Stick shift lessons

FrancisChan · **Posted:** Mon Jul 13, 2015 9:30 pm

Does anyone have any tips to help my wife learn to drive stick shift?

I'm asking as my wive has shown a small interest to learn so we can share the one car at autocross events and avoid wearing out her car.

The past few times I've tried to teach her have ended up in a lot of frustration and much shouting. A year ago I did have her up to a point where she could drive from the parking lot a mile away back home, but we haven't practiced since then.

I've since tried to get her to drive using my sim racing setup, but it ends up pretty much the same way.

Any ideas?

Chad Culbertson · **Posted:** Mon Jul 13, 2015 10:03 pm

Trade her automatic in on a manual and then you have no automatics and she's forced to learn.

That's how my wife learned lol. Granted, she really wanted a manual Wrangler, picked it up on a Wednesday evening and she had to drive it to work the next morning, we drove around a few hours the night before and she stalled plenty of times but got it down.

In all seriousness I found it helps to have them practice just feeling out the clutch without thinking about throttle, such as have her get into the friction zone and hold it just enough for the car to move without stalling it, and pushing it back in. Do this for a bit and then work on adding the throttle. Also teach the hand break method for getting going on hills assuming the car doesn't have hill start assist. I also found trying to get the ears tuned into what the engine is doing also helps, so I had her just hit the throttle in neutral some to find out where she needed to get it to get the right rpm not to stall out. Most people don't have any thought process around this much pedal equals this many rpm, etc when they've been driving a automatic, all they know is the skinny pedal makes it go, they don't correlate it to an increase in engine rpm.

Other than practice practice practice, she has to want to learn, otherwise it's likely she'll just get frustrated and give up too easily.

My wife has been driving her Jeep now for almost two years and we own no automatic cars, she was happy she decided to go with it, even though it was a bit tough in the beginning.

Chris Halweg · **Posted:** Mon Jul 13, 2015 11:18 pm

^Everything above with one addition. Have someone else teach her. It takes some of the stress out of the situation and less stress on her. My wife showed interest as well and I took this route. In the end she found it too stressful for everyday driving and I cringed everytime I was in the car when she was driving. One clutch later, we sold the car and now she has an automatic. Your situation could be different and it depends on if she wants to learn how it works or just wants it to work. My wife was the latter.

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Mon Jul 13, 2015 11:25 pm

What part is she having problems with? Who is doing the shouting? You, her or both?

Without knowing answers to the above my tips are...

1. You have to work out an agreement to keep your cool. If you start to argue, stop and pick up training at a later time.
2. I am a big believer in understanding how it all works (not everyone in my family agrees with my approach however). So some review of the physical action of clutch and gears is good IMHO. This includes relation of gears and rpm on up and downshifts as well as what synchronizes do and why you need them. I rebuild manual transmissions, so it is easier for me as I have various physical bits around to demo to my kids.
3. I think the number one struggle new manual clutch operators have is that they have the pedal motion backwards. They typically release the pedal slowly, find the bite point and then release fast at that point (dump the clutch and lurch), when it should be the opposite. Release faster (not real fast) find bite point and then slow down the final release as your foot comes off the clutch.
4. Mixing clutch and gas can be a struggle for a newbie. So I start with clutch release using idle alone and zero extra throttle. Clearly you have to be on level ground when you do this, but it's a great way to find bite point and to slow final release once bite point is found. It results in a really slow start, but once they get the feel, add in gas to speed up the launch.
5. Don't know your car, but a light clutch is easier to learn on.
6. Parking lots! I really would focus on not including traffic until you can do starts, stops, up and down shifts in an empty lot.
7. Make sure they understand that low speeds and lower gears are the hardest so master. It reduces the fear of highway driving.

Good luck !

Richard

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Tue Jul 14, 2015 8:37 am

Chad Culbertson wrote:

Also teach the hand break method for getting going on hills assuming the car doesn't have hill start assist.

I personally think the above is a terrible idea, not to mention adding one more thing to learn.

That said, I have a friend teach my old G/F how to drive a manual because I didn't have anywhere near the patience for it.

Good luck!

Chad Culbertson · **Posted:** Tue Jul 14, 2015 8:40 am

Vincent Keene wrote:

Chad Culbertson wrote:

Also teach the hand break method for getting going on hills assuming the car doesn't have hill start assist.

I personally think the above is a terrible idea, not to mention adding one more thing to learn.

That said, I have a friend teach my old G/F how to drive a manual because I didn't have anywhere near the patience for it.

Good luck!

I could agree with that, but I know for most people one of the biggest fears is stopping on hills and rolling back into another car.

I do agree though that it could add one too many things to learn at first, I guess it just depends on what the learners major concerns are.

Matt McGrain · **Posted:** Tue Jul 14, 2015 8:44 am

Just keep reiterating that if she gets in trouble with the start (I guess you could say when the car starts to 'buck' heading towards a stall) all you have to do is press back down on the clutch and start over. This only helps if you're practicing of course in a parking lot or road with no traffic.

