So anyways, I did a thing and I wanted to talk about it and ask about your experiences:
Recently I changed my key layout. From
dfjk to
sdnum8num9. Basically almost as far apart as possible.
Initially it just felt silly: my brain still knew perfectly what to do, but my fingers were sending different signals than usual. Then, after say, half an hour, I kinda felt more skillful. So I started playing maps that previously were to challenging. I couldn't quite tell whether there was an immediate improvement.
But it's been two or three weeks now and I'm definitely playing maps now that would have seemed impossible before. My rank clearly shows that I've improved
a lot.
And it feels really really good!
I've got two explanations:
1. Because of the aforementioned silly feeling (it wore off after half an hour and feels completely natural again today, but still) I've had to actively concentrate more on playing correctly. Before, my mind would often drift off and my fingers would do the playing by themselves. Surely, playing while actively concentrating is much more efficient training.
2. I've been playing with
dfjk forever. Maybe a few bad habits sneaked into my finger movements. Changing the key layout (and with it hand position and to an extent the exact movements of my finger muscles) broke those bad habits.
Did you have any similar experiences? Are you gonna try out a new key layout? It can't hurt to try. Probably.