negligible results, I switched my practicing to www.10fastfingers.com.  Colemak felt weird for the first 2 months because it always felt like I didn't complete the words that I was typing (my muscle memory made me feel like I should continue to move my fingers based on the length of the word).  Since Colemak requires less finger movement, it felt like I only completed typing about half of the word even though the word would be fully typed.

    10fastfingers.com did wonders as it bunched easy words together helping me get in the rythmn so my speed started climbing and finally plateauing again around 70 wpm after about 4 months.  I then switched to the top 1000 words on 10fastfingers.com so that I can keep trying the same 100 words repeatedly (in random order) until I reach 80 wpm before proceeding to the next set of 100 words.  This really helped to move past typing by characters and instead typing by feeling so I slowly built up a vocabulary of how each word felt.  When it came time to type a word, I would just focuse on how that felt and words started appearing on-screen.  This brought me up to a steady 85 wpm with regular bursts above 100 wpm.

    My next problem was that while I could type random words at decent speeds, regular sentences slowed me down as I was thinking.  I recently stumbled upon this awesome Firefox addon ("Type The Web") where I can browse to any website and type the content on screen.  This way I can type real content and it also saves me some time as it combines my typing sessions with my reading (since I am typing articles that I would have read anyway).  I would highly recommend this to everyone:

    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo … e-the-web/


    I hope this helps others learn from what I found to help.

    ps. I also replaced my keyboard with a mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches so it's much easier on my joints.  I no longer experience any pain at all (I attribute this to both the keyboard and due to reduced finger movement with Colemak)

    Last edited by Determinant (18-Jan-2015 19:22:11)
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    10-Jan-2015 14:04:54#2 Re: Fastest way to learn Colemak

    Great to read your informative story. I also bought a Filco brown and feel happy typing on it now.

    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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    10-Jan-2015 14:50:05#3 Re: Fastest way to learn Colemak

    A most excellent choice!  I'm using a Filco brown as well :)  I also purchased O-rings from wasdkeyboards.com to reduce the impact when the keys bottom out and it also reduces the noise:

    http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/index.php/ … 25pcs.html


    This made it easier on the joints but took some getting used to because the key press is not as pronounced (it ends with a softer touch rather than a sharp stop)

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    10-Jan-2015 17:44:38#4 Re: Fastest way to learn Colemak

    I tried not bottoming out but it slowed me down and increased my error rate because I sometimes didn't press a key low enough.  Adding O-rings also reduced the total travel distance.  My bottoming out is more of a quick tap rather than pressing into the bottom of the keyboard.  I found that the act of stopping my fingers before hitting the bottom is slower than letting my fingers bounce off the keyboard. 

    Maybe I just didn't give myself enough time to adjust.  Is it possible to type fast without bottoming out?

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    12-Jan-2015 11:11:27#5 Re: Fastest way to learn Colemak

    The effort to not bottom out all the times is counter productive, you only have to type a bit lighter so that you bottom out less than 50% of the time.

    Remember you only have to go half the length to actuate that key, and the bump is there for good reason. You will type lighter and lighter, still register the key, and eventually you feel the right force you need to apply on the key, barely pass over actuation point.

    Since your fingers are of different length and strength, you still press strongly on some fingers and just enough for some other fingers. That's normal.

    That is the reason mechanical keyboards exist: your fingers can dance on your keyboard instead of punching at it.

    Last edited by Tony_VN (12-Jan-2015 11:17:25)

    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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    14-Jan-2015 04:22:49#6 Re: Fastest way to learn Colemak

    I was too focused on not pressing keys all the way down instead of just trying to type lighter.  I'll start focusing on lighter taps.

    There's 2 issues that make this difficult though:
    1. I'm using Cherry MX Brown switches so the actuation is not as noticeable as the Blue switches due to less noise and less tactile bump & force
    2. The total travel distance is 4mm to bottom out and 2mm to actuation.  Since I have 0.4mm O-rings, I get a total of 3.6mm to bottom out.  This means that my tolerance is slightly less than 1.6mm in order to actuate the key without bottoming out.

    Additionally, try pressing a key all the way down and slowly release it until you feel the tactile bump on the way up, you'll notice that there's a tiny gap past the tactile bump where the key is not registered.  This means that it's not enough to release keys immediately after feeling the tactile bump; you have to press the key a tiny bit more.  This part makes it quite difficult because many times I've felt the tactile bump and moved on to the next key without registering the keystroke.  This only happens when I'm trying too hard to avoid bottoming out and when my speed is high (which usually led to even more concentration and slower typing).

    The O-rings also mask out the light taps that bottom out so it's sometimes hard to tell if I bottomed out or not (or how often it's happening).  I don't want to remove the O-rings because they are a lot better on the joints.  The only thing I can think of is to keep typing lighter and lighter until keys no longer register but it's a very fine line to dance about.  Any suggestions?

    Have others struggled with bottoming out as well? How did you overcome it? (eg. Just keep at it? Repeat beginner typing courses with this in mind? etc.)

    Thanks

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