week 1
lesson 1: 100% acc. @ 70wpm
lesson 2: 100% acc. @ 63wpm
lesson 3 (t,n,s,e,r,i) 100% acc. @ 47wpm
lesson 4 (t,n,s,e,r,i,a,o) 100% acc. @ 36wpm

So far so good other than the fact that it needs lots of patience. Needed to do many times to reach 100% acc. for lesson 3 & 4 and still needs to pause to think the letters occassionally. But lesson 2 was smooth.

Yes indeed it but a lot of stress on your middle and ring finger due to the "li", "le" bigram. I have said the same thing in my response to BvoFRak https://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php?id=1098

and the more my speed increased the worse the problem. This has been evident by the fact that the key "i" and "e" were worn on my keyboard, while the other keys remain intact. I guess you do not float your hands while typing like me because I asked some people who float there hands and type above 100 WPM and they said they only feel uncomfortable when the go above 100 WPM and the discomfort is mainly because of speed but I guess they got used after almost 2 years of typing. Anyway, on solution that I found to this problem was to replace l by K and vice versa. But eventually I felt that too much hand rolls warm and makes the hands tired quickly, and I discovered that hand alternation is more comfortable and faster, so I switched to my own layout Imak which is very similar to a mirrored version of dvorak.

About the workman layout, form my experience I can tell you that it will not be comfortable at all above sixty word per minutes because he of the placement of the "C" Key. On Imak I had "F" key in that position which is less common than C and it give me really bad index finger so I had to re design Imak and keep "V" in its place. I also wanted to be fair on Dvork so I gave it a try and this is my sixth day on dvork with an average of 37 WPM for minute on hi game. The forth day my right hand got a shock from the placement of the l key on the index finger, but today it feels very comfortable and normal. However I must try it for a while to give my final conclusion. I think If you want to switch dvorak would be the best alternative since it has been tested though out the years and it took 12 years of investigation to make it comfortable and fast. Some people argue that "i" is more common than "u" and should be directly put under the index finger, but I found this to be more comfortable because by stretching to "i" to the index finger you will put the weight on the meaty part of for palm instead of the bone on the edge as has happened to me on Imak. Anyway, this is some of my experience, and of course every one has his own opinion that might be totally contradictory to mine. Finally excuse me for the typos because it is only my sixth day dvoraking.

I've heard that Dvorak puts too much strain on the pinky and pressing L to S is rather awkward. I don't know, I just prefer something modern I guess since the Dvorak was developed in the 1930s and back then they didn't have much advanced computer tools and software for analyizing and calculating the keys and strokes. I've started Workman yesterday, I liked it, so far. Is the C key that problematic? Have you reach above 60wpm on it?

I don't know if you have checked this already, but Dvorak is ranked pretty low in the categories.

http://www.codesharp.co.uk/dvorak/Sampl … /News.html

Yes, I agree. I wish I could continue to use it, but my fingers just aren't keeping it up! I'm afraid it will have adverse effects in the long term. Now I just hope there isn't a problem with the C key for Workman.

Wow. I guess both Imak and Workman are out of the question at this point. I mean I really can't go forward with Workman knowing that the C key will cause a problem. My main concern for the Dvorak is the strain that is put on the pinky because of the L key. The L does have a higher frequency than the C, but the index finger has more letters to work with than the pinky so I guess typing the C with it will add to its stress. It's strange how not many people mention about the issue with L in their experience. However, I think I'm still going to give it a try and switch to Dvorak. Afterall, the work involved in the development is quite extensive and it has kept the physiology of the hand in mind. I hope it will go well.

Oh then I'm glad I'm not a pragrammer. I can see Dvorak has its many advantages, but what I hope is that it can keep my fingers intact!

Yes, true thing. And to all of those who are switching a new layout, the only way to know if it's best for you is really to try it for yourself.

Here is my dvorak experience:

after 11 days of usage I reached 50 WPM for 5 minutes test on hi-game with less training than Colemak, but of course my mind has adapted since I have switched over 10 times in the last 4 months and I have learned how to advance quickly through my own lessons. At this speed the layout is extremely comfortable and although sometimes I feel little pain in my right pinky but I also feel that the finger  is getting stronger each day and the discomfort is fading away. I have actually expected more pain than this because of what I have inferred from other people's comments but taking into consideration that I was cracking the layout by typing more than 6 hours a day, the strain expected on average typer finger would be minimal.

