Shock wrote on 02/08/16 at 08:24:25:I typically hit 100-110 WPM or so now - above average, but nothing special. I know some of you are capable of much faster; I think Harvey said something about reaching mid-160.
Can't remember the exact speed or where the original topic is on this board, but I remember my speed was #5 out of thousands of attempts on it. I still don't think I'm
that good, though, because I
do make many mistakes when typing at my fastest speed. I think I just had really good beginner's luck on that first try; I was never able to beat my original record.
When attempting the test in languages other than English, I am only able to manage about half of my top English speed, if that. When Michael Fried challenged me to the test in various foreign languages, he was actually able to beat me by a few WPM each time. The explanation for this is simple. I have the most common English words committed to muscle memory. I unconsciously think of each of these words by the combination of finger movements required to type them; I don't even have to think about it anymore.
Here's a good analogy: performing special moves in fighting games, like Mortal Kombat or Killer Instinct. When you're a top-level player, you've learned to press the button combination as quickly as possible to execute each move. You don't think of it as, "back, down, back, high punch", you think of it as "doing a Shadow Uppercut". Your muscle memory has it so down pat that you don't even have to think about what you're doing anymore. Likewise, performing MTs in MKDD or MKDS. It takes a sequence of several button presses to perform one, but if you're racing at top level, it has become so simple to you that your brain has consolidated the sequence of button presses into a single action. Thus, I think of words as
words, rather than a sequence of keystrokes, much as if you're reading... when you read, do you see W-O-R-D, or do you simply see "word"?
Needless to say, you should not be looking at your keyboard if you are a serious typist. Imagine that your keyboard is a Nintendo controller, and the monitor is the TV. You shouldn't have to look down at your GameCube controller to perform an MT in MKDD, so you shouldn't have to look down at your keyboard to quickly type the most common English words. Yes, your keyboard has many more buttons than a Nintendo controller, but when you have used a computer keyboard every day of your life since the late '90s, your brain knows where all the letters are and how to consolidate the finger movements into words, just as a top Mortal Kombat player can quickly mash back-down-back-high punch to do a Shadow Uppercut during a fight-- without having to look down at his controller-- as well as decide exactly when the move is necessary to execute. He doesn't think about the individual buttons he has to press to execute the move-- he imagines the move as a single action to perform.
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