Will learning how to touch type make me a better player?

Question

As of late I have been learning how to touch type for many reasons but the one I speak of now is to become a better player. I'm learning via typingweb and have been forcing myself to touch type.

I have always used the hunt and peck method of typing with my index fingers and applying that same skill to StarCraft of course because that's how I used a keyboard. In StarCraft I have never been very good at dealing with very large amounts of keys at a time due to the way I type. If I learn how to touch type I assume I will greatly improve all-around. Not to mention it's pretty much a mandatory skill to have if I happen to apply for a job involving typing.

Obviously this skill will allow me to control a greater number of keys at once so I will factually improve my game, right?

Answer 1

Don't use the default lay-out, it will force you to hunt and peck if you are new to touch typing.
Instead, use the grid lay-out which feels on par with touch typing.

You don't have to learn all the key locations anymore if you use this as you can simply use relative positioning to determine the key you want to press and this comes a habit over time.

So, practicing to get up to speed with touch typing helps you improve your speed. But solely that…

As it is more important to improve how you play first before improving your APM. :)

For example, there is no sense in hitting a lot of keys if you:

1. Forgot to scout that your opponent went for two gas.

2. Forgot to scout what your opponent planned to do with those two gas.

3. There are suddenly Collosus / Thors at your front door or Mutalisks at your mineral lines.

4. You didn't slow down his BO or don't have enough counter unit against it so your opponent wins.

APM doesn't necessarily make you better, if you focus too much on it you could even become worse.

Answer 2

My answer, yes, but just a little.

As it was told too many times (day9 in its shows, on SE, etc): you skills are determining your APM (not your APM will determine your skills). Lets assume you are doing 4 gate push. In this case the most important thing to get you army under opponent door AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE!!! That means:

1. constant probes production;
2. no supply block;
3. saving chronoboos for WarpGate technology;
4. building proxy in time in proper location;
5. ... know EXACT sequence of building building...
6. (as helped in comments, but I forgot to mention) SCOUT - actually that is a MAJOR point.

These things does NOT require high APM (as a result it doesn't matter how do you touch keys). They require you to know WHAT to do and WHEN to do; and be accurate. You don't need to know a lot of keys for that:

• b+g - build gateway;
• 5 - ssss - build 4 stalkers;
• 5 - zzzz - build 4 zealots;
• 4 - e - build probe...

To execute that you don't need to know how to touch keys, you don't need to know what are ALL OF THOSE KEYS...

Though, that's true: with higher APM you will be able to handle your forces more accurate. But more important is to be on opponent base on 6 minute with 2 zealots + 4stalker (for example) while he has 1 zealot and 2 stalkers yet...

Yes, higher APM will help you your 4 stalkers to survive if your opponent has 5 own stalkers... but the main fail here not a survivability, but timing: why he got 5 stalkers but you have only 4 yet?

P.S.

I print with speed around 180-200 characters per minute, but my APM is around 50-55. Sometime it is 60.. but rarely... Yes, usually high APM is a sign of top players... I never see anybody with 100+ APM in league lower then diamond... But yes, 1st are skills... if you think quick enough your APM will grow up. But that is not required to be in diamond. I played against 1 terran (30-40 APM, diamond) that was killing me easy (I was gold newbie in that time).

Answer 3

The number one way learning touch typing will help you become a better gamer:

You will save an hour a day typing things and can use that time to play more.

I don't mean to be condescending, and you acknowledged that you had other reasons, but I seriously think this will make the biggest difference in your game. Being able to type efficiently is an incredibly important skill to any one who uses a computer these days. So pretty much everyone.

While we're on the subject and you're trying to learn to type quicker, here's a couple of short cuts that changed my life, mostly for correcting and editing stuff:

• Shift + arrow key(any direction)
• Ctrl + left or right arrow
• Ctrl + Shift + left or right arrow

Learn those and you'll spend a lot less time going to the mouse to highlight things, move cursor positions. (No, won't directly make you better at starcraft, but the time saver thing could be considered legitimate. Sorry if that was "off topic" but seriously, it will improve your quality of life if you spend much time typing.)

Answer 4

Contra

• Actually not all of pro-gamers know touch-typing - they know how to use left hand to precisely click on right button but it's more like "I want to build stalker ==> pressing button under my ring-finger" other that "I want to build stalker ==> pressing S".
• "best default hand position" for starcraft differs from one for touch typing - during game I usually rotate keyboard at some angle so my left fingers float at zser buttons instead of normal asdf (because of more frequently usage of ctrl and numbers)
• In game you'll need to press buttons on the right side (i.e. h m y 7 8 9 0) with left hand and it's out of normal touch typing.

Pro

Touch typing can help you to make a good habits

• press buttons correctly
• dexterity & control of left arm (that usually not so good as with a right one)
• stamina

Answer 5

No, it will not. Take the fastest typist in the world Sean Wrona, he is not a good Starcraft 2 player. I least I do not know him as such, and he types with 237 WPM on average, that is over 1185 APM.

But you need to have high APM to become one of the best Starcraft 2 players, most of them have more than 200 APM. But having high APM is not enough. I agree that it requires some finger training to be able to type very fast and to get high APM in Starcraft, but that is about it. You can get that kind of exercise in less than 1 month of regular touch typing training, because 200 APM == 40 WPM.

Having said that, touch typing is a good skill to have and you can probably translate some of it into Starcraft 2, but do not expect that if you train 20 minutes a day on a site like typingweb or typeracer you will automatically get into Masters league.

Here are the main differences between touch typing and Starcraft 2:

In touch typing you know what you have to write and you read N (e.g. 2) words ahead. You just need to correct yourself if you make a mistake. The faster you are the better you get.

In Starcraft you have a build order and a strategy, both require you to press certain key combinations at specific times. Pressing them too early or too late makes your build less optimal, you either end up queuing or not spending your resources fast enough. There is no highlighted text that shows you your next action. You have to memorize the build and check manually what the next important step is (eg. Build Barracks with next 150 minerals then another SCV, just before the current is finished...) This kind of checking or controlling what to do is the greatest part of APM in Macro.

Pushing buttons faster in Starcraft does not make you better, pressing them at the perfect timing does. At least that is true for Macro. Micro is a different problem.

In my opinion the next best thing to "touch typing" in Starcraft is the concept of the mental checklist: Look at these videos from Day9: #132 and #360. Both tell you how to invest your APM properly instead of punching random buttons on your keyboard.

Here is a short summary:

• Hotkey your Command Center to command group #1, Barracks to #5, Factories to #6.
• Cycle all the time through all of them and queue the next SCV, Marine, etc. just before the current one finishes
• Look regularly at your supply count
• Look regularly at the mini map
• Issue Micro commands in between