How to teach someone to drive a manual transmission

"MykePagan" (MykePagan) 11/17/2013 at 17:48 • Filed to: manual transmission stick howto

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I've seen this question posted more than once on Oppositelock: "How do I learn how to drive a manual transmission?" Kudos to the driver looking to come in to the One True Faith, but I've never felt that I had any worthy advice.

...and then my daughter turned 17 years old. That's her in the picture, holding her 2-day-old driver's license.

I spent six months teaching her safe and practical driving techniques on our Daily Drivers (a Volvo XC70 and a Ford Taurus SHO). Both are automatic transmission with all the ModCons. But I swore to myself that no child of mine was going to be ignorant of manual transmission, and the day would come when I would have to step up and put a teenager in my FunCar... a supercharged 2007 Lotus Elise Type 72D. The reaction from my motorhead friends ranged from a sharp intake of breath through clenched teeth all the way to "are you INSANE?" But if we are going to truly teach the children well, sometimes we must take some risks.

I resolved to do this thing correctly (for my daughter's sake, and the sake of the clutch on my car). I've been a ski instructor for almost two decades, and I've learned the value of taking physical tasks and breaking them into bite-sized actions that are easier for the brain and muscles to assimilate. So before I took her out to sling gears, I came up with a progression to follow. I'm hoping this might help some of those Oppos who are contemplating the move to The Stick. Here they are:

Step One: What is this "transmission" thing anyway?

It occurred to me that my daughter (and others new to The Stick) might not even know exactly why there is a transmission, and what all those gears do in the first place. So the first step is to educate the newby as to what they are going to be doing. As the old proverb says: "I remember none of what I hear, half of what I see, and all of what I do" (or something like that), I figured that the best learning is by actually doing and feeling what a transmission is all about.

Originally I planned to take her out on her bicycle, which has 18 gears. I was going to have her shift the bike up and down in the gears and feel how that changed the effort of pedaling. I'd have her shift into a low gear while moving fast and see how she had to pedal frantically, and shift into high gear at low speed to see how hard it was to accellerate.

Unfortunately, I am lazy and it was cold so I went with Plan B: Both of the family DDs have manuamatic modes in their automatic transmissions. The Taurus has paddle shifters and the Volvo has an autostick. I chose to use the Volvo because it would give her a better muscle memory of reaching to the stick to shift.

Executing this step of the Stick Training was simple: we went driving with the car stuck in manumatic mode. I had my padawan listen closely to the engine, feel how the action of the throttle changes in different gears while driving at the same speed. We drove at 40 mph on a county road and she shifted up and down from third gear to see how the car behaved differently. She accelerated onto the highway holding each gear a bit longer than necessary to understand about power bands. It would have been nice to experiment with slowing the car down to see what "lugging" is, but sadly the Volvo is overprotective and won't let that happen; it automatically downshifts, even in "manual" mode (Swedish bastards!)

Step Two: Standing Start, With Training Wheels

After about an hour playing with the manumatic, it was time to move up to the real thing. I drove the Lotus to a pre-selected training location. In ski teaching, proper terrain is critically important, so I took some time to find the right road for a manual transmission newbie. I chose a suburban development that consists of a single half-mile loop with only one entrance, so that we could drive without worrying about other traffic or turns (keep the task limited to the single thing you are teaching). More importantly, the loop was gently tilted so that there was about 15-20 feet of elevation change between the highest and lowest spots. And here is why:

I stopped the car at a spot where the road was gently sloping down. With your foot off the brake, the car would not even start to roll forward BUT it would add a slight set of "training wheels" to the first standing start with a clutch. Then I instructed my student to make her first clutch start using a technique stolen from The Car Talk guys. Click and Clack say to do your first few starts with the clutch only , no throttle. Here is how it went:

To recap what my dulcet voice tells her to do in the video:

Make sure the car is in neutral (now is a good time to go through the shift pattern)

Clutch to the floor (explain that if anything feels bad, put that clutch back to the floor)

Sloooowly release the clutch until you feel the engine start to slow down. Hold the clutch there, maybe even push it in and let it out to that point several times to feel where the friction point is

Finally, Sloooowly release the clutch into the friction zone, gently passing through the friction zone as the car begins to roll.

If all goes well, the student will have made their first standing start with a clutch at this point. Great! Now do it again. And again. And again. My rule is "get it right three times before moving on to the next step."

