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[G] How to Dramatically Improve Hand Speed - Page 2

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
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Abombination
Profile Joined June 2011
Canada1 Post
June 12 2011 15:53 GMT
#21
Being an ARCT piano player, my hands are extremely nimble and agile. However, I have yet to transfer if fully to Starcraft APM. My APM is only about 80 - 100, but it can spike up to 300 in fights.
Knowledge is Power
lilky
Profile Joined January 2011
United States131 Posts
June 12 2011 16:01 GMT
#22
High APM doesnt necessarily mean you play well. Case in point: idra's avg apm in most tournament games is 100-140 (quite low, especially for a professional) and yet he is one of the best players in the world.
chaopow
Profile Joined March 2011
United States556 Posts
June 12 2011 16:10 GMT
#23
The post is just for the people who are saying they have slow hands or they have low apm and cannot do things efficiently and quickly. Its a good post to help you speed up your APM but once you have enough APM it is your own job to make it efficient and actually do something rather then spamming.

Also you really do not need very high APM even if you are a pro player. Goody plays at a very low apm level (compared to most pros) around 100, Whitera also plays at a rather low apm level where he really does not spam but in times where he really needs to micro and macro he does it efficiently.
Soowoo AD.
burnswuff
Profile Joined December 2010
United States61 Posts
June 12 2011 16:15 GMT
#24
When I play starcraft, I do not put my hands in the standard keyboard typing position. I have to say my left pinky is extremely weak and is it hard for me to spam a. However, the important Terran hotkeys are s,a,d,e etc. Therefore, i place my middle finger on a and go from there.
Alex_M
Profile Joined June 2011
United States1 Post
June 12 2011 16:43 GMT
#25
awsome, ill give this a try
FenneK
Profile Joined November 2010
France1231 Posts
June 12 2011 16:52 GMT
#26
hoy crap, this is crazy
good luck have batman
ODKStevez
Profile Joined February 2011
Ireland1225 Posts
June 12 2011 16:58 GMT
#27
On June 12 2011 16:29 MrPANDAPANTS wrote:
just use a macro key on the razer marauder keyboard...


And get banned.
Luppa <3
Carmine
Profile Joined September 2010
United States263 Posts
June 12 2011 17:21 GMT
#28
I love beating players with high apm when I have 50 at the start of the game and peak at like an average of 75 in game. I never spam though, so all my apm has purpose.
Terran was created third, with purity of tanks.
Eknoid4
Profile Joined October 2010
United States902 Posts
June 12 2011 17:30 GMT
#29
i can fuck up a build order trying to make my APM look pro in the first 2 minutes.
If you're mad that someone else is brazenly trumpeting their beliefs with ignorance, perhaps you should be mad that you are doing it too.
tablet
Profile Joined October 2010
Finland116 Posts
June 12 2011 17:50 GMT
#30
On June 12 2011 16:29 MrPANDAPANTS wrote:
just use a macro key on the razer marauder keyboard...


It's cheating and will get you banned.
"The drones all slave away, they're working overtime, They serve a faceless queen, they never question why." | twitch.tv/tuneli | twitter.com/HelloImTuneli
KimJongChill
Profile Joined January 2011
United States6429 Posts
June 12 2011 17:54 GMT
#31
Wow, this sounds really useful!
MMA: U realise MMA: Most of my army EgIdra: fuck off MMA: Killed my orbital MMA: LOL MMA: just saying MMA: u werent loss
Geniuszerg
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Canada454 Posts
June 12 2011 17:57 GMT
#32
personally i think the best way to improve hand speed is the play the game.. theres no point having high apm if you suck, harsh, but kinda the truth
Shucks!
Profile Joined November 2010
United States118 Posts
June 12 2011 18:07 GMT
#33
Idra's apm on average is not 100-140, its 200-240.
"Do not look into the eyes of a horse, for the void there will swallow your soul" - LiquidTyler on SotG 12.14.10
zylog
Profile Joined August 2010
Canada943 Posts
June 12 2011 18:35 GMT
#34
I very much doubt that raw keyboard hand speed as developed here is really a limiting factor for people.

