re: What's the best way to learn how to drive a stick shift?

My dad taught me on his old Ford truck. And I raced MX.

Directions in a car/truck - Push in clutch, while on the brake, put in gear, move from brake to gas, slowly push gas while easing off the clutch, ease off clutch at the same pace you push the gas. Have fun and watch for hills! Gotta move a little faster!

What's really fun is learning how to drive an 18 wheeler. Had to learn on the catfish farm...already knew how to drive a truck with a stick. Then my dad threw me in a Mack truck one day loaded down with water and live fish and said haul them to a farm 45 min away. Told me only difference is don't use the clutch after 1st gear. It's tricky to time the rpm just right to get a smooth shift

Best way to learn is jump in and go.

When I was in college I worked at a store that rented U-Haul trucks.

We had to go pick up two trucks that were being transferred. We got dropped off and they were both 26ft trucks with stick shift.

I told my boss... "I have never driven a manual"

His response was... "Better learn fast then"

So my first time driving a stick was a 26ft U-Haul truck from Florida Blvd past Cortana to fricking Millerville Rd at 4:30pm on a damn Friday

I learned at the hunting camp when I was 11 or 12. My uncle has this old s10 we'll use to move bigger stuff or if we have 4-5 people going to the creek. I grew up riding dirt bikes and 4-wheelers, so I knew about the clutch and shifting. Took me a few times, but felt like a badass once I got it and drove out to the duck blind by myself. Hitting a few mud holes on the way and not getting stuck or stalled made me feel pretty awesome tbh.
I never drove a stick shift after that weekend lol but I got a manuel-transmission Honda Civic when I was 19 and it was like riding a bike.

Porn.

My grandfather was a farmer so I learned on John Deere tractors and rice trucks, then cars, then a racing quad. I drove sticks for probably 2 years before I drove my first automatic. You will find yourself going for the clutch without thinking about it. It's been 11 years now since I've owned an automatic.

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Start in a diesel truck. If you can drive a pulp wood truck you can drive any stick shift.

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FIFM. That's what I learned in. If I didn't burn the clutch up learning how to drive that thing nobody ever will.

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You will find yourself going for the clutch without thinking about it.

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Do that shite every time I rent a car with automatic transmission! Left foot goes down by reflex.

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Here's Matt Farah who Always has solid content teaching how. Even look up vehicle virgins (kinda nerdy but he dgaf).

Best advice is what someone mentioned before, let out of the clutch slowly with out any gas and find the catch point. Do this multiple times (I'd say 20-30 times in a parking lot) on flat land before learning to balance the gas/clutch, to minimize clutch damage. Once you get the clutch down without gas, you can ease into incorporating the gas/clutch balance. Then move to hill starts, which I recommend you use the e-brake (easiest with a handbrake). Once again ease out the clutch without the gas (against the e-brake) then you can start incorporating the gas brake balance in hill situations. Start this on the slightest of grades ( coming out of a drive way or something similar). The ebrake allows the car to not gain reverse momentum, which causes stalling and damage to the clutch (I showed a carmax salesman this trick one time when he stalled a vette out like 5 times trying to get over a slanted curb on a grade; he was amazed --"man that makes it easy.") Eveuntally you'll gain the skill that the ebrake is not necessary, though sometimes I still use it. Though, on heavy hill starts, I still feel it is almost necessary (the only good example I could think of is coming out the railroad overpass in traffic on Acadian in