Touch typing has been taught the same way since the advent of the QWERTY keyboard. You start with your fingers on home row [ASDF - JKL;] and, by moving each finger along its vicinity of keys, you can effectively reach them all. I was instructed to type in this manner throughout all of my academic studies from elementary school onward; I have always hated this technique.
Very early on I had developed my own spontaneous approach to touch typing. I don't rely on any formal home row and my pinkies mostly just chill out, with my index and middle fingers taking on the bulk of the work. Using my own approach over the formalized standard, I have always been a very fast typist. Below is a video of me taking a two-minute, randomized English sentence timed test (courtesy of Typera.net), with the end result being 113 WPM (Words Per Minute) and 565 CPM (Characters Per Minute).