I've been practicing CW for about 6 months now and am pretty solid at 5 WPM, but I just hit a wall at 10 WPM. Every time I try to go faster, I start counting dits and dahs instead of hearing the characters. I've heard about the Koch method but haven't tried it yet.

Should I ditch my current approach and start over with Koch? Really want to get to 20 WPM for contesting but feeling frustrated right now.

Any advice would be appreciated!

The traditional methods most hams use are often the slowest and most frustrating approaches to learning code. I'd strongly recommend switching to Koch method - start at 20 WPM character speed with slower effective speed. Those who get past 10 WPM do so because they've developed copying as a reflex rather than thought.

I had the exact same problem! Spent months stuck at 8-10 WPM until I discovered LCWO.net. LCWO uses the Koch method starting with just a few characters and gradually adding more. The key is learning characters at full speed from the beginning so you don't develop bad habits.

Morse at 5 WPM and 15-20 WPM are completely different animals - you're essentially learning two different skills. I'd restart with Koch method at 20 WPM character speed. At 18 WPM character speed, most people can still count patterns but the mind starts focusing on entire character sounds. 73!