so ive been trying to learn CW for about 3 months now and i finally got myself a decent set of paddles, nothing fancy just a cheap Bencher clone i found on ebay but it seems well built enough. the problem im running into is my characters come out kind of mushy, like the dits and dahs run together or i get extra dits where i dont want them. im using a Winkeyer USB for the keyer and i honestly dont even know if ive got the settings dialed in right. i watched some youtube videos on squeeze keying vs single lever but i think maybe i just dont have the muscle memory yet.

is there a good way to practice getting cleaner timing? i try to just send random words but maybe im doing it wrong. also wondering if the paddle tension matters a lot because mine feels pretty light, like the contacts close really easily. been copying at about 12 wpm and sending is probably worse than my receive at this point which i guess is normal.

the tension thing actually matters more than people admit when they're starting out. if the contacts close too easy you end up with accidental closures just from resting your fingers on the paddle, which creates all that mush you're describing. try tightening them up a bit and give yourself a little more resistance to work against, at least until your touch gets more deliberate. it'll feel weird at first but most people find cleaner sends after.

also on the Winkeyer, make sure your weight setting isnt cranked too high. somewhere around 50 is usually a good starting point and then nudge it from there. and honestly just practice sending single letters over and over instead of whole words, like really slow down to where every element is clean before you speed back up. Koch method is great for receive but for sending people dont talk about slow deliberate practice enough.

yeah im kind of in the same boat haha been at it maybe 4 months and my sending is still pretty rough. one thing that helped me was actually recording myself with fldigi or something similar and listening back, you can really hear where youre clipping the dits or squashing the dahs. its kind of painful to hear yourself but it works. also someone on another forum told me to not look at my hand while sending and i thought that was weird advice but it actually helped me stop overthinking every character