Now might be the time to address the question: "Isn't this destroying the transmission on that beautiful Lotus?" Nope. It is not. You may be able to tell from the video, or you may not, but the start is actually quite gentle. Even when my daughter stalled the car (and she did, several times) it was not horrible. That car has been to track days three times this year, and one lap of Summit Point WV is much much more violent than any of the abuse given by my new driver. The key thing is that she was practicing under supervision, with coaching on what to do and no panic situations.

Step Three: Standing Start, With Throttle

Once she had become comfortable with the Training Wheel starts (note that I did NOT make her do it on the uphill part; I had her drive around in first gear back to the downhill section), it was time to add a new skill into the mix: Throttle.

If all goes well, this stage is easy. Instead of just releasing the clutch, I had my student feed in throttle as she started. This is where the stalls started to happen, but only a few of those occurred and they make for a good learning experience. For this stage we moved to the flat part of the loop. It looked like this:

Step Four: Standing Start, Slight Uphill

Continuing to ramp up the tasks, without telling her I moved our start location to the slightly uphill section of the loop. No video for this one because she didn't realize anything had changed and so she just kept making clean starts.

Step Five: Upshifts

Once she had the standing starts clean, I had her drive around the loop with a single standing start and an upshift into second as her speed increased. The clutch action for this stage came very naturally; it's much easier than a standing start due to the momentum of the car. We did not do downshifts (remember, one task at a time). Instead, I had her put it back into neutral as she was stopping.

She practiced going from first to second while standing still with the clutch in. A simple task, but by doing it in isolation before moving, it gave her a picture of what she had to do. While moving, the task is simple: clutch in (fast!), pull stick back into second (most manual transmissions will make the movement directly), release clutch smoothly (note that I did not say "sloooowly" like before; you can be pretty sloppy with this and cause no jerking, as long as you are moving at the right speed).

Step Six: Upshifts, Downshifts

Now the training wheels really came off. Our training loop was too small to get into 3rd gear, so we moved out of the enclosed development and onto less-travelled county roads. I had the loop picked out; it was the same one I used to teach her safe driving with the Daily Drivers. Very little traffic and only right hand turns.

The technique for learning the downshift goes like this:

Starting at a comfortable speed in 3rd gear...

Allow the car to slow to the low end of the rpm range that is comfortable for 3rd (the instructor needs to give verbal cues to the student for this)

At the appropriate time, clutch in, downshift, clutch out smoothly (just like on the upshift, but in reverse)

Note that for the Lotus, the downshift requires the student to actively push the stick to the left to find second; remember that manual transmissions are usually designed to guide the stick into the next higher gear, not lower. Make sure the student tries this out while stopped before they do it while moving.

Step Seven: Drive Around

That's it for lesson one! But as I've learned from teaching skiers, you need to repeat a skill a few hundred times before you can claim to have created a muscle memory. So I had my daughter drive around the street loop for about 20 minutes to gain some repetition of the skills. Only then did we go in for Victory Cappucino.

Next Steps

Do the whole thing over again. This will help lock in the muscle memory. After that we will try standing starts on steeper hills. That will be a lesson all by itself, and worthy of it's own blog post.

PS9 > MykePagan 11/17/2013 at 17:52

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And this is what she gets to practice in?

Goddamnit, I knew I drew the shortstick after birth.

ifly737NG > MykePagan 11/17/2013 at 18:03

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That's pretty sweet. I learned in a BMW Z4, but never really LEARNED until I bought my first ever vehicle... a 1987 Ford Ranger. Similarly my wife rode motorcycles but never had driven a stick until we bought her new Focus a couple months ago. She knew the concepts but the muscle memory wasn't there so it took a while for her to get it down. Now she loves it. :)

joemcm > MykePagan 11/17/2013 at 18:06

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Great write-up! As a 19-year-old with my memory of learning to drive my manual still fresh, I'm quite jealous of your daughter. Between the Lotus and the instruction, she couldn't lose. My mom taught me at first, and just kept getting pissed at me for popping the clutch and had me watch her a lot. She spoke of the elusive friction point, but I couldn't find it in my mushy Civic clutch pedal. My dad took the honors and actually taught me, but wasn't quite as good as your instruction. My dad did do one drillwith me that could help your daughter. At a stand still in neutral, he had me hold the engine at different RPM levels to develop good throttle feel and control. That allowed me to really get smooth upshifts once I got the hang of it, and when I found out about the art of heel-toe, that skill helped me immensely. Now I have the whole bag of tricks (heel-toe, double-clutching and now in my dad's new FR-S the addictive, drift inducing clutch kick.), I'm endlessly appriciative of that throttle control tip. Ironically, my dad has his FR-S and still can't heel toe. I've been begging him to let me teach him, but I guess since the student has surpassed the teacher, it might be a little tough for him to swallow!

oldirtybootz > MykePagan 11/17/2013 at 18:08

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I've been starting to teach my girlfriend how to do it. She's worried about me having a manual because as she says, if something happens to me she can't drive it. Plus it doesn't help that I'm new to DDing a stick and the Dart is a fucking dog from a standing start. There have been quite a few stoplight stalls while I was getting used to the vague clutch and paucity of power below 2500rpm. But she's curious how they work and she's always asking me questions about shifting.

