so ive been working on CW for about 8 months now and i feel like i hit a wall around 10wpm and just cant seem to push through it. started with the Koch method back when i first got licensed and got all the characters down pretty quick, was feeling good about myself at 5wpm and worked my way up to about 10 without too much trouble. but now its like my brain just freezes up when things get any faster than that.

ive been using the LCWO website mostly and doing some of the code groups but honestly sometimes i wonder if im going about this the wrong way. i sit down for maybe 20-30 minutes a day and by the end im frustrated more often than not. a buddy at the club said i should try just listening to actual QSOs on the air even if i cant copy everything, just to get used to the rhythm of it. is that actually useful or is it just gonna mess me up more at this stage?

my goal is eventually 20wpm for general operating, not trying to be a contest superstar or anything. just want to be comfortable having a ragchew on CW. any advice from people who got through this hump would be really appreciated

oh man i went through exactly this, stuck at 10 for almost a year before something finally clicked. what helped me more than anything was just forcing myself to copy head copy instead of writing everything down. like literally put the pencil away. you're going to miss stuff and it feels terrible at first but your brain starts filling in gaps using context and that's kind of the whole skill you're actually building.

your buddy is right about listening to real QSOs too. code groups are fine for building raw speed but they have zero context so your brain gets no help. when two guys are talking about the weather and their rigs you'd be surprised how much you can figure out even if you only catch half the characters. W1AW practice transmissions are also really good because they go through multiple speeds in one session, you can catch most of the slower one and then just try to hang on for the faster pass.

also and i know this sounds annoying but 20-30 minutes frustrated is probably worse than 10 minutes relaxed. i used to do short sessions right after my morning coffee when i was in a decent mood and that made a bigger difference than grinding through long frustrated sessions. the frustration actually slows down the learning i think, at least it did for me

im kind of in the same boat actually, sitting around 12wpm right now and trying to get to 20 before the end of the year. one thing that helped me recently was using the Morse Code Ninja videos on youtube, he has these word lists organized by frequency so you're drilling the most common words over and over until they just become sounds you recognize without thinking. dit dah dah dit is just P now, i dont count it out anymore ya know.

also dont underestimate just having a straight key or a paddle and sending too, not just receiving. something about having to produce the code at a faster speed kind of forces your ear to keep up when you go back to copying