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ypslala
Burma545 Posts
On June 12 2011 16:35 ki11z0ne wrote: any one can have 200+ APM the trick is to make it usufull APM this. i think things like asasasasasasa as fast as possible don't help. useful and high apm comes from alone. the more you play, the better it gets. i play guitar since > 20 years and my left hand fingers are fast, long and whatever. unfortunately is has nothing, really absolutely nothing to do with useful high apm in sc2. | ||
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CecilSunkure
United States2829 Posts
It would be more helpful if you provided a means to increase handspeed in a game of sc2, and better yet how to convert that apm potential into meaningful actions. I didn't come here to plug, but honestly the thread I wrote on improving in general [I believe] is a much more effective means of becoming a balanced player, and being a balanced and skilled player includes playing quickly and utilizing high apm, rather than just spamming it with a few fingers. I can't stress enough the difference between spamming some keys mid-game and actually using those actions in a useful manner. | ||
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Diderick
Netherlands298 Posts
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uSnAmplified
United States1029 Posts
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Xiron
Germany1233 Posts
ingame over the course of 20 minutes -> 200 try hard. when I train rolling more, will I get more ingame apm? no. | ||
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iiGreetings
Canada563 Posts
Loved it! | ||
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W2
United States1177 Posts
Being able to press 123123 slightly faster will increase my apm stat, but this is not where "useful apm" comes from. Also it gives you faster hand speed but is it really useful hand speed? I am still looking for a way to improve my sub-par 150 apm but I don't want it to come from spamming 123123 whenever I find the chance to. Because to me, a perfect game won't give you any of these chances: you want to be spending every moment doing useful actions. I could see practicing inject/chronoboost keystrokes until they are lightning fast, but it is already in my muscle memory and pretty fast, plus practice comes natural just by playing the game. | ||
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dreamsmasher
816 Posts
you need to be making the correct decision. pros are better than amateurs becasue they make more correct decisions on average, APM is just a natural extension of that. its not that your fingers are slow. its ur brain that is slow. | ||
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Jukz
Spain17 Posts
He played the piano. | ||
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epikAnglory
United States1120 Posts
I usually set my Nexus to 4 and all my probes (then my scouting probe later on) as 3 when the game starts, and spam 434343434343. I hotkey my first pylon (then Gateway) 2, so I do 43234234. I think a good way to keep your focus and spam on early game (for Protoss and Terran simply) is to hotkey all your workers (just until your first Pylon or Depot) 3, and add the new worker to the group every time one comes out. | ||
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ixi.genocide
United States981 Posts
On June 12 2011 16:22 XDJuicebox wrote: This isn't about Starcraft 2 specifically, this is a guide on how to separate your fingers, and how to utilize them more effectively. I believe that that is the key to hand speed, seeing as I can 4a5a6a7a8a9a0a in the blink of an eye. Do note that if you want to get faster at pressing stuff with weights (I.E. pianos), this will not work very well unless you are doing it on something that is weight, like a piano. A keyboard has very little resistance, so doing this on air or against a table will suffice. Do you frequently get bored at school with nothing to do? At work? On a very long car ride! These are the things that I want you to do. This is quite time consuming. Hi guys. While I'm only a Platinum Terran, I feel as though I have decent mousespeed, seeing as I can spam up to 1100 APM with 3 fingers in Brood War, and up to 450 in Starcraft 2. Now, I know that doesn't mean much, but I want to share with the world how to improve handspeed, or how I, Juicebox, feel as though it should be done. Now, when I first started playing Starcraft, I already had a lot of handspeed, seeing as I: -Grew up playing piano -Type a lot, and my WPM is around 100 when I'm just doing stuff, and 140 when I'm actually trying -I play with Rubix Cubes, and my average time is 22 seconds with my fastest being 15.3 -I play the Trumpet, so my index to ring fingers on my right hand are quite fast -I like to twirl pens between my fingers (still working on getting good at that...I'm awful  )Anyways, the point of this is I spend a lot of time using my fingers for stuff, so my fingers are pretty developed. Now, I want you to try something. With your hand parked on the ASDF key, and your thumb on spacebar, how fast can you hit A F S [Spacebar] D? How fast can you hit A [Spacebar] S F D? How fast can you hit A D S F D [Spacebar]? How fast can you spam ASASASASASASASAASAS? How fast can you spam SDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDS? How fast can you repeatedly tap the A key? The S key? The