To try and help her get the feel for it and understand the concept of what she's doing, we started with her hand under mine while I shift. Once she got the feel for where the gears are, I let her shift when I call out gears. I'll do some more of that beforw I put her behind the wheel. These steps should be very useful. I'm not a great teacher of anything, so a lesson plan like this helps.

Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey > MykePagan 11/17/2013 at 18:10

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I still have a ton of learning to do. I've basically learned enough so that I could do it if I had to. My way of learning? My one boss owning a 1990 Mazda B2200 with a 5 speed, and him basically handing me the keys and saying "Have at it." I've gone from stalling about half the time to easily moving the truck loaded and taking it on runs for errands.

joemcm > oldirtybootz 11/17/2013 at 18:12

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I did something similar with my ex, she got to the point where I'd have her shift for me and then when I taught her she was UNREAL from a standing start. That sort of got me pissed since that was the main roadblock to my learning. Then she struggled to shift after getting going and we quit. Teaching people is a blast, I hope it remains a useful life skill.

MykePagan > joemcm 11/17/2013 at 18:14

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Thanks! I will definitely try you throttle-holding exercise when we do our next teaching session.

oldirtybootz > joemcm 11/17/2013 at 18:21

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I'll probably try to teach a few of my friends eventually. My main goal is to pass it on to her. My dad always tried to teach my mom but she could never learn it and insists that it's stupid.

I had to teach myself. The last manual tranny car we owned before my Dart was my dad's Aspire and I was in elementary school when he had that. There was never a vehicle for me to learn on until I started working at a dealership. The first time I tried, it was on a Passat 2.0T (nice car) and all I did was stall. Eventually I realized I had to slowly let off the clutch and give it some throttle was in a Wrangler and from then on I basically had the hang of that aspect. I knew when to shift from playing video games, so that was never much of an issue. Now it's a matter of getting smoother shifts down and learning to heel-toe. The upshift to second in my car is always rough so I've been trying to practice that and make it smooth.

MykePagan > ifly737NG 11/17/2013 at 18:23

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You may have heard my daughter mumble in the first video one of her reasons for wanting to learn how to drive a manual: she wants a motorcycle endorsement on her license. I told her she had to learn to drive a stick first, and that she needed three years of clean driving.

ifly737NG > MykePagan 11/17/2013 at 18:33

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I want a motorcycle endorsement as well... but unfortunately we sold the bike and just don't have the time/money to dedicate to that stuff now. Super cool for kids (especially girls) to take interest in this stuff. So many people in my generation just don't care about what moves them.

davedave1111 > MykePagan 11/17/2013 at 18:33

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I taught my little brother how to drive a manual for the first time. My method was pretty much the exact opposite of yours. I reversed the car into a space facing a nice new BMW/Merc/whatever and told him 'if you bring the clutch up too fast, you'll jerk forwards and smash into the Merc, and then you'll not be able to afford insurance for the next decade'. He pulled away smoothly the first time and never looked back.

Come to think of it, I also 'taught' my wife to ski by taking her to the top of the mountain and getting frustrated until she made it to the bottom.

I'm sensing a pattern here :)

Tom McParland > MykePagan 11/17/2013 at 18:40

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Great write up! And you are from Jersey too...the Garden State is well represented here on Oppo. What part?

Ferrero1911 > MykePagan 11/17/2013 at 18:45

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You're such a great teacher! I too believe in the Car Talk method of learning. It really helps you get a feel for the clutch.

My mother taught me in much the same way in a 1976 Volvo when I was 16 (not nearly as cool as an Elise). She believes driving a stick is an important life skill and she made a point to teach me even though we only had autos in the family at the time. A couple of years later I had to drive a coworker to the hospital - the only car available was a MT and I was the only one available to drive. I did it and I only stalled once!

I now have my first MT daily driver (2012 Abarth). Since I had only driven a manual a few times in the past, I still had a lot to learn. Driveways, hills, confidence that I won't stall on a left turn - these were things I still had to work on. I would say it took me 6 months to really feel like I could do anything, sure I could drive around without stalling, but I felt like I was always practicing.

