Looking for hand speed exercises.

On February 21 2011 19:00 rei wrote:
hand speed is not the reason someone is playing fast, apm is a by-product of multitasking. When you get better at multitasking you will play in a higher apm.

On February 21 2011 19:02 Steamboatlol wrote:


I know this. Like I said sometimes I know all the things I need to do but my hands can't keep up with what my head wants them to do.

On February 21 2011 19:02 Steamboatlol wrote:


I know this. Like I said sometimes I know all the things I need to do but my hands can't keep up with what my head wants them to do.

On February 21 2011 18:29 Steamboatlol wrote:
So I've come to the conclusion that I have slow uncoordinated fingers. I average 60 APM a game and really just am looking for some simple exercises to train my hands to be faster. I've used the search function and no dice. When I google search things like finger speed/coordination all I get are guitar and piano guides which require a guitar or piano. I'm getting a mechanical keyboard but I know that equipment can only take you so far (which isn't very far at all). Can anyone help me?

On February 21 2011 19:26 vaderseven wrote:
Hand speed and APM are only related when you are trying to improve like that stupid fast parts of the top level play. Bisu talked about it once in some interview or vod (I think bnet attacks) and he basically says he wants to improve his hand speed so he can play faster. He is a 350+ apm player. Thats where that kind of discussion is the right way to look at the issue.

What you need for breaking your apm barrier of 60 apm is better control, not faster control. Find ways to use hotkeys more, move the mouse less, and to do each individual action with the least amount of excess movement or downtime and you will find that your apm will go way up. Want to know how to do exactly that? Take a tiny part of your play and refine it. Here is a step by step on how to do exactly that.

I assume you are Zerg by your icon. Try this, go into a blank map. Make some lings and send them somewhere. Hotkey them to 1. Go to your base and either hotkey the main hatch to like 5 and the natural hatch to 6 (both hatches on 4 for making the units) or set a screen hotkey (aka the fkeys) so that one is over each hatch. Get a few drones at each base and one gas going at your main.

Now press 11. Play with your lings. Get in the groove of it. Spread em out, move 2 over there and 4 over there. Just like keep them active. Now keep doing that and think about something that you normally do in a game. For this example lets say you want to take the 2 gas at your natural. You are still playin with the lings. Think about that 2 gas you want to take. Now move all your lings back to simulate a good little safe move back (say half a screen back to "safety"), use a hotkey (screen hotkey or double tap the hotkey for the hatch) to instantly go to your natural. Box two drones (or more), hit 'b' then 'v' (shift) (click on gas) (click on other gas) then double tap '1'.

Thats what will make you a fast player. Being able to do things like this. Did you do it so fast you were able to be zoomed back at your lings before they had moved half a screen (about 1 or 2 seconds time im guessing)? No? Then go to your natural, cancel the 2 gas, double hit '1' and get your lings all moving and playing again. Think about what you are about to try. Keep the lings moving. Move lings to safe spot, zoom to nat, make the 2 gas with no wild mouse movements and as few keys used as possible, zoom to lings.

This little exercise is based on teaching your to be able to be doing something (microing or scouting or positioning units in this case), think about what you want to do next in your build (take 2 gas in this case), move troops to a safe spot so that you have a few seconds of peace of mind where your troops will not be in danger, zoom to the area where you can do that next thing of your build, do it in a effecient manner (as few as possible clicks and mouse movements), and then zoom to the next task (in this case, going back to your lings before anything bad happens to them).

If you do this example exactly, and you do it correctly, you should be able to zoom back to the lings and have them moving somewhere new before they stop moving to safety. This will make it look like they are always being controlled/microed to an obs or to the enemy. This is the sign of a fast player.

I went and checked just to give you an idea of the 'hand speed' needed to do this by doing my example. While playing with my lings my apm was about 100. When I zoomed to my nat and made the stuff and zoomed back to my lings, it jumped to about 130 for a second and then was back to around 100.

I tried it again after that trying to be as low apm as possible and still do it correctly. To test my execution speed of placing the 2 gas I made it a mental goal to only move the lings back about 1/8th of a screen size (lings move that in NO time) when going to go place the gas. I was able to keep the lings moving without them stopping, place the 2 gas, and zoom back to the lings before they stopped with around 50 apm.

