It’s Very Different
StarTouch is very different from software/online courses…
It’s different from how other typing trainers might teach…
And it’s probably different from anything you might imagine a typing course would be…
…it’s really very, very different!
For instance…
Rather than delivering the instruction ‘drip-feed’ fashion – via a long series of short lessons over an extended period of days or even weeks…
…StarTouch trains you in a single full & very ‘brain friendly’ Training Day
(…or sometimes 2 days, for small groups or corporate classes)
And on the learning day/s you really Learn – with a capital “L”!
Thoroughly. Unforgettably. Enjoyably. Effectively.
And very surprisingly most of the day/s is spent away from the keyboards!
Away from the keyboard?
How?
And Why?
The keyboard is just the device you need to operate. It doesn’t change.
What needs to change is YOU.
You need to think differently, and operate your body differently, if you want to type differently.
It’s the messages your brain sends to your body – and the behaviour that body responds with – which need to be “re-programmed”. And much of this re-programming is done better & more effectively with minimal attention given on the keyboard.
(After all, think about it: you need to be trained to think LESS about the keyboard: touch typists have very little concept in their head of the keyboard and its layout! Indeed, try asking a touch typist a question like “what’s to the right of the letter V on the keyboard?” and they may well not be able to answer… Their head doesn’t know the keyboard, their FINGERS do!)
But a person’s fingers don’t easily learn what to do by just doing ‘brute repetition’ – the dull exercises that characterise traditional touch typing courses: “ASDF FDSS SDFA AFFS… JKL: JKKJ LJ;L…” etc. especially if that practice is uncomfortable, under time pressure and full of errors.
With StarTouch, instead of “overdosing” on just slogging away at trying to do the eventual complete skill as much as possible, you’ll receive careful training on all the separate ‘components’ of the full skill, separately: eye control, posture, hand/finger position, finger dexterity, and of course choice of finger (knowing which fingers for which letters).
Most of this can be trained, surprisingly, without any reference to the keyboard. And the longer you’re kept away from the keys, the more likely your new training will not be undermined by your old habits.
What the immediate result?
It’s this approach which trains your body to rapidly start to ‘know’ (we call it Body Knowledge):
- how to sit;
- how not to look down;
- how to choose the correct fingers for any letter of the alphabet, and main punctuation marks
- how to make the correct movements with those correct fingers…
… all without your brain having to work so hard to try memorising the keyboard or hold on to all the instructions (which it then has to pass on to the body!)
So rather than teach your brain the facts, we train the body in the behaviour!
And somehow, by the end of one day (or two) – almost magically – it is possible for you to be doing the most important elements of touch typing, namely
Typing…
– with all your fingers;
– with control & confidence & Very High Accuracy;
– and without looking down!
- Importantly, the cost of the programme also includes as much support as each trainee wants to take advantage of during their all-important Practice Path (the days and weeks after the training day).The support includes:
– follow-up emails for a couple of weeks, to remind, challenge and encourage
– a website with loads of extra resources: reminders, tests, explanations and more
– an online practice tool that lets you submit your practice to me, for analysis, feedback and advise
– an offer of virtually unlimited email coaching correspondence between us; the only rule with this is – YOU have to drive it: if you keep emailing me (and submitting online practice), I will keep responding, to cheer, challenge, caution and coach! - Your practice (and the support I give via email) are essential, because it’s only practice which helps you to achieve what is NOT possible in one day, namely:- Habit
(by the end of the Training Day you’ll still have to be thinking lots, to make sure you’re doing things right; some of the ‘body knowledge’ may already be starting to become semi-instinctive that quickly. But it won’t yet feel totally natural, or be fully automatic. The only way you turn LEARNING into an automatic, thoughtless HABIT is by doing lots of repeated, frequent and accurate practice over the days and weeks after the training.)- Speed
(on the Training Day you will have been trained to go VERY SLOWLY: 1 or 2 wpm is plenty on Day 1! It’s possible, with relatively little practice to get to 10 or 20, or even 30 wpm or more within as little as 2 or 3 weeks… with very little loss of accuracy. Some people who practise less intensely take longer…) - How long any individual will have to practise before they’ve successfully consolidated their Learning into a usable new Habit is very hard to predict. Based on previous trainees’ experiences, it could be anywhere from 2 or 3 weeks to a couple of months or more.It’s based entirely on how soon, how much, how often and how correctly you get on with your practice (which is where the email coaching can help – even the best of us do better with training ‘regimes’ if we’re getting some support…)
- Here a view of some of my recent students’ progress, having been trained to be Accurate First, and then practise to gradually build Speed.