So I really feel that in order for your daughter to master a MT she should drive the Elise to school for the rest of the school year ;)

MykePagan > Tom McParland 11/17/2013 at 18:53

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Morris County

Tom McParland > MykePagan 11/17/2013 at 18:58

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Wow...waaaay up north, I'm about 15 min from AC. I dated a girl in college from that area. Some great driving roads.

c-lock0 > MykePagan 11/17/2013 at 19:14

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Your in the running for Rad Dad of the Year!

desertdog5051 > MykePagan 11/17/2013 at 19:17

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Congratulations. Have a ? for your reward.

MykePagan > desertdog5051 11/17/2013 at 19:20

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Glad you caught the reference :-)

midengineer > MykePagan 11/17/2013 at 19:20

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Ah, the memories! When my dad was teaching me to drive the MR2 he took me to an empty industrial area and we practiced there for a couple of months before he let me out on my own. When I finally drove an automatic, it was a bit of an odd experience feeling around for a clutch by nature.

desertdog5051 > MykePagan 11/17/2013 at 19:26

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She is just beaming with pride (and now knowledge). Sounds like you have done a good job. Congrats.

hike > MykePagan 11/17/2013 at 19:29

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I skipped that first step when I was taught how to drive stick. I wish that hadn't been skipped though since my biggest issue was with clutch pedal feel. Great write up though!

joemcm > oldirtybootz 11/17/2013 at 19:44

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What a coincidence! The second manual I drove was a Wrangler. I was lucky enough to learn how to heel-toe when I was supposed to be studying for finals in high school. After googling "stick shift tips" I found out about it and went nuts. There's literally nothing better than nailing heel-toe downshifts. When I'm in rhythm, I'll do it up to stoplights.

oldirtybootz > joemcm 11/17/2013 at 20:01

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Do you have any tips for heel-toe?

Stef Schrader > MykePagan 11/17/2013 at 20:27

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These are so light that I found them pretty easy to get going.

I approve!

SpeedSix > PS9 11/17/2013 at 23:29

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I probably drew a shorter stick than yours. I don't know anyone that can drive stick, and I'm getting my license soon.

911e46z06 > MykePagan 11/18/2013 at 00:43

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It's all about location. If you find a deserted road with some hills and some turns, you can knock it out in an afternoon. If you try to do it any old place and have to deal with traffic and such, they will make mistakes, annoy people, feel bad/frustrated, lose confidence, and be turned off on the idea forever.

Also, a beater car is good. So you can laugh through their mistakes instead of grimacing and making them feel bad.

Chteelers > MykePagan 11/18/2013 at 10:52

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Step Eight: Smoky burnouts

MykePagan > Chteelers 11/18/2013 at 21:55

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I have my limits. Toyo R888 tires wear out too damn quickly, so I will deny her that joy until she is paying for her own tread.

MykePagan > Chteelers 11/18/2013 at 21:56

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I have my limits. Toyo R888 tires wear out too damn quickly, so I will deny her that joy until she is paying for her own tread.

MykePagan > Chteelers 11/18/2013 at 21:56

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I have my limits. Toyo R888 tires wear out too damn quickly, so I will deny her that joy until she is paying for her own tread.

ihm96 > MykePagan 11/19/2013 at 22:03

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I'm 17 and learned to drive stick last year on my mom's 05 Mini Cooper and she was very vague and not a great teacher about how the clutch works and the friction/engagement point and I kept getting frustrated, but then I saw that CarTalk drill about starting with no gas and from then on I learned how to do everything else pretty quickly. I sure wish I had this guide to learn from

quarterlifecrisis > joemcm 11/21/2013 at 14:01

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I'm not at all kidding when I say this...my (now ex) girlfriend's inability to drive stick contributed to our relationship ending. What I really mean by this is, I really wanted her to learn, and she really wanted to learn...but she couldn't get it. Not sure if it was the stress of me being in the car, her wanting to do good, whatever... It never clicked for her, no matter how hard we tried to teach her. I had other people try as well, and it didn't work. Tried it in my Vette, in a 68 Super Bee, and in a borrowed Civic...3 vastly different vehicles, and it still failed. There were other issues, but this was something that in a roundabout way contributed.

fusionist > MykePagan 11/21/2013 at 14:15

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How does your Lotus not stall in step 2 with no throttle?

I've never driven a manual that would do this. All of them would sputter and die without any throttle.

Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura > PS9 11/21/2013 at 14:52

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Most of us did. I had to earn my license using my father's beat up Automatic Accord.