Besides Imak, I would definitely say that this is the best layout that I have tried. I have made a test of typing the same long text (20 minutes) with Colemak, Imak, and Dvorak, and if I would reflect back in terms of comfortability, I would say that on Imak(except the index problem which I have fixed) and Dvorak I did not feel any effort and I was ready to type more than Colemak.

The problem with dvorak in the beginning is to get used to the punctuation, and I still some times go to the old place, but ergonomically the ",.?" are placed in better position on Dvorák, while I still prefer the QWERTY placement for the ' key. Also, It would be definitely better to switch the i and u key, knowing that I think the way Dvorák has put them as is has several reasons and one of them is to make the weight distribute evenly on your hand palm, but since it is so comfortable I think switching this two keys would be advised for increasing the typing speed and reducing the index finger movement.

The key to the comfortability of dvorak is hand alternation as well as the fact that some common bi-grams are either separated by more than no key like (ou, io , st , sh)  or placed on strong finger that does not require the tilt of the hand like th, nt.

Finally since dvorak seems to be comfortable with no wrist pain at this speed, I will continue to use it, and now I have fixed Imak and I changed the complete right side to have inward rolls and I am 100% sure that the left side is comfortable as dvorak and maybe more, but I have to wait and see the right side. From my previous testing of Imak it was very fast and I was able to reach 66 WPM in about 14 days, and although I have slightly increased the same finger ratio, which is still less than workman layout, I think the new layout would be even slightly faster than the old one but unfortunately I can not test it at this time and I will have to wait until I master dvorak

I hope my experience would be helpful for you in choosing the proper layout and I advice you to drop a line in the workman form and ask the guy if his layout causes pain in the left index due to the downward movement to reach C. the problem is not as you thought that the index finger is unable to handle 'C' , but it is the repetitive downward stretching. I was surprised that it caused me be a problem on Imak because the right hand index finger on QWERTY was loaded with "n" and "M" keys on the downward stretching and I did not feel any pain.However,  it turned out that the left hand has different typing patterns than the right hand and this might be due to the fact that  my right hand is about 1cm before my left hand horizontally  on the keyboard because I have to hit spacebar with the right hand thump.

Edit: 
I hope my pinky is getting stronger and not damaged because now it is slightly hurting after few races :), it is saying please stop do not type with me!!! Not really, I am exaggerating :), but as I read some where it should be normal within a month.

About the workman Layout, I suggested that you ask the guy because I used a sightly different touch typing technique with Imak. The difference is that I do not go with the left hand index finger to the upper letters, (r & t on the QWERTY) and I used the middle finger instead, so there is nothing to equalize the downward stretch. However, I don't think that in reality the upward stretch will equalize the downward stretch, so even if the workman have w and B on the upper row, I still reckon that the problem will persist. Beside seeing a comment from a guy on the workman layout advising him not to switch V with C, the creation of workman layout was based on effort or speed metrics where each key is assigned a number between 1 and 4, which is seem to be reasonable to some extent, but the author published the layout without practicing it first to see how it feels, which is wrong because there are other physical aspects that should have been included.

 
Regarding this link http://www.codesharp.co.uk/dvorak/Sampl … /News.html  that you have mentioned, the author actually uses an aoeiu and not aoeui version of the dovark  with the keys 'u' and 'i' switched, which is preferable for speed and I expect an increase of around 7WPM on the original dvorak due to this change. Also it would be nicer, at least for me, to switch between the ' & -, which can be easily done on windows using Autohotkey

Today I do not feel any pain in my pinky, however, I felt tension in the middle and ring fingers of the right hand, but the type of tension seems to be more as muscle training than finger damage. Also, I expect that dvorak will be harder to master than Colemak on the short run and I think Colemak would be slightly faster, but on the long run the muscles of the right hand will train to the different typing approach of the dvorak layout and the full potentials of the layout will unfold. Of course with any layout, to achieve 65WPM and above will require a lot of practice and familiarization with words as will as fingers dexterity, and if your aim is to type faster as soon as possible i think Colemak will be the layout that you are looking for, but if your aim is type in a comfortable manner without wrist and finger pain and you do not haste for the speed to come, then you should use dvorak, although you might feel some pain in the training phase. Anyway I can't fairly judge how my speed will be compared to Colemak because I have to use dvorak for the same period without training for any other layout, which I am not going to do because I have already started to train for Imak, and I plan to learn two layouts if Imak was successful.

