Driving Manual: what's the trick?

Hi all,
I’m new here and this is my 3rd post at uk-yankee    Okay, so I’m 36 and I’m an excellent driver but I’ve been driving automatics my whole life. Its come time for me to get a UK license and I’m planning on taking lessons. I know I have the option to just get an automatic license and be done already but part of me really really wants to learn manual.     Previously when I took lessons from my brother 5 years ago, I just couldn’t get the hang of it and gave up rather frustrated and never tried again. I mean, really couldn’t get the hang of it.  We didn’t make it out of the walmart parking lot as I was sure I would crash or not shift properly. Should I go full hog and take manual lessons or chicken out and just get an automatic license? Maybe the teachers here are better than my brother?


Also,…  anyone who knows the answer please clue me in...    What is the trick to getting this clutch/ shifting thing down so I don’t feel like a frog jumping down the road?  :\\\'(   Or, is it too late to teach an old dog new tricks?  Sniff sniff, Okay, enough feeling sorry for myself. Your thoughts/comments/advice please!

Cheers
Tulip

Practice... and some more practice (and perseverance).

It's one of those things like riding a bike or juggling that seems impossible at first and then one day it just clicks and you never look back.

One of the things that I found most helpful when my husband taught me to drive was finding the "grip" point, when the clutch engages the gear:

Get the car on a gentle upward slope (gentle is key)
Set the gear in neutral
Foot down on the clutch, foot on the brake
Shift gear into first
Make sure there is NOTHING behind you for about 25 feet
Lift your foot off the brake, but keep your foot on the clutch all the way down
The car should be VERY slowly rolling backwards (if it's too fast, the slope is too steep)
Begin to lift your foot off the clutch VERY slowly.  You should feel a point at which the car holds position, and then there will be a point when the car "grips" and starts to move forward (without giving any gas)
Let it idle forward at this grip point for a moment, then go ahead and push the clutch back in.
Repeat as necessary.

Once you have confidence that you've begun to understand where that "grip" point is, then you can GENTLY push the gas and lift your foot all the way off the clutch SMOOTHLY. This is best practiced in a large, empty parking lot. 

The key is smooth movements and not lifting your foot off the clutch too fast.  If anything, as a beginner I would err on the side of keeping your foot on the clutch longer (although if you do this too much after you figure it out, you'll develop a bad habit of "riding the clutch").  As a beginner, it's the confidence and the muscle memory of the mechanics you need to build before becoming a double-clutching race car driver!

Best of luck!  I learned how to drive my beloved manual transmission Bug at 32, so you can teach an older dog new tricks!

My suggestion is find an empty parking lot or business park early on a Sunday morning, and just practice pulling off in first, and clutch control (i.e. making the car move very slowly in first gear by balancing the clutch and the gas). My husband walked along side the car, and made me keep pace with him doing this.

Practice with finding the biting point (what it feels/sounds like). Once you feel confident in pulling off, practice pulling off quickly. You will need to do this at intersections, and it definitely helps to try it when there isn't any traffic behind you at first.

I hear driving a clutch for the exam is different in the UK- so I may be off base.  I got the best advice ever from my sister when I was 18 and had a dire need to use her manual car for a week. "The clutch is zen, it needs not too much or too little."  She then taught me the basics (a 45 min lesson) and sent me on my way because she believes you learn the zen of your clutch alone.  I picked it up on a big intersection in San Francisco really fast.  I feel her way is genius, it's a tough love-new love way to the clutch.  And it worked well for me.

The trick is to learn to drive well enough to pass your test, and then actually get out there and drive. I had no idea what the gears really did until I passed my test.

IMO the trick is just to learn how to balance the gas and the clutch, its so easy once you get the hang of it, and to be honest, I love driving a manual now, and probably would not go back to an automatic.

But I agree with everyone else, practice practice practice!!!

GOOD LUCK!!!

My OH tried to explain the clutch/gas as a seesaw effect...for ever millimeter you let off the clutch, that's a millimeter you need to press the gas.

I've take a few "lessons" in a vacant Sainsbury's car park (best place, really), so I'm no authority - but my husband is a London driver, so I trust him as the ultimate authority!