D key? The F key? How fast can you ssddssddssdd? I can hit those quite fast. I can hit about 8 keys a second, which means about 480 keys per minute if I'm constantly doing it. Now, the good part. Introduction + Show Spoiler + Finger separation is a very difficult thing to learn. It took me many years to develop, because I never directly tried to develop it. Your body will only know how to do the things that you tell it to do. That is why I can't spam ASASASASASASASAS as fast as I can spam the other keys, because I just never use my pinky that much. But the reason 4a5a6a7a8a9a0a comes up so fast is because I did it like 500 times a day when I played Brood War. (Yes, I hotkeyed scans to 1-3 because 1a2a3a into 4a5a6a was awkward for me) So if you want to learn finger separation for both hands, just take the drills that I describe and apply it to your right hand. But I'm only going to be working with mouse clicking speed on the right hand, since mouse control is a topic very widely discussed, and I'm sure people have some great advice out there because my own mouse control is terrible ^_^ I do have decent click speed though. So, drill time! The Approach So what we're going to do is we're going to train our fingers to have speed with every order of pressing. We're going to do this with some drills that I made up. You can do this with a keyboard, a piano, or just tapping your finger against a table. Keyboards don't have that much resistance; pianos do. If you want to be loud as hell like Firebathero, go ahead and do it with a keyboard Single Finger Tapping + Show Spoiler + The very first thing we're going to learn is speed tapping, using one finger at a time to tap the same button as fast as we possibly can. A common mistake is to just straight out tap repeatedly as much as you can. I don't believe that this develops speed as much as endurance. What I believe develops speed is tapping in a gallop rhythm, or a swing rhythm. Instead of going tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap I believe in tap tap [very brief pause] tap tap [pause] tap tap [pause] I can effectively tap about 8-10 times a second, depending how much adrenaline is running through my system lol. Do this with every single finger, on both hands. Treat your fingers equally, make sure all 10 fingers have the same speed. You never know when you're going to change your hotkey setup, so it's good to have speed on all fingers. What I do is I go pinky to thumb twice, then thumb to pinky twice. If you're really bored, do this on both hands at the same time. So what it should look like if you were on ASDF[space], is: aassddff aassddff ffddssaa ffddssaa So um yeah...do that for a few weeks and you'll notice your tapping dramatically improve. This applies especially to your mouse hand as well. Alternating Between 2 Fingers [3434343434343434] + Show Spoiler + Many wonder how to get speed in this regard. You honestly don't really use it that much, but what if you're doing something like 1a2a3a or 4a5a6a? You need speed between different fingers as well, or if you're doing something like 4ss5aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa if you're Terran ;] The approach is very similar. Instead of continuously going, we will be training the motions in rapid bursts, as to use the most fast twitch in your forearms as we can. So how this is going to work is that you are going to press 2 buttons, like DF, extremely quickly, briefly pause, and then do it again. So instead of DFFDFDFDFDFDfDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDF You're going to go DF [pause] DF [pause] DF [pause] DF [pause] Btw, I'm having a lot of fun typing this, spamming is so much fun :D So a routine that I have developed for myself is... The routine. + Show Spoiler + [First button, second button][There is a pause between every single 2-button cycle] Make sure you do this on both hands at the same time. -Pinky -Ring Finger>Pinky -Middle Finger>Pinky -Index Finger>Pinky -Thumb>Pinky -Ring Finger -Middle Finger>Ring Finger -Index Finger>Ring Finger -Thumb>Ring Finger -Middle Finger -Index Finger>Middle Finger -Thumb>Middle Finger -Index Finger -Thumb>Index Finger Hopefully you understand the pattern ^_^ Now, it is important to have speed in both directions. So we'll do it reversed as well. -Thumb -Index Finger>Thumb -Middle Finger>Thumb -Ring Finger>Thumb -Pinky>Thumb -Index Finger -Middle Finger>Index Finger -Ring Finger>Index Finger -Pinky>Index Finger -Middle Finger -Ring Finger>Middle Finger -Pinky>Middle Finger -Ring Finger -Pinky>Ring Finger You can see how every permutation is practiced. You have to do this a lot. I do this when I'm walking home, because it's 45 minutes of nothing to do, so I kinda just do this as I'm walking, and I get a lot of weird looks, but hey, I can awesome hand speed If you are using more than 3 fingers in a cycle (5sz6sz7sz), then you really don't need to practice those physically, you just need to practice doing them, because your mind needs to practice this, not your hands. Practicing Double Tapping [The name that I gave it  ] [4455445544554455445544554455]+ Show Spoiler + So let's say you want to look back at your base really fast, and then right back to your scouting worker. I'm assuming most people hotkey their main building to 4 (even though I hotkey it to 1 because I'm a freak of nature), and hotkey their scouting worker to 1 (I put it on 