Front-loading keyboarding practice

I stumbled across a piece of research recently where the aim was to see if different timings of practice might affect participant keyboarding improvement/development. To check that, the researchers used an online keyboard training platform (Typing Club), which measured participant keying speed and accuracy. All participant groups spent five hours practicing their keyboarding during the programme, but each group's scheduling of their practice differed (Mugglestone, 2024) in one of three ways. 

• One group 'front-loaded' their practice, by doing the bulk of the training early in the programme, then doing smaller top-up practices to cement the learning later on. 
• The second group had a linear practice load, spread evenly throughout. 
• The third group 'back-loaded' practice, doing less practice initially, then increasing the practice session durations toward the end. 

What was interesting was that the front-loaded group significantly improved their keyboarding speed, despite practice being the same overall. While the findings suggest that early intense practice may better increase performance, practice timing didn’t affect accuracy. Additionally, there wasn’t enough evidence to see whether the front-loaded group also retained their skills after training ended (Mugglestone, 2024). A similar study considering long-term retention could be very useful.

But. This does show that when we practice might be just as important as how much we practice. If the research findings are transferrable, front-loading practice may help us speed up our learning. To make learning more efficient, schools or companies could design training programs to build early practice into programmes (Mugglestone, 2024). 

The early bird may indeed get the worm: getting off to an early start may well give us a competitive advantage.

And it may keep us engaged for longer. 

Sam

References:

Mugglestone, R. (2024). Beyond Marginal Gains: The Search for High Performance and ‘High-Hanging’ Fruit. Routledge.

Typing Club. (2025). Home. https://www.typingclub.com/