10fastfingers.com

Okay, I'm new so I'm bound to break one of the rules so please tell me what I do wrong, if I do anything wrong pwease. :3

Well, I'm 13 and I type around 100-120 WPM. I look around and I see those people that type over 140 WPM and completely steal the competition by a landslide while they take away my much wanted 1st. ;_;

But it makes me wonder if I'll ever get any faster and reach those ridiculous scores? I mean, I can't really imagine speeding up my fingers even more than I already do, but it just makes me curious. Maybe, with a heck of a lot of practice, will I improve significantly at all? (Not that I really care if I improve - I already type fast and that has to get me SOMEWHERE in life xD)

First, you don't break any rule, this is a forum, you are allowed to post whatever you want, if, of course, you respect the law :p

100-120WPM is fast at 13, in fact. It's true some people, younger than you, can type 150 or more but.. How many are they in the whole world? 5 maybe?
It is not because someons is faster than you, that makes you slow, it just makes you not "THE best".
For the first place, I don't know in what language you type, but I'm sorry to tell you you don't stand any chance in english.. Or not for now :p

Indeed, as I've said it, 120WPM is really fast for your age. I say this because you still have time to improve until you get to your real max WPM.
You still have until something like 17-18 to improve a lot!

But, sorry for saying that, but after the age of 17 is passed, you will probably at your max WPM.

It's what I think, I don't claim to own the Great Knowledge and to be The One Who Says the truth, don't forget that ^^

Kanto-Dream wrote:But, sorry for saying that, but after the age of 17 is passed, you will probably at your max WPM.

qbZ, go out of this body!

More seriously, there is no specific age where improvement stops, thank God! Each typist is different.

In fact, I have thought of what he said, and he's quite right :p

I mean, of course, you will be always be likely to improve your skill, but once a certain age is passed, this tends to be hard!

I mean, you improve a lot more between the age of 10 and the age of 17 than between 30 and 37 ^^

This is because when you get older, you have accumulated for years and years and particular way to type, and to change is nearly impossible.

This may be a crazy comparizon, but the typing speed could be assimilated to a function that admits an asymptote: it grows, grows, again and again, but will never be able to go through one particular line. Of course, I know maths and reality are 2 different things, but why not? :p

Kanto-Dream wrote:But, sorry for saying that, but after the age of 17 is passed, you will probably at your max WPM.

Well, that could be true for people after 140WPM where you probably need a specific "brain configuration" or something like absolute-ear that must be trained before a certain age because of a "brain plasticity degeneracy". However, I'm not presently convinced by this fatality (we need long-term data). And despite everything, training is just one factor.

Other factors include:
- Touch method (10 fast fingers, or at least 9 because the spacebar is stoopid)
- Layout (as Dvorak or Colemak, I believe it's quicker to type if the finger travel distance is shorter)
- Keyboard (because some keyboards are just a pain in arm)

When I was 20, I was typing topping around 70WPM with the azerty layout (french qwerty)
6 months later, I type around 100WPM, because I switched from azerty to Bépo layout.
I had to restart from scratches (with 5WPM) but with an efficient touch method and layout. With confidence.

Remember that training can only make you good. But often we get good at doing something in the bad way.
Some people are "capping" their speed because they are neglecting the things around training.