Home row typing practice

Why home row first?

Touch typing fails when fingers wander. Home row gives each finger a home key and a clear reach map. Without that map, every keystroke is a search — you look down, lose the line, and retype mistakes.

Typing Coach’s Fingers mode walks left hand → right hand → both hands before top and bottom rows. That order is deliberate: build anchors, then teach reaches that always return home.

Read the full method in How to learn touch typing.

Home row finger map (US QWERTY)

Index fingers feel the raised bumps on F and J. If you cannot find them without looking, start every session by resting there with eyes closed for five seconds.

How the curriculum works

Each step requires about 96% accuracy to unlock the next. That gate keeps speed from outrunning form. Open the ladder anytime from Practice → Fingers in the app.

1. Home row left (A S D F)
2. Home row right (J K L + pinky home)
3. Full home row + space
4. Top row left, then right
5. Bottom row left, then right
6. Full board ownership

Skip steps only if you already type without looking and can hold high accuracy. Most beginners who skip home row rebuild bad habits under a higher score ceiling — then plateau hard.

Portuguese (PT-PT) home row note

On the Portuguese (Portugal) layout, the right-pinky home key is ç, not semicolon. Punctuation on the bottom row also differs. If you train on a US map while using a PT keyboard, the hand guide will lie to you.

Start from the PT-PT dactilografia page or switch layout in Settings before lesson 1.

Practice habits that stick

• Ten focused minutes beats one frustrated hour.
• Never look down to “just check” — use the on-screen guide instead.
• When accuracy drops below ~94%, slow down; do not add speed drills yet.
• After you pass home row, keep a short home-row warm-up forever — it re-anchors the hands.