3...yet again, freak of nature :D) So, you want to be able to hit 4411 extremely quickly. You'll only get a brief glimpse, but that's all you really need if your mind is fast enough. You don't want your worker to die to that slowlot, that's just embarrassing. You could set some shift-commands, but if you're like me and believe you're too cool for them... So practicing double tapping between two specific fingers goes as follows. What I personally find is the best is like the intense part of a metal song. So let's say 4 is my index finger, and 1 is my ring finger because I don't like to use the pinky. So the way I practice it is: 4411 [pause] 4411 [pause] 44114411 [pause] 4411 [pause] 44114411 [pause]... Hopefully you see the pattern. Do this for the most important finger combinations that you believe that you will be using. The very first drill works it, but this gives a little bit of an extra boost to it. Like with me, I can go 1122332211223322112233221122332211331133113311331133113311331133 extremely quickly. Applying This to "Macro Algorithms" + Show Spoiler + First of all, what is a macro algorithm? A macro algorithm is something like 4ss5aaaaaaaaaaaaa[tab]dd[tab]dd (again, this is the common setup. With me it would be 1ss2aaaaaaaaaaaaa[tab]dd[tab]dd) or something like 4s5a1, for when you're microing your scouting worker around, but want to make a Marine and SCV really fast. I practice these things the same way that I practice double tapping. So for 4s5a1, I would go 4s5a1 [pause] 4s5a1 [pause] 4s5a4s5a1 [pause] 4s5a1 [pause] 4s5a4s5a1... Yes, the 1's are left out on purpose. That is because there's a rhythm to it, and I'd rather you not break the rhythm. What if you wanted 2 SCVs and 2 marines? It's faster to go 1s2a1s2a3 than it is to go 1ss2aa3. Trust me, switching is faster than double tapping. At least from my experiences they are... What about working things like 1a2a3a or 4a5a6a? I like to break it up into pairs, and then do it all together. So for 4a5a6a7a8a9a0a, I'd go 4a [pause] 5a [pause] 6a [pause] 7a [pause] 8a [pause] 9a [pause] 0a [pause] 4a5a6a7a8a9a0a And um yeah. Rolling + Show Spoiler + How fast can you go 123123123123123123123123123123123123123? or 123412341234123412341234? When I do this, I spiked at 450 APM (well I did today, because I was nervous as hell during my HSSTL match lol) The technique I call rolling, and it doesn't really serve much purpose in game, unless you're checking your base to see what's done and what isn't. That's what I use it for at least. So to roll, make sure you start on the edge of the hand, and just roll down to the other side. Make sure you do both ways, and make sure you start on every single finger both ways. So roll from pinky to thumb, ring finger to thumb, etc... and for the other side go thumb to pinky, index finger to pinky, middle finger to pinky, etc.... The reason we don't need to stop it early is because I feel like you get the same practice even if you don't stop it early. So going from ring finger to thumb helps practice ring finger to index finger in my opinion. Keyboard Sense + Show Spoiler + Much like air sense, or water sense, there's a sense for everything. In this case, I'm going to be referring to keyboard sense, or the knowledge of how far the keys from each other on your keyboard. If you've been using a computer for a long time, your left hand might not be acquainted with the distances of the keys on the right side of the keyboard. If you played Brood War, or any amount of Starcraft, they should be. You should be able to reach over there and hit p without looking, and hit it perfectly. Keyboard sense is important in this case, because you should practice macro algorithms when you get bored, but you need to practice them with the correct spacing between your fingers. This isn't a problem with most people, because if you start on a keyboard, your brain kind of just remembers the spacing between all of the keys, and you'll be golden. Just bringing this up, because keyboard sense is kind of important :D So I hope this helped you, and hope that you will one day have super gosu handspeed! :D And also, let me know if there's anything I should add. To be honest, This will help you improve your apm from 20-50 and 200+. After you get the hang of using your hands on a keyboard you should have enough dexterity to keep up with your gameplay, it's only when you get so good that you need faster hands to keep up with your mind will this help advanced players. Having said that I use a technique that could help most ppl. In the beginning of a game players tend to spam the keyboard and hit 300-400 apm for at least the first minute, After that you go into normal mode and have your gameplay apm (140 for me). I am working on improving this by playing against the computer and just constantly trying to keep my apm up to 200 while macroing perfectly w/out having interference from the computer. Once you can keep your apm above 160 while macroing to 200 perfectly then start laddering with it (keep in mind that this should take a while. Even if you can do it almost immediately, you probably won't be rdy to keep your apm up that highe innately). Eventually you will be able to put this apm to good use in game. | ||
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Mahtasooma
Germany475 Posts
Where exactly does it say you will get banned for using macro keys? | ||