LOL @ "I am an excellent driver, I have just been driving automatics all my life." 

I have a theory, unless you have 3 pedals and a gearstick that goes up down and side to side, you are not driving......you're steering.

Honestly the only thing is practice, drive every day, every chance you get, realize that you will stall out, the car will roll back, you will miss a few gears, but over time you will get it and you will get better. Just like with anything else repetition and real world experience are invaluable, everybody had to crawl, then walk, then run, don't be ashamed if you're still crawling, the walking will come soon enough.

I have a theory, unless you have 3 pedals and a gearstick that goes up down and side to side, you are not driving......you're steering.

I have a theory: That is absolute bollocks!

Why make life harder for yourself?

I understand if you really do want to learn how to drive a manual, but don't feel you have to. If it were me (and it was me a few years ago), I'd just go ahead and get an automatic license.

I learned to drive on a manual in the 80's. The reasons my Dad gave me were manual transmissions were cheaper to work on, and if I was out with someone who drove a manual and they became incapacitated, I could take over. Both reasons were reasonable.

Tulip_smile, keep practicing and you'll get there. Driving a manual will get to feel comfortable for you after a while. And also, depending on what car your brother was trying to teach you on, learning on a newer car may go more smoothly for you.

Overall, I have found it to be a good life skill to have. Maybe not absolutely necessary, but useful.

Heh - I've taught a couple of guys how to push start a car before, with my manual driving know-how!  They had no idea you could even do that. 

Same here! Getting the guys to push the car up the hill was priceless on several occasions.

I have a theory: That is absolute bollocks!

Why make life harder for yourself?

I understand if you really do want to learn how to drive a manual, but don't feel you have to. If it were me (and it was me a few years ago), I'd just go ahead and get an automatic license.

It isn't making life harder, it is actually making life easier, I can go anywhere in the world at any time and get behind the wheel of any car for any reason, if a car exists and is in working condition I can drive it, no caveats. I never have to rely on someone else.

Anyway it's just a jab I toss out at you automatic only drivers in good fun.

It isn't making life harder, it is actually making life easier,

A lot of people find the driving test here really stressful and challenging, to put it mildly - even on a car they're already accustomed to. Add to that mix learning a completely new way of driving? For some people that's definitely making life unnecessarily difficult.

I first learned on a manual in the 1970's. Drove one for ten years before going automatic only because that was the best and cheapest used car in the ads the week I needed a very quick replacement for my manual car which died.

But driving a manual is grand. LOVED it. Once you master them they are as natural as breathing.

Some US friends of mine who had never ever driven a manual, used to say to me in horror " But it must be so distracting! They must be a bigger cause of accidents....."  ::)They just couldn't understand how it becomes second nature to change gears yourself.

But it really does. As others have said here, it's all about the "biting point" where you feel the clutch engage, and then it's all about a smooth motion of both your feet, one of them moving up, the other moving down. Once you get that smooth action you're there. it really does very soon become something you don't even THINK about -- just like you don't think about how you are breathing in or out.

I now wish to continue driving automatics only because the last time I still had my manual car, I was getting tiredness issues (it's being looked into now) bad enough that yes, even changing the gears was becoming an issue for me fatigue-wise, and when I reluctantly bought my first used automatic, although I didn't really choose it, I was soon a fan of the automatic too, because with my fatigue issues it was like being able to rest (!) ...well, in a manner of speaking.

Plus I do so much stop-n-go driving in a very congested part of London that constantly changing gears iwould not be much fun anymore, to me anyway (to each their own). I do love the "less to physically do"  of automatic driving.

I'm also taking my UK test in an automatic because with a nasty little London test route to have to deal with, I'm going to have enough on my plate just getting through the test showing safety and good observation, let alone not having a tiny stall on a bad hill.

But I did love driving manual, I'm glad I know how to drive a manual, and sometime if I feel like it I'll re-take my test for manual too, just  not right now. But manual is a breeze once you get over that initial hump. Keep going slow and smooth with the feet and feeling that bite and you will have it in the bag forever after, believe me. You'll be fine.