I think more significant limitation in speed are mouse accuracy, decision making and multitasking.

For mouse accuracy, there's a model known as Fitt's law which describes the tradeoff between speed and accuracy for pointing devices. Basically, the smaller the object you need to select, the more slowly you have to do to do it accurately. With practice, you can certainly improve both speed and accuracy.

Decision making relates to how much thinking is done about decisions in games. For good players, most of the deeper thinking is done pre game then the best solution simply executed while in game. For instance, just think about how Idra talks sometimes: if I see A, I respond XYZ, if I see B, I respond DEF. There's little time wasted in-game thinking about decisions. In my experience with real sports, this is something that separates the top athletes from the poorer ones - the ability to stop thinking and just execute automatically.

As for multitasking, by this I mean doing something like dealing with two battles at a time while macroing as well. For something like this, you have to switch quickly between multiple sets of actions, which means that each set of actions should be economical and quickly executed. This is how a high APM player should be able to leverage their hand speed to take advantage over a lower APM player.
ThatGuy89
Profile Joined February 2011
United Kingdom1968 Posts
June 12 2011 20:35 GMT
#35
while youre smashing 450apm ive just 2 gate proxy you and won cause you werent concentrating on playing but breaking your keyboard instead
nice guide bro
BlindSC2
Profile Joined January 2011
United Kingdom435 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-06-12 20:59:48
June 12 2011 20:50 GMT
#36
I love how some people are just flaming the OP saying APM/hand speed doesn't matter, and that 500 APM in the first two minutes doesn't help you

He knows that it doesn't, that's not what he's trying to explain. By repeating patterns as fast a possible you are training your hand to go to exact places on the keyboard without thinking. By doing this you are helping to condition your hand to 'do its own thing' while you make tactical decisions

This is a fundamental part of learning an opening, or having good macro. Your hand simply goes through all your production facilities over and over without you thinking, so you can concentrate on scouting, micro or whatever else is going on. By repeating patterns and doing them faster and faster like the OP is saying, you are increasing the speed at which you perform your cycles of production, allowing more time for other actions

This spamming also simply improves the speed of your fingers in general so you can more easily micro, use camera hotkeys faster etcetc

He isn't telling you to just have 500 apm at the start of a game so you look 'cool'

Speed of action and precision of action, culminating in efficiency of action, the basics of mechanics. Increasing your apm does help you improve parts of your gameplay
Wise men speak because they have something to say, fools; because they have to say something - Plato
ZeromuS
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
Canada13408 Posts
June 12 2011 20:56 GMT
#37
On June 12 2011 16:35 ki11z0ne wrote:
any one can have 200+ APM the trick is to make it usufull APM


hand speed isnt quite apm. Hand speed increases will let you do what you do now faster and more effectively which would make your apm possibly go up just by letting you do what you do now and giving you more time to do what you want to do and arent able to accomplish due to your lower hand speed.

also as a note to nail biters try not to bite your nails. When I go for a few days not biting them I find myself more accurate and better able to play when I am not biting my nails but it is a terrible habit that is hard to break >.<
StrategyRTS forever | @ZeromuS_plays | www.twitch.tv/Zeromus_
Sharwaro
Profile Joined May 2011
Norway6 Posts
June 12 2011 20:58 GMT
#38
You can also play some stepmania to improve the speed. I remember that I was able to keep up with streams at 240 bpm, which is about 16 key-presses in a sec.
Ge0Rob
Profile Joined March 2011
England61 Posts
June 12 2011 21:00 GMT
#39
If you wanna practice your mouse skill then go download and play Osu, its brilliant for dexterity
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid..
Reborn8u
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
United States1761 Posts
June 12 2011 21:11 GMT
#40
Very interesting idea. Increasing dexterity is definitely something that transfers to many skills seamlessly. I've noticed that in the last year of playing Starcraft everyday that my guitar playing has improved even though I play it less. I have more speed and control when I play now.
:)
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