Find your home row, then find your flow
A practical introduction to the QWERTY home position, light movements and looking at the screen while you type.
Give your fingers a place to return to
On a standard English QWERTY keyboard, the home row is A, S, D and F for the left hand, and J, K, L and semicolon for the right. Most keyboards have small raised marks on F and J. Use these to find the starting position by touch.
Keep the position comfortable rather than rigid. Your thumbs can stay near the space bar, and your hands should be free to make small movements. The point is to have a reliable starting place, not to hold tension while trying to be perfect.
Start with the movement
Try a few short groups using only the home keys. Watch the screen and move one finger at a time. If you lose your position, pause, feel for F and J, and begin again. Looking down occasionally is part of learning; return your attention to the screen when you are ready.
Our home-row lesson mixes repeated key groups with words that use the same keys. Repetition helps you notice awkward movements, while short words give those movements a little more context.
Build beyond the middle row
When the home keys feel familiar, add the top row and then the bottom row. Reach from your home position and return after each movement. A focused drill can reveal whether a particular reach makes you move your whole hand.
Do not add every new key at once. Practise a small set, then connect it to a simple passage. Take breaks, keep your keystrokes light, and stop if you feel discomfort. The visual keyboard in Typing Ground is a QWERTY guide; other layouts need their own key map.
Measure what helps you learn
Watch accuracy before trying to raise WPM. A useful practice run is one that gives you information, even if it is slower than yesterday. Review the keys you missed, repeat a short drill, and finish with a relaxed test.
Return to the same type of passage when checking progress. A home-row drill and a punctuation-heavy sentence test are different tasks, so their speed scores should not be treated as interchangeable.
Put a little of that into practice.
Start a free test and find your own rhythm.