I am very sure that if you try this you will find you take around 5-10 seconds to place those 2 gas. Use accurate and sure mouse control and know by heart what you mean to do with your keyboard hand before you do it and you can do that step in WELL under one second without amazing handspeed. When doing the example and trying for low apm I was able to only spend ~1 second looking at my natural as I placed the 2 gas.

I am very sure that my handspeed was much higher while typing this post then when I was doing the little drill.

Its a mental thing, know that its not about speed but about memory and precision and good use of the UI.

On February 21 2011 19:35 Granath wrote:
Seriously dude, I can't imagine any exercise that will improve handspeed and coordination FOR Starcraft more then actually PLAYING Starcraft.

People are always looking for shortcuts or small tricks to improve, but the best thing to do is just play the game.

If I wanna be a fast drummer I don't think to myself "Well then I should probably hit the gym and work on my wrist strength". No I would just drum wouldn't I?

On February 21 2011 19:46 Saechiis wrote:
I think you need more precision, not more speed. You can have all the speed in the world but if you can't hit the unit or facility you want instantly you're not playing any faster. I think you would be better off focusing on clicking accurately and adjusting your mouse and ingame settings for precision.

I always rapidly click mineral patches, vespene geysers and harvesters inbetween box select spamming in the early game. It actually really helped me with fast accuracy.

On February 21 2011 20:10 Saechiis wrote:


Then you need a more accurate OP

In that case, you'll have to do the same for the keyboard. Hotkey whatever you can and force yourself to use those even though you play like crap because of it. No peeking at the keyboard allowed, so maybe you should practice in a dark environment (like all proper nerds). Never click on stuff unless you absolutely have to and use your hotkeys to tab through your production facilities to see what is getting done, don't queue.

The largest APM improvement for me came when I could hit all my hotkeys without watching them and started looking at the minimap for things to do in addition to having a gameplan.

Basically, watch the recent Day9 daily on mechanics, it is really clear in how to practice properly. You certainly don't need a new keyboard, that's probably the last place to look for APM improvement (unless it's unresponsive or broken ofc).

On February 21 2011 19:09 rei wrote:


You want to learn how to multitasking? knowing all the things you need to do but unable to do them in the right timing, is not because your hands can't keep up, it is because you are not assigning priority in to those different tasks. Let me know if you want lesson, my rate is 200 wow gold per hour, very cheap.

On February 21 2011 22:28 Deadlyfish wrote:The reason you only have 60 APM in starcraft is because you dont have enough practice. Getting familiar with hotkeys, and remembering supply/spending/making units is the hard part.

On February 21 2011 19:35 Granath wrote:
Seriously dude, I can't imagine any exercise that will improve handspeed and coordination FOR Starcraft more then actually PLAYING Starcraft.

People are always looking for shortcuts or small tricks to improve, but the best thing to do is just play the game.

On February 21 2011 22:48 Shikyo wrote:

http://www.starcraft.7x.ru/content/files_real_down.php?fid=651 This is amazing for mouse and helps with keyboard as well if you so choose. Not exactly developed with SC2 in mind but that doesn't matter at all.

On February 21 2011 23:04 vyyye wrote:

Thanks for that, really brilliant little game. If only the resolution could be made higher somehow, I'll look around for something resembling a settings.txt but man, Left click+Right Click+Keyboard was bloody hard even on normal. I like that the letters appear where the minimap is as well.

On February 21 2011 19:44 Steamboatlol wrote:

I don't think that analogy is entirely accurate. For example when boxers want to increase their punching speed they do a lot more training with the speed bag. Sure they still spar, but they are addressing a specific problem with a specific regiment.

On February 21 2011 23:45 trNimitz wrote:


Lol that's just wrong... to get faster there's only one solution, train more (this is coming from an experienced boxer btw).

On February 21 2011 19:39 Steamboatlol wrote:


60 is what the average thing says, it jumps to 150ish when I really start multitasking. I guess what I need to make clear here is I'm not asking about apm, I'm asking about hand speed. I play toss but I appreciate the advice. As a side note, when my hands are moving fast they look like a sloppy awkward caveman instead of the clean piano like tapping of the pro gamers. I know many of the things I need to do, but I need to do them a lot faster. I know this isn't the only thing holding me back but it's certainly something I'd like to work on.