HipsterMiata > PS9 11/21/2013 at 14:58

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I feel like I'm pretty damn lucky. I learned on a friends MR2 then went on to my dads Z06 with a racing clutch (very tricky) and now I drive a 79 mgb with a 4 speed and OD.

joemcm > oldirtybootz 11/21/2013 at 16:01

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I'm sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, your reply got lost in my notifications. I think the best tip for heel-toe is knowing where the RPMs will need to be. Practice a bunch of rev matched downshifts without braking, then as you brake, think of the sound of the engine downshifting in your head. For me, the amount of throttle to apply for a given heel-toe downshift is the hardest part. That will help you get an idea of what it's going to sound like when you need to downshift.

When actually heel-toe shifting, I'd advise you sit in your driveway and practice the foot motion before getting out on the road. I needed to drive in sneakers with thin soles when I started, but now I can proficiently heel-toe in flip flops or cowboy boots. It's all about keeping the brake pressure consistent and applying enough throttle. At first, I always jabbed the brakes each time I blipped the throttle, but that just goes away as you develop more feel. When I'm braking hard, I'll pick my heel up off the floor and literally heel-toe, but under most circumstances, I just roll the outside of my foot onto the throttle with the ball firmly planted on the brake. Timing the clutch depression and the throttle blip can improve your speed too. If you hit the throttle right as your clutch foot hits the friction point, you can shift a hell of a lot faster. Also, double clutching is kind of a hoax. I learned to double-clutch heel-toe, and it really makes a difference in downshift smoothness in my old Civic, but I've found it to be disadvantageous in newer, nicer cars. That's about it though, if you have any more questions, ask on this thread. I love heel-toe shifts and have to say it's the most satisfactory part of driving stick.

oldirtybootz > joemcm 11/21/2013 at 20:35

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No worries man, I have a few comments that got buried that I've been meaning to get back to.

Thanks for the tips. I've basically just started downshifting to slow the car down. I've been doing it consistently for about a week now and I'm getting used to the engine speed in relation to vehicle speed. I've also been playing around with blipping the throttle as I do that. The 1.4 takes a decent stab of the throttle to make the tach budge at all.

joemcm > oldirtybootz 11/21/2013 at 21:51

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Is that a Dart in your picture? I haven't driven one, but rode in one and have to say I liked it. But I drive an old Civic with a 1.6NA so it takes a surprising amount of throttle to rev match a lot of down shifts.

oldirtybootz > joemcm 11/21/2013 at 22:01

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What year Civic? My friend is actually trying to sell his 89 Si. He always wanted to swap out the D16 for a K20.

And yup, she's a Dart.

joemcm > oldirtybootz 11/21/2013 at 22:02

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I have a 99 EX coupe. Not a bad first car. Only gripe is the aftermarket muffler the previous owner installed.

MykePagan > fusionist 11/28/2013 at 23:53

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Facetious answer: 1990 pounds, 245 HP :-)

Honest answer: Most modern fuel-injected cars will pull this trick. If you let the clutch out veeeerrrry sloooowly, when the clutch hits the friction point and the engine starts to bog, the ECU apparently compensates a teensy bit. Worked on my Mitsubishi 3000GT and my Fiat Spyder 2000. Never tried it on my '85 Mustang GT 5.0, which was the last manual transmission carb car I owned.

Also, as I noted in the text I did this on a slightly down sloping section of road, but I tested it out in the flats myself before turning my daughter loose on my clutch.

Mike > MykePagan 07/26/2014 at 02:47

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I think I'll be sharing this with my wife. She's getting the hang of it. First gear was killing her though. She stalled several times with cars behind her. She was getting frustrated...aggravated...she even cried. Everyone (well, mostly) has to endure stalling with a line of cars behind you. Because, it's going to happen, and you have to learn to remain calm and focus. Anyway, now that the worst part is over, I think she'll be ready for it when we head back out. I think part of the problem (besides inexperience) was that the clutch is a bit difficult for her (5'2") to reach. Hopefully she can get comfortable and manage that.

MykePagan > Mike 07/27/2014 at 14:54

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try to find a road that is a closed loop, like a housing development that has only one entrance/exit. This reduces the chance that people will end up behind you and make your student nervous.

CCC (formerly CyclistCarCoexist) > MykePagan 06/25/2015 at 04:25

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To be honest, I used this to teach my friend stick.

AgentRockstar > MykePagan 09/24/2016 at 15:37

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That’s the first thing I do. I know areas where there are good loops and several points to pull over easily. You want to ease them into it.