so ive been trying to learn CW properly for about 3 months now and i finally got a decent paddle, a Begali Traveler i picked up used, and i thought that would solve my problems but honestly my sending still sounds terrible. like the dits and dahs are all mushy and run together sometimes and other times there's these weird gaps. im using a MFJ keyer for now and i've messed with the weight and ratio settings but i can never seem to find the sweet spot.

been practicing with the Koch method at like 15/20 farnsworth spacing and i can copy okay at that speed but my sending is just not keeping up. wondering if its a tension thing on the paddle or maybe i'm just gripping it too hard? my hand gets tired after like 10 minutes. any tips from people who've been through this would be great, i feel like i'm missing something obvious

yeah the hand fatigue thing is almost always a grip issue, took me forever to figure that out. you really want to be resting your fingers on the paddles with almost no pressure, just enough to make contact. sounds weird but try practicing really slowly with the keyer turned way down in speed, like 8 or 10 wpm, and focus only on the touch. not the code itself, just how light you can make the contact. the muscle memory will build from there and your timing will clean up on its own once you're not fighting your own hand.

also the MFJ keyers are fine but some of them have a bit of slop in the iambic behavior that can make things feel weird when you're learning. if you're not already try switching it to mode A and see if that feels more predictable. mode B trips up a lot of people starting out.

I went through the exact same thing last year and what finally clicked for me was just slowing way down and doing 20-30 minute sessions instead of grinding for an hour. the tension stuff is real, i didnt even notice how tense my whole arm was until my elbow started aching. also i moved my paddle closer to the edge of the desk so my wrist wasnt bent at a weird angle and that helped a ton. keep at it, it does get better