so ive been at this for about 8 months now. started with the basics, got up to around 13wpm which felt great at the time but now i feel like im just spinning my wheels. i can copy most letters fine but when i get into actual QSOs or even just running the G4FON trainer at higher speeds i start falling behind and then i panic and lose my place entirely

i think part of the problem is im still kind of spelling out the letters in my head instead of just hearing whole words. like i know thats the thing everyone talks about but knowing it and actually doing it are very different things lol. started with 5wpm back in january doing the Koch method and honestly that first stretch from 5 to maybe 10 felt pretty natural but somewhere after that it just got harder

is there a trick to getting past this plateau or is it really just more hours? i do about 20-25 minutes a day most days. wondering if i should bump up to like 17 or 18wpm in the trainer even if my copy is terrible, or if thats just going to reinforce bad habits. also been thinking about trying LCWO but havent set it up yet

yeah the 12-15 range is where most people get stuck, its almost like a rite of passage at this point. what worked for me and a lot of folks i know is to just crank the speed up past where you're comfortable and accept that you're gonna miss stuff. like set it to 18 or even 20 and just try to catch what you can. your brain will start recognizing the rhythm of common words even when you miss individual characters

the thing about spelling letters in your head — you gotta starve that habit out basically. if you give your brain time to process each letter it'll keep doing that. faster speeds force you to let go because there just isnt time. it feels awful at first, you'll maybe copy 30% of what you hear, but stick with it for a week or two and something kind of clicks. also honestly head copying while doing something slightly boring like folding laundry or whatever helped me more than sitting at a desk staring at a notebook

LCWO is good, definitely worth setting up. the word training there is really useful once you have the alphabet solid

im basically in the same boat as you, maybe a little behind actually — im at about 11wpm right now and have been for like two months. so i dont have great advice but wanted to say youre not alone in hitting this wall. someone on another forum told me to try listening to W1AW code practice transmissions even if i cant copy it all, just to hear the rhythm of real operating. havent done it consistently enough to say if it works yet tbh