After teaching my wife to drive a 5 speed on my first Integra and then a couple autocrosses, I realized that the best thing you can do as an instructor is just be super calm. No yelling and a little extra encouragement & complimenting her good driving makes it easier to gain confidence. Sounds easier said than done, but it helps.

The parking brake trick is what I learned too and I think it's useful, especially if you have to drive a car you're not used to and have no idea where the clutch engages. It could be information overload though for someone learning though too.

FrancisChan · **Posted:** Tue Jul 14, 2015 10:02 am

So a little more background. I've been teaching her in the local church parking lot as it's a) big and b) empty.
It usually starts with getting used to the clutch biting point by putting the car in gear with the handbrake on and using the clutch to slightly dip the engine rpm without stalling it. This is where her boredom starts to build.

From I get her to repeat the process but without the handbrake set so the cars starts moving forward. This usually results with a lot of bucking and stalling. Engine restarts usually are attempted with the car in gear and clutch depressed as she is starting to get flustered. At some point the phrase "Why do cars even have gears!" is usually heard.

I think the main issue is that she tends to get flustered and that leads to her getting frustrated. Once that happens the shouting begins and what has been learnt gets forgotten. I think at this point I just need someone else to try and teach her as my method of talking her through the how's and why's makes her bored, plus I'm trying to remember what my driving instructor taught me 14 years ago.

I'm going to try some of the tips with her tonight as she really does enjoy autocrossing, but doesn't want to get up early to drive there or pay for a hotel room the night before. Figure I can let her sleep in the car while I drive if we share my car.

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

She knows the basics. Toss her the keys and go read a book under a tree.

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Tue Jul 14, 2015 10:18 am

FrancisChan wrote:

At some point the phrase "Why do cars even have gears!" is usually heard.

Does she have a bike? One with gears? If so, have her ride it as fast as she can in 1st gear and she'll understand why 'cars have (multiple) gears'.

I think you'd better off to find another women teach her. She can learn and not be pissed at you in the process. That is what I did.

FrancisChan · **Posted:** Tue Jul 14, 2015 10:31 am

Vincent Keene wrote:

FrancisChan wrote:

At some point the phrase "Why do cars even have gears!" is usually heard.

Does she have a bike? One with gears? If so, have her ride it as fast as she can in 1st gear and she'll understand why 'cars have (multiple) gears'.

I think you'd better off to find another women teach her. She can learn and not be pissed at you in the process. That is what I did.

She does, I'll try to remember that one.

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Tue Jul 14, 2015 10:56 am

FrancisChan wrote:

So a little more background. I've been teaching her in the local church parking lot as it's a) big and b) empty.
It usually starts with getting used to the clutch biting point by putting the car in gear with the handbrake on and using the clutch to slightly dip the engine rpm without stalling it. This is where her boredom starts to build.

From I get her to repeat the process but without the handbrake set so the cars starts moving forward. This usually results with a lot of bucking and stalling. Engine restarts usually are attempted with the car in gear and clutch depressed as she is starting to get flustered. At some point the phrase "Why do cars even have gears!" is usually heard.

I think the main issue is that she tends to get flustered and that leads to her getting frustrated. Once that happens the shouting begins and what has been learnt gets forgotten. I think at this point I just need someone else to try and teach her as my method of talking her through the how's and why's makes her bored, plus I'm trying to remember what my driving instructor taught me 14 years ago.

I'm going to try some of the tips with her tonight as she really does enjoy autocrossing, but doesn't want to get up early to drive there or pay for a hotel room the night before. Figure I can let her sleep in the car while I drive if we share my car.

I would skip the handbrake and have her focus on slow release of clutch once bite point is found. As I mentioned, they go through this process...

1. Slow release to sneak up on bite point.
2. Find bite point.
3. Release clutch faster than step #1
4. Stall or lurching/bucking start.

IMHO, it is the increase in speed of release that is the killer. That is why I like the zero throttle approach as it forces you to be ultra smooth. I have also had good luck on finding parking lots that have a slight slope. It gives you level plus uphill and downhill. Downhill starts also help in that you can release brake, start to coast and then release clutch, with the forward motion helping reduce bucking and lurching.

Also starting from a stop on a hill with a handbrake. Absolutely the last thing to teach. In fact don't even mention it until they get the hang of level driving. And as others have mentioned... maybe someone else to instruct is a good idea.

Richard

Jason Mauldin · **Posted:** Tue Jul 14, 2015 11:40 am

Richard Casto wrote:

Also starting from a stop on a hill with a handbrake. Absolutely the last thing to teach.
Richard

I have never found a situation where starting on a hill with a handbrake was required. Why would you ever do this?

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Tue Jul 14, 2015 11:49 am

Learning the art of moving the car from a dead stop is one of the toughest things to do correctly. That was the hardest part to teach both of my sons. Need to build muscle memory from the 1st point of clutch engagement and hitting the gas at the same time. It's truly a dance for both feet to work as one to get rolling. Once that part is understood, the rest is gravy.

As they say in autox, seat time, seat time, seat time...

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Tue Jul 14, 2015 11:51 am

Jason Mauldin wrote:

I have never found a situation where starting on a hill with a handbrake was required. Why would you ever do this?

X2.

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