- One important point I forgot to mention. To start with, while you’re practising your touch typing, you will be BANNED from touch typing all the time!!You’ll be told to keep typing how you always have done whenever you have ANY pressure: lots to type, deadlines to meet; people watching etc. In other words, for your normal daily workload, patient notes, essays etc … you will NOT change to touch typing until you’re ready.Your practice period is a time where you BUILD your new skill without putting it to ‘real use’ (before it’s completely ready: habitual enough and fast enough!)
The STARTOUCH APPROACH
- My training approach is different from software/online courses.
And it’s different from what other typing trainers would do.
Indeed, it’s really very, very different! - For instance, the instruction element of it is based on a single Training Day, not a series of short lessons over an extended period. It’s one day where you really Learn (with a capital “L”). Thoroughly. Unforgettably. Effectively.
- Also, surprisingly, most of that day is spent away from the keyboards – doing some very unexpected activities. These train your brain and body to send the correct messages back and forth within it.This approach helps your body to rapidly start to ‘know’ how to sit, how not to look down and how to make the correct movements with the correct fingers, without your brain having to work so hard to try memorising the keyboard or the instructions (which it then has to pass on to the body!)
- By the end of one day, almost magically, it is possible for you to be doing what we agreed was the essence of touch typing, namely:Being able to type…
– with all your fingers;
– with high accuracy and control and confidence;
– and without looking down! - Importantly, the cost of the programme also includes as much support as each trainee wants to take advantage of during their all-important Practice Path (the days and weeks after the training day).The support includes:
– follow-up emails for a couple of weeks, to remind, challenge and encourage
– a website with loads of extra resources: reminders, tests, explanations and more
– an online practice tool that lets you submit your practice to me, for analysis, feedback and advise
– an offer of virtually unlimited email coaching correspondence between us; the only rule with this is – YOU have to drive it: if you keep emailing me (and submitting online practice), I will keep responding, to cheer, challenge, caution and coach! - Your practice (and the support I give via email) are essential, because it’s only practice which helps you to achieve what is NOT possible in one day, namely:- Habit
(by the end of the Training Day you’ll still have to be thinking lots, to make sure you’re doing things right; some of the ‘body knowledge’ may already be starting to become semi-instinctive that quickly. But it won’t yet feel totally natural, or be fully automatic. The only way you turn LEARNING into an automatic, thoughtless HABIT is by doing lots of repeated, frequent and accurate practice over the days and weeks after the training.)- Speed
(on the Training Day you will have been trained to go VERY SLOWLY: 1 or 2 wpm is plenty on Day 1! It’s possible, with relatively little practice to get to 10 or 20, or even 30 wpm or more within as little as 2 or 3 weeks… with very little loss of accuracy. Some people who practise less intensely take longer…) - How long any individual will have to practise before they’ve successfully consolidated their Learning into a usable new Habit is very hard to predict. Based on previous trainees’ experiences, it could be anywhere from 2 or 3 weeks to a couple of months or more.It’s based entirely on how soon, how much, how often and how correctly you get on with your practice (which is where the email coaching can help – even the best of us do better with training ‘regimes’ if we’re getting some support…)
- Here a view of some of my recent students’ progress, having been trained to be Accurate First, and then practise to gradually build Speed.
- One important point I forgot to mention. To start with, while you’re practising your touch typing, you will be BANNED from touch typing all the time!!You’ll be told to keep typing how you always have done whenever you have ANY pressure: lots to type, deadlines to meet; people watching etc. In other words, for your normal daily workload, patient notes, essays etc … you will NOT change to touch typing until you’re ready.Your practice period is a time where you BUILD your new skill without putting it to ‘real use’ (before it’s completely ready: habitual enough and fast enough!)