Steno Advice as to the Basic Hand Position for stenography and court reporting

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The fingers must be positioned so that they can reach all of the keys during all of the combinations of strokes. There are many things to take into account. <br> <br>BODY POSITION<br> <br>Back straight. Head straight, but up or down as you wish. Feet flat, but movable. Sounds great, doesn't it? It's not easy. None of us can maintain the perfect position forever. Here are tips on what to look for when you move around.<br> <br>Your body should be symmetrical above the knees. Keep your body facing straight ahead. No twisting to the side or sitting on just one cheek. You're not watching television. You're stroking on a machine that is centered between your legs.<br>Move your feet anywhere you want, but move them together. Put both feet out in front, or put both feet to the rear. Moving your feet forward or to the rear can change how your upper legs are positioned. Having one foot forward and one foot back can cause you to twist your hips.<br>If your hips are not centered, your spine will be crooked which makes your shoulders crooked which makes your arms crooked which wrecks your hand position. This costs you speed.<br>Back cushions are remarkable aids. No matter how benevolent the school, those chairs are hard to sit in comfortably day after day.<br>When you change your body position, change the position of your machine. You must strive to maintain a good hand position.<br> <br>STAND POSITION<br> <br>Here we are concerned with the stand, not the machine. Does your machine move up and down when you stroke? Maybe you can reduce this by experimenting with how you set up your stand. However, this applies mostly to those with older or used equipment. Newer equipment doesn't have the "give" that older equipment has. Older equipment has older parts. Parts eventually wear out.<br>Set up your stand so that one leg is straight out in front of you. Stroke normally. Now try the other two legs. Which position gave the least amount of wobble?<br>Now set it so that one leg comes straight back at you. Stroke normally. Try the other two legs. Which position was the best?<br>Hopefully one of these positions will cause less wobble or bounce of the machine. Mark one of the legs so you will know how to set up next time. This can also quiet down a noisy machine to a small extent.<br>Try a friend's stand. Does your machine move less? It may be that you need a new stand. If you can cut down the amount of movement of your machine, you will increase your accuracy.<br> <br>MACHINE POSITION<br> <br>Those of you who have machines that can be adjusted to tilt back and forward have to modify the instructions on hand position. These devices are excellent additions to your equipment. Just make sure that your fingers can easily reach all of the keys. It is not enough, or even important, that it feels better any particular way. The question is: Can you reach all of the keys easily?<br>The machine should allow your forearms to be approximately horizontal. If your fingers are properly curved and your wrist is fairly straight and your forearm is approximately horizontal, then your machine is at the proper height.<br> <br> <br>HAND POSITION<br> <br>If your machine is at the proper height, then your arms are in the proper position. Now, it is time to get your hands into position.<br>First, put your vanity on hold and clip your nails. This is necessary, and no one is so good that they couldn't stand to gain a little extra speed by cutting their nails. Those of you who refuse, I can't help you. Stumble along on your own, please.<br>You need to be able to feel the keys. There is no feeling in your nails. You can't tell where the individual keys are when your nails are the only things making contact. Yes, it can be done, but you are handicapping yourself for no good reason. Cut your nails.<br>Back to the subject at hand: hand position. Place your hands back on your machine and stroke for a few minutes. Look at your hands at the end of that practice. There should be almost no angle between your arm and your hand. The wrist should be pretty near straight. By the way, when your wrist is straight, the back of the hand does rise up. A more accurate way to measure if your wrist is straight is to look at the thumb area.<br>Lay your hand and forearm flat on a table. Now tense the wrist so it doesn't change position. Pick up your arm. Ignore the fingers; look at the thumb area. The bottom of the thumb is in a fairly straight line with the bottom of the arm. That is the correct position of the wrist when you are on the machine.<br>If your wrists aren't straight, there are two possible reasons. One is that your machine is too high or too low. This is the most probable cause. Don't adjust your hand position to compensate for a bad arm position. Change the arm position.<br>The other possibility is nervous tension. This probably isn't apparent when you initially sit down at the machine. This beast raises its ugly head when your mind is occupied. So check your hand position after you have been practicing.<br>If your arm is in the proper position, and your wrist starts in the proper position, and yet it ends up severely angled either up or down, guess what you are doing? Guess what you have to do to stop? Take that chill pill now and relax. This ain't life and death. Don't let nerves and stress interfere with your hand and body position.