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Absentia
United Kingdom973 Posts
 ) but as Cecil says, fast fingers wont immediately give you fast, meaningful apm. The best way to achieve high meaningful apm is to just practice and refine your mechanics.Personally I found that my APM skyrocketed simply by knowing what I wanted to do in a game. | ||
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Erzz
Canada184 Posts
On June 13 2011 07:48 Morghaine wrote: Where exactly does it say you will get banned for using macro keys? The official Terms of Use that you agreed to when you installed the game. | ||
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XDJuicebox
United States593 Posts
Because these are based off a bunch of piano drills my friend gave me. The point of this is just to make your hands faster | ||
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KimJongChill
United States6429 Posts
On June 13 2011 06:20 CecilSunkure wrote: This whole thing more just looks like a list of things you like to do since you think you have fast apm. aka you're just showing off. It would be more helpful if you provided a means to increase handspeed in a game of sc2, and better yet how to convert that apm potential into meaningful actions. I didn't come here to plug, but honestly the thread I wrote on improving in general [I believe] is a much more effective means of becoming a balanced player, and being a balanced and skilled player includes playing quickly and utilizing high apm, rather than just spamming it with a few fingers. I can't stress enough the difference between spamming some keys mid-game and actually using those actions in a useful manner. I think it's still useful to have these kind of exercises to train the hands to be able to perform well. For instance, my ring and pinky fingers are extremely slow and maladroit, and I'd certainly like for them to be able to do what I want to do in a more effective way. | ||
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XDJuicebox
United States593 Posts
On June 13 2011 06:20 CecilSunkure wrote: This whole thing more just looks like a list of things you like to do since you think you have fast apm. aka you're just showing off. It would be more helpful if you provided a means to increase handspeed in a game of sc2, and better yet how to convert that apm potential into meaningful actions. I didn't come here to plug, but honestly the thread I wrote on improving in general [I believe] is a much more effective means of becoming a balanced player, and being a balanced and skilled player includes playing quickly and utilizing high apm, rather than just spamming it with a few fingers. I can't stress enough the difference between spamming some keys mid-game and actually using those actions in a useful manner. I don't think I have fast APM. I KNOW I have fast fingers. The reason I brought APM into this was that I needed to show people that my fingers were fast...and I used APM as a measure, and I specifically said that the APM was from spamming in the beginning of games. I actually only have an average of 150 effective APM in a real game. I'm not trying to show off, I'm trying to convince people that my fingers are fast, so that they'll actually read the rest of the thread. But since it was such a lengthy read, I'm not sure many people did. Once again, I used it as a gauge to measure the speed of my fingers, since I can't get my video camera to work for some reason, because no one wants to learn how to move their fingers faster from a guy with slow fingers, right? This is a guide about increasing finger speed, and I believe Starcraft 2 has some uses for it. I specifically said at the beginning (even before the numerous edits) that this might not specifically relate to Starcraft 2. This also isn't a thread about "converting that APM potential into meaningful actions," it is simply about just moving your fingers faster. I believe there are many threads out there (including yours) that cover this subject, and I chose not to comment about it because I am not an expert on the subject, and don't want to give people bad advice. Some people turn all of their APM into effective actions, but their fingers just don't move fast enough. This was written in hopes to remedy that. Just clearing things up | ||
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starcraft911
Korea (South)1263 Posts
p.s. op you seem like a troll or very arrogant... not sure which. XD | ||
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XDJuicebox
United States593 Posts
On June 13 2011 11:56 starcraft911 wrote: Practice is the best way. The more you know, the less you think and the less you think, the more you do. When you spend time thinking your hands slow down. Doing what's necessary to win instinctively comes from practice and that's why it's the best way. p.s. op you seem like a troll or very arrogant... not sure which. XD You're not supposed to do this while playing...I guess I also should have made that a little more obvious. When you're playing, these things should automatically come in. The best way is, indeed, practice. But let's say you're stuck on the 110 in Los Angeles (and you're not driving)...then this is what you'd do. I'm a bit of both actually. I like to be a troll, and I'm VERY arrogant. | ||
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Jetsuo
United States53 Posts
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