Yeah you don't "practice" APM by spamming build units and abandoning micro for every bit of small mineral spent. Although sometimes building finger speed can be increased by playing a friendly match where I worry about speed rather than accuracy. Just to increase finger speed. Then you can refocus back to playing correctly.
Sort of like learning to type fast. I remember when I had the class back in middle school. the teach would have sessions where we would type what we see as fast as we can not worrying about errors or back spacing, for a while just to increase speed. These regular sessions increased our overal wpm as class went on even when we tried to make perfect paragraphs/sentences.
But that is for people having speed problems. any shaved off time on an action is more saved time to focus on something more important. If I can make 6 units, spread a tumor, cast spit larvae on both hatches, faster than you, then my micro will be better because I can pay more attention to it.
finger speed practice was something I've done in BW to achieve 180apm. So I was a rough average BW player. moving on to SC2, I can't get 180apm even if I tried hard lol. I know it has something to do with SC2 apm is actually lower than your real apm but w/e.
If you're bronze Silver Gold ect, don't worry about apm. Just worry about being able to multitask with your brain, that will naturally raise your apm. Too many people I've seen in bronze and silver. Will pay full attention to either micro or macro. they never split their attention on it, which another reason their apm is low. Hell my friend who's platinum protoss always has that problem his macro game is grossly good if he's left alone. when I apply pressure though he falls apart cuz he's unable to defend with micro and macro at the same time so often times he'll throw his army on attack move to focus on macro which loses him important battles.
Learning to use hotkeys/macros properly
Learning Build orders, when to use them.
Learning different timings for different strategies.
Learning timings of when it's good to scout.
Knowing how to counter what you scouted out.
applying pressure, while maintaining macro
Unit positioning, and proper micro.
these are all more important than just building speed. Learning all of these will build ur apm naturally. but once you feel you are capable of these things. Then it's time to improve speed so your eyes can be everywhere, and react to things faster.
so yeah speed is the least important thing to train on. It's one of the most important thing to have. but it's not important to train on first. Most of it comes naturally from learning all the other stuff you need to know,
