Shorthand requires a careful balance of building speed while maintaining accuracy. The core benefit of speed drills is not speed itself, but learning to handle unfamiliar or tricky words under pressure.

Speed drills train you to perform by mimicking real-life situations. Just as athletes drill skills far beyond competition requirements, speed drills push your skills beyond normal limits. Over time, drills teach you to conquer hesitation and write smoothly when time is short. 

You must, however, analyse your performance after each drill to identify and address causes of hesitations or slowdowns. Remember, learning new shorthand vocabulary is a gradual process requiring focus on small sets of new words at a time. Take heart, for the most common words you will encounter are found in the first few thousand words of the NGSL word lists. The vocabulary that occurs regularly in print and film is very small compared to all the words in the world. 

Remember the quote: “Under pressure, you don't rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your training."

‍Drills build the skills to handle unfamiliar territory when it really counts.