Heyo

Just thought I might share some of my experiences transitioning from Qwerty to Colemak. I chose to do so because of all the wonderful things I heard about it. I knew it would be a lot of work but I thought it would be worth it. You see, aside from its obvious usefulness, I also really enjoy typing. It is an enjoyable challenge to expand your motor-skills; I find typing quite similar to sight-reading music on a piano, for instance. When you have achieved a high level of mastery in typing and your fingers are flowing over the keys, it can be a very relaxing, zen-like state.  I wouldn't have changed from Qwerty to Colemak if I didn't value typing for its own sake.

I guess I have consistently been using Qwerty since grade 5 when I got my first computer, so maybe 10 years. Just before I switched I used to type at 130 wpm (ryanheise test) in Qwerty. I switched from Qwerty to Colemak at the beginning of last December. Cold turkey. As expected, it was really frustrating at first and I had to resist the urge to switch back. I started out practicing with the TypeFaster program, spending perhaps 20 minutes a day, In a few days I probably had 30-40 wpm, a week later maybe 60 wpm. At first I had the annoying habit of reverting to Qwerty, but this disappeared completely about a week in. Later I eventually moved to TypeRacer, spending 20-30 minutes a day. A month after I started my average was probably ~80 wpm. 2 months after I started, I was able to get an 10 race average of ~100 wpm. Now, going on 3 months, I'm just shy of a ~120 wpm 10 race average. I can no longer touch-type with Qwerty and I don't even remember where the keys are, but if I look at the keyboard I can still type Qwerty at maybe 60 wpm, and I feel I could relearn it with very little effort, possibly returning to ~100 wpm in the space of a few nights. For some reason in Colemak I still get lower scores in Ryanheise than in Typeracer, probably because I need more endurance practice. Although Ryanheise is probably better for practice due to the endurance aspect, I prefer Typeracer due to the races!

Comments on learning Colemak:

- Overall I find Colemak more comfortable and more relaxing than Qwerty. There is certainly a much greater emphasis on home-row keys and my fingers move a lot less.

- You use your right hand a lot. I don't necessarily mind, but as I type I'm constantly trying to find ways to make typing more comfortable. For a while in January I had these pains in my right palm, which may have been due to bad habits. For example, typing 'only', i used to go 5th,2nd,3rd,4th, which was very awkward. Now I just go 5th, 2nd, 2nd, 4th which has helped. I have compromised on some repeating fingers so long as they are on adjacent and easily slide-able keys.

- In general I find that I have problems with repeated fingers in the right hand, especially with the 2nd finger of the right hand, as in 'unknown' and 'government', where I now use my thumb for 'k' and 'm' respectively. With words like 'know' and 'knew' I use 2nd and 3rd for k and n respectively. Recently I've played with using the left hand to help, as in 'j' in 'enjoy'. Then again, I may have had even more finger repetition problems with Qwerty, but I really don't remember too well what it was like to type Qwerty. I'm happy that I made the switch.

Comments on the learning process:

- In the early days when I went on TypeRacer, I found that I could be too fast and too furious with my typing, making many errors in the process. I find that it is very helpful to catch yourself and slow down to the point where you are absolutely sure that every letter you type is correct. If you speed up from this point, you should be able to type faster. As an analogy, lots of kids when they learn a piano piece will tend to rush because they are bored, and they quickly hit a skill ceiling because of this bad habit. You don't have to type more, you just have to type well. I find that if you focus on perfection, you learn a lot faster, and you feel better about yourself. Every error you make reinforces bad habits. Of course, everyone makes mistakes and you learn from your mistakes, but I think it is better to have positive reinforcement than negative reinforcement. Of course, when I type I still make errors but I always try to type calmly and focus on perfection, from which speed follows. I find my laptop keyboard kinda helps in this respect. I don't have to press down very hard on the keys and the Colemak layout means that I barely feel my fingers moving at all. Eventually when word patterns become second-nature to you, you can type fast without worrying about errors.

I am always trying to become better. Hopefully I can soon reach my old Qwerty speed, and I would eventually like to reach the heights of the fastest typists, even though they are stupidly, ridiculously fast. I feel like Colemak is under-represented among the fastest typists, which I think is odd given its ergonomic design. Then again, Dvorak is also not that common among the fastest typists, so I'm gonna put that down to the popularity of Qwerty.

WOW WHAT HAPPENED. What HOW did my story become SO LONG. TIME TO GET TO BED WOW.