so i started learning morse code back in the spring, got my general in june and figured id really commit to learning cw properly. went through the whole koch method thing on lcwo.net and got up to about 13wpm receiving but now i just feel completely stuck. like i can copy most letters fine when i'm relaxed but the second i try to push the speed up even a little bit everything just falls apart and i start trying to count dits and dahs again which i know is wrong but i cant stop myself from doing it.

im practicing maybe 30 minutes a day, sometimes more on weekends. using the G4FON trainer mostly. i've heard people say you should just jump way up in speed and let your brain catch up but that sounds kind of terrifying honestly. has anyone actually made it from like 5wpm all the way up to 20 or beyond and can tell me what actually worked for them? i feel like im missing something obvious.

oh man this is exactly where i was about two years ago, stuck at that same 12-13wpm wall for what felt like forever. what finally broke it for me was honestly just listening to a lot of real QSOs on the air even when i could barely copy anything. like i'd tune around 40m in the evenings and just listen, not even trying to copy everything, just letting my ears get used to the rhythm of actual operators sending. the practice software is great for learning letters but real code on the air has a totally different feel to it.

also i did try the jump to high speed thing, bumped up to 20wpm with like 10wpm farnsworth spacing and left it there for a few weeks even though it felt hopeless. something clicked around week three and i started recognizing common words and prosigns as whole chunks instead of individual letters. dont give up, that wall is real but its not permanent.

the counting dits and dahs thing will absolutely kill your speed, you gotta break that habit somehow. what helped me was just doing really really short sessions at a speed that was uncomfortable, like only 5 minutes at a time but pushed maybe 2wpm faster than felt okay, then back down to something comfortable. i read somewhere that your brain consolidates the patterns during rest so hammering away for an hour at a frustrating speed might actually be less effective than shorter bursts. no idea if thats scientifically true but it seemed to work for me lol. also just send a lot, not just receive. even if your fist isnt perfect the act of sending helps wire the letters in somehow.