Finally the trick to advance quickly to  50WPM is practice typing common words and key combinations while learning the layout. I usually familiarize myself with common words lesson  and the common 1000 words mentioned here https://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php?id=1047

I place the common 1000 words in Amphetype program and do some settings as mention in the above link so that it generates two lines of text like this:
"
the of to the of to the of to and a in and a in and a in is it you is it
you is it you that he was that he was that he was
"
and I set the program to allow me to keep practicing until I reached 97-98% accuracy and speed of my_Speed_at_hi-games_for_five_minutes_test + 10WPM, and when I pass this threshold I am allowed to continue to type the next to 2 lines from the 1000 words. In this way I learn the layout and practice the common words and bigrams (th,st,nt,ou,io,ea, etc....)at the same time. and in order not to get bored, I also jump between different typing tutors, such as mavis beacon, typing instructor, rapidtyping. Of course, I do not need to mention typeracer to acquire speed and drill over the punctuation. When I reach 30 WPM, I start to watch the reply of my typing at hi-games and make lessons with my typos to practice them.

Here are some lesson that you can practice once you reach 30-34 WPM. Do not practice them before you reach 30 WPM, otherwise they will be boring and not that effective

L24:
on nuclear rubble die you've my chew suicide Hollywood happiness instruments themselves searchings by coincidence vacuum friendships superiority plan evicted court: morning woke nice sharp elvis he die ie ie wants  humbly today you'd on nuclear rubble die you've my chew suicide Hollywood happiness instruments themselves searchings by coincidence vacuum friendships superiority plan evicted court: morning woke nice sharp elvis he die ie ie wants  humbly today you'd on nuclear rubble die you've my chew suicide Hollywood happiness instruments themselves searchings by coincidence vacuum friendships superiority plan evicted court: morning woke nice sharp elvis he die ie ie wants  humbly today you'd on nuclear rubble die you've my chew suicide Hollywood happiness instruments themselves searchings by coincidence vacuum friendships superiority plan evicted court: morning woke nice sharp elvis he die ie ie wants  humbly today you'd

L23:
never because never ion because nationalities ion because to because ion nation because ion ion ion ion have have because here here ion never surprised because ion surprised believe believe else ion because else else with ion with with which ion because which ion which which ion because disadvantages ion disadvantage because ion disadvantage intertwined ion intertwined intertwined ion because with with ion with was because ion was was thing thing thing ion because doing doing doing brought brought ion because blue blue brought conditioner conditioner ion because conditioner favors favors ion favors lucky lucky lucky ion turnth turnth turnth drive ion drive drive crazy crazy ion crazy taxes taxes ion taxes bicycle bicycle ion bicycle because ion because because ion ion

L22:(ion,nio,oin)
coniosis actions adjoining fusion bionic disunionists fiction appointments cushion reunionist autoinfection adaption unionisation adhesion checkpoint illusion unionised coincidence abduction unionising accretion assertion coincidentally companion unionisms diphenylhydantoins decisions acrimoniousnesses delusions disappointments evections amniocenteses absorption disjointedly alternation evildoings carbanions calumniously criterions echoing opinions creationism outgoing educational endpoints implication jointedly microinjection acceleration ceremoniousnesses fractionally microinstruction appreciations companionable brutalization misdoing conditionalities onions counterespionage pinpointing companionablenesses biodeteriorations pointlessly congregationalists reunion interdenominational viewpoints institutionalization conioses constitutionalization craniometry anion disharmonious companions ignominiousnesses intercommunions junior sanctimoniously

