How to overcome bad typing skills to improve at SC2?

General Discussion
#1

I know this may seem weird but even though I been typing for a long time and I can type over 70 wpm regularly, I do have to look at the keyboard fairly often because I did not ever “learn” to type without looking down.

From sheer volume over the years, there are times I can type a complete sentence without looking but there will be some mistakes.

To SC2… I feel like my KNOWLEDGE and strategy of the game is like better than Diamond level… I watch a ton of videos, esp Harstem and Lowko, and everything do they say and do related to my Terran makes sense. I am not great with timings but as far as counters and certain battle micro etc., I feel solid.

The biggest hindrance to me is my typing skills. I want to do all these things but I am too slow having to looking down every couple of seconds to make sure I press the right key. It took me a long time to beat the computer insane because after trying for weeks, I finally got good enough to start doing drops and attacking at the same time and then beating it was a no brainer. But I still fumble about with troop drops and also picking them back up etc…

I took about 3 years off not playing but I was barely silver when I was playing a little more. I am kinda playing here and there now but not yet rated in h2h player league, just been practicing again vs AI.

So not sure how common of an issue this is, and I am little older now sad to say, almost getting to 50, so not sure if I want to spend the time doing some Mavis beacon or whatever…

Any suggestions? I feel like this game can be 100x more fun for me if I could simply do all the things I know should be done.

#2

Listen im going to make this painfully easy for you, it doesnt matter what you do as long as it feels comfortable. I can type around fifty wpm not looking at the keyboard, that dont mean didly squat in starcrarft. Ive been able to type since i was 13 or 14 when we had mandatory typing class, and i dont have to look at the keyboard at all for it. Now for sc2, you can not get me to learn the dam grid keys macro bs for the life of me, my brain aint young (im pushing 40with three kids my brains fried) and im a smoker so trying to remember what does what is impossible. I set up my few keys that i need absolutely around the arrow keys as i dont use camera hot keys or anthing like that. The rest of the stuff i mouse click. Its a fraction slower but it works for me and it feel more comfortable than trying to memorize a ton of extras. Just do what you can to make it more comfortable for yourself and easier and try to do some things extra every now and then to bring your game up a bit. Remember, Rome wasnt built in a day, and we aint youngins like we use to be.

#3

Yeah sounds like you would benefit a lot from learning to “touch type”.

Touch typing consists of placing your fingers on the “home row”. Your index fingers must be resting over the indented keys which are the ‘F’ and ‘J’ keys for the left and right hand respectively.

You can identify which key you need to press by their position relative to the indented keys.

Learning to touch type feels awful, but you should be able to make significant progress in 2 months of effort.

I learned to do it on my own at 30 years old, and I am confident that you are also able to learn how to this as well.

Lastly, I wouldn’t say that game knowledge gets you a high MMR rating, in my experience 99% of the game of SC2 is mechanical skill (fancy way to say “Simon Says”), this game is a frantic mess of scheduled tasks, barely any room for critical thinking ingame imo.

As long as you always make workers and spend all your money, you will go extremely far in the game. Touch typing lets you type without having to look down at your keyboard.

#4

The thing with the touch typing is, is knowing this doesnt mean you will know the grid,and which sequence of keys you need to build a unit or building or giving a unit and actual command, in my case anyways. Besides only the left hand is needed for sc2 grid commands, nothing on the right hand side of the keyboard does anything for sc2 beside shift and control and arrow keys. You can however do like i do and hotkey around the arrow keys and number pad and simplify it all up. Like i said tho its about what makes you comfortable in the end.

#5

WK
Thanks! Helpful to listen to someone else who understands my plight…

And Wise,
Actually, I am bordering on excellent, way beyond diamond level in making workers and spending cash… I love spending money, and it is VERY often I hear I do not have enough to build or make something… and workers I may not be perfect in making them on cue but I always get to about 70-75 workers in reasonable time, that 1-S key is easy for me, easiest one, followed by 2-A (for marines LOL)… I’ve also split marines pretty well vs banes, stutter step attacks, medivac drops, etc… Its the APM that really screws me, where my looking down screws me APM.

Honestly, the idea of what to do at any point isnt the problem… its the need to look down ruins the FLOW of the game for me, I have a plan, I am in the middle of it, and have to multitask between a battle and macro, and you can’t be that good needing to look down to your keys right in the middle of everything because not sure if you experience this, it is not just the look down part, once your eyes get back to the screen your brain as to do a quick reset and re-initiate your plan again and that is a double whammy.

Yes I have taken some typing drills before, and for some reason, even though I usually am into efficiency and doing things the right way, this thing I never really got around to learning, even when I was under 30 years old… weird. Maybe I will have to force myself this summer, as u said,