First of all, let me introduce myself, I'm Vincent from Spain, I learned touch typing when I was 8 years old on a typewriter, which was as heavy as me xD. The method I was taught was home row on QWERTY using the Spanish layout, which is pretty much the same as the English layout, obviously there are some minor differences, but it's basically the same. I was taught by a touch typing "teacher" who was well acquainted with the method and knew how to apply it well. After a couple years I was able to type around 65-70 wpm in tests of 5 minutes long. Next year, I was able to get 85-90 wpm in a test of 5 minutes long. Bear in mind, that we had no idea what these texts contained and that we were not familiar with them, each time it was a different text. Once I got my certificate that I was able to type 80 wpm with 0 mistakes during 5 minutes at the age of 10-11, don't remember exactly, I stopped practicing. I never stopped using a computer with its keyboard though, but let's say I was happy with my speed, some of my friends were amazed on how fast I could type without looking at the keyboard, you know, stuff that most of us have experienced every once in a while.
Now, why am I saying all this crap ? Well, the truth is that I started typing again 5 to 6 years ago, obviously my speed and my technique had changed a lot, I was much faster, with an average of 100-110 wpm but with lots of typos. For some reason I no longer used 9 fingers, I used 7, and at the time I was aware of the foundations of the home row method. I "knew" that if I wanted to get better I had to use (again) as many fingers as possible. So I basically retrained myself, obviously losing some speed on the way, so I started typing again with 9 fingers. I was patient I had time and pretty soon I was able to type at the same speed, however, and to my surprise I couldn't be as fast as I thought I would be using all fingers. I felt something was not right and after years of researching, typing, studying my technique, talking and sharing views and thoughts with some other really fast typists in the world, I realized that the home row method is the one that held back my speed and didn't allow me to improve and move forward.
Home row is a nice standard method that gives everyone with minimum typing skills the possibility to enhance and improve their speed and accuracy, however, in terms of fast typing is completely obsolete and even counterproductive. To prove my statement true I will give you an example, let's say I want to type the word "December", toddhicks209's answer would be, "you should hit the "D" key with the left middle finger, then "E" with the left middle finger, then "C" with the left middle finger, then "E" with the left middle finger AGAIN, then "M" with the right index finger, then "B" with the left index finger, then "E" with the left middle finger and finally "R" with the left index finger. The way I would personally type this word would be as follows: "D" left index finger, "E" left middle finger, "C" left index finger, "E" left middle finger, "M" right index finger, "B" left index finger, "E" left middle finger and "R" left index finger.
Home row definitely slows you down in examples like this and the method I've just shown definitely would increase your response time and speed up your keyboarding since there's no waste of motion during transitions from one letter to another. I'm not saying THIS is the way everyone should type this word, obviously other people can use different fingers and still type it even faster, but the most important thing is to waste as less motion as possible in the process and to avoid using the same finger to type same finger letter combinations. Nevertheless, introducing new variables in our technique is tricky, and often difficult since we step out from our comfort zone to go into a stage of difficulty and complication. I personally wouldn't advice everyone to change their technique, if you feel comfortable typing and you are happy with your speed, then there's no need for you to make any changes, however, if you feel like you could be much faster and have the impression that there's something slowing you down, then you may want to make some adjustments.
My best score in 10fastfingers is 197 wpm in the Spanish test, I'm also quite fast in other languages as well. You can check out my profile here
http://10fastfingers.com/user/195674/. You can also watch some of the videos I've uploaded in my youtube channel. I participated online in the World Multilingual Typing Championship winning the 3rd place twice (2013-2014), I have the 7th best score ever typing the first 200 digits of the number Pi. I'm not the fastest typist in the world, but I would say I'm a complete typist, I can type numbers, tricky words, symbols and different languages, I can type really fast in short bursts and maintain a decent fast speed during long periods of time. But besides being a fast typist I have lots of experience and practical knowledge on typing.
This being said, I would like now to address toddhicks209. I believe you have good intentions and that when you give advice to somebody on how to "improve" their speed and accuracy you believe you are doing the right thing. It can be some useful advice for people who just started touch typing, but they can be ineffective and as I mentioned above, counterproductive for fast typists. Giving advice to somebody who is really fast and whose technique we know nothing about is rather heedless, unless we have strong grounds and expertise at fast typing to examine critically what’s happening.
The same way, asking the best typists in the world is not always the best option either, since most of them are not aware of the reasons that make them that fast. Take Sean Wrona as an example, he is undoubtedly the fastest and most complete typist in the world yet his understanding and awareness of his own technique and method is scarce.
I’ve seen some people giving really good tips like Deroche and his practice regimes, which he mentions in page 6., I’ll try to give some of mine shortly since I rarely have time or will to do so
, but again different strokes for different folks, cause everyone has their own personal preferences and it may work for you or it may not..
and just answering to anybody wondering how they type so fast "just practice, noob!" 