<br> <br> <br>FINGER POSITION<br> <br>The finger position that you are looking for is fairly simple. Follow these steps to find it once, and you will be on your way to greater endurance and surer stroking.<br>Let your arm hang down to your side normally. Relax your hand. Clench your fist. Now release it. Shake it around a little to relieve any tension. Do this a few times to make sure you are properly relaxed.<br>Your fingers, when your hand is relaxed, have a natural curve to them. Your thumb may be pointing toward the tip of your index finger, but most likely, it is pointing to the spot where the tip of your index finger would be if your index finger was as long as your middle finger.<br>Try this. Keep your arm and hand relaxed and at your side. Make sure you can see the palm side of your fingers. You don't need to see the palm, just that side of the fingers. Now move your thumb back and forth to your palm. Don't tense your hand while you do this.<br>You should see your thumb sweep past the tips of the fingers. It won't touch the fingers. If it does, your hand is not relaxed. If your thumb was longer, it might brush the middle finger as it crosses to the palm.<br>Now hold your hand up at eye level, and sweep your thumb across your fingertips. Notice anything different? If you're like most people, your fingertips are now lined up even with each other. You have put tension in your hand simply by raising it and looking at it. I told you to keep it relaxed. I told you to keep the tension out of your hand, and look what you have done.<br>Guess what? You want your fingertips lined up. That is how they rest on your keyboard. Sweep your thumb back and forth a few times to make sure that it is sweeping past the middle finger just like it did when your arm was hanging.<br>Luckily, if your fingers are still curved, and if your thumb still sweeps past the middle finger at about the same distance as it did when your hand was hanging. If you have done all of the above, you have discovered your natural hand position.<br>There is one last important thing to take into consideration. Again, let your arm relax at your side. Make a fist, relax, and shake your fingers. When they are relaxed, raise your hand to eye level so that you can see through the hole made by your thumb and index finger.<br>Relax your arm again. Make a fist, relax, shake, blah, blah, blah. Again, hold it up so you can see between your thumb and index finger. Is your arm straight up in the air? Is your hand relaxed with the fingers naturally curved? If so, you should notice that the back of the hand does not follow the same angle as your arm. If it is, you still have tension.<br>This is the proper wrist position. Lay your arm flat on the table before you. The thumb should be resting on its side, the fingertips touching the table. Notice how the back of your hand rises from the wrist to the first finger joints? This is important. Keep this angle when you are on your machine.<br> <br>To review, when you are sitting at your machine:<br>Your arm from shoulder to elbow should hang naturally at your side,<br>Your arm from elbow to wrist should be fairly flat or parallel to the floor,<br>Your wrist is straight if the bottom of your thumb and the bottom of your arm are in a fairly straight line.<br>Your wrist is straight if the back of your hand has a natural rise to it.,<br>Your fingers should be naturally bent. Don't try to bend them more, don't try to straighten them,<br>Your fingertips should be even so that they all rest on the machine lightly,<br>Your fingernails are short.<br>No two people are built alike. The proper position of your hands ultimately depends on whether you can stroke correctly.<br> <br> <br>GOOFY STUFF THAT AFFECTS YOUR SPEED<br> <br>Get your sleep. Don't tell me that you always survived on x amount of sleep. When you did that, you weren't in this school trying to pass these tests. And don't expect one good night of sleep to make up for everything. The body needs a regular rhythm. By the way, it is more important to get up at the same time every morning than it is to go to sleep at the same time each night.<br>Eat well. Can't say enough about that. But I'm no expert so let's make it simple. What major food group don't you eat on a regular basis? Start eating it. Other than that, I suggest you go to someone who knows what they are talking about.<br>Fluids. Drink lots of water. Drink lots of orange juice. Drink lots of ? well, everything else seems to have caffeine and/or sugar in it. A lot of people only have a drink when they need a power boost.<br> <br>So to wrap it up, have your butler wake you up in the morning so you can eat the breakfast that your cook prepared so that your chauffeur can get you to school on time.<br>Yeah, right. I know most stenography students have full- or part-time jobs. I know that the pressures of being full-time parents, full-time students, full-time spouses, full-time employees can wear on a person.<br>But you must fight it. You can't get fatigued. You made a commitment to your school, your family, and to yourself<br>Got that. Later, you sit back and relax. Now, you work. That's clear, right?

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