L21:(fbgl)
up will would like long thing look could of for from form before often differ feet friend fish fall fine fly go people part get place live little only good figure field if follow off self father found food left face feel give through great help low line right tell play put port spell big point world build self family front final free fact full first find after found food four should school still learn plant thought let keep might left late while night stop open together children begin got walk example paper far left half fire farm full force foot surface life few fast five always letter until mile group began enough plain girl fill feel fee fad fan few flu fly deaf chef deaf deft defy face fact usual young list though feel talk dog family fade fail fair fake fall fame fate fear feat feel feed fell fees pose leave song product black numeral numeral class happen complete ship half problem piece told pass top king during step hold sing file fill find fine fire firm flat flaw flea fled flee flog flip listen table travel less morning simple several lay against vowel pattern slow love person appear map govern pull fall power fly unit lead plan figure field able pound flow furl fury fuss brief ffair affect belief wife beliefs benefit develop sleep strong special produce lot nothing course wheel full blue island gold possible plane laugh ago game shape brought bring perhaps fill weight affected barefoot blissful beautiful affiliate find fine figure language among although please tell last analysis subtle anger alleged cigarette urinal electrochemistry. premise navigation should would could while model beautiful follow before differ fainnesses inflecting inflection fellowshiping change changing healer God people get heal healer go would only dignify astrology encyclopaedia illumination light all pat pants will always disturbing disrupting climb guy illusion filled imprisoned contributing skill flapping flimping flipping flopping

L20:(c*d*r, r*d*c, r*c*d, d*c*r, d*r*c, c*r*d)
conduct not byproduct not accredit not cedar not bidirectional not producer not cider not crocodile not cared not direct not decorate not coder not contradictory not cored not disgraced not decoration not codirector not directed not cured not eradicate not encoder not inducer not electrode not direction not embraced not procedural not glyceride not introducer not directly not introduce not procedurally not nonaccredited not graced not director not introduction not directory not obscured not procedure not hyperacidity not outscored not predecessor not indirect not precede not soundtracks not scared not predicts not school not precedence not subdirectory not procedures not scored not predicate not priced not secured not productively not procedurally not radical not recede not reduce not traced not reduction not triglyceride not reproductive not ridiculous

L19:
key directly ridiculous guy drink guy ridiculous key directly directly key guy lovely ridiculous guy guy guy key key key key ridiculous directly conceive rice rich flock ridiculous directly rich rich rich rich rice rice directly rice ridiculous ridiculous ridiculous key directly ridiculous key directly ridiculous guy drink guy ridiculous key directly directly key guy lovely ridiculous guy guy guy key key key key ridiculous directly conceive rice rich flock ridiculous directly rich rich rich rich rice rice directly rice ridiculous ridiculous ridiculous key directly ridiculous key directly ridiculous guy drink guy ridiculous key directly directly key guy lovely ridiculous guy guy guy key key key key ridiculous directly conceive rice rich flock ridiculous directly rich rich rich rich rice rice directly rice ridiculous ridiculous ridiculous key directly ridiculous

Enjoy and good luck!

On Imak and Colemak I used the different touch typing technique only for my left hand  to heal some injury which  I mentioned  in my response to BvoFRak https://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php?id=1098 , and it is not appropriate to apply the same technique for the right hand.

However with Dvorak I am back to the classical touch typing as my left hand has healed now and there is no pain in the left hand wirst on Dvorak, so my experience is still valid for the Dvoark. Luckily today I have no pain at all in both of may hands and I suddenly jumped from 50 to 56 WPM for five minutes test on hi game after only 14 days, which is amazing because I was trying desperately to break the 50 WPM barrier for the last 3 days and then suddenly boom 56 WPM and and before it 63 at typeracer. Moreover, Today I really liked the layout because it was flowing like water although i still have some problems with some keys like 'i' 's' and 'ious' and I get irritated when I commit mistake. Now, I am actually  thinking that I might even advance faster than Colemak if I get some speed burst like this :).

How long have you been using Dvorak? Is your keyboard placed too high above your waist? Try using proper typing posture if you haven't, or you have only been using the layout for a short time?

I'm not an expert at it, but I don't think there's really any typing techniques - your hands will gradually learn to flow on the keyboard effortlessly after long periods of practice when you reach to the high speeds say 60 and up. But proper touch-typing technique (using the right fingers to hit the right keys) is a must if you want to achieve that, and also proper typing posture. When you learn to type at first, your hands tend to press the keys really hard because you are unfamiliar with the letters in the layout, but once you are accustomed to it you will simply float from one to the next without any effort. You can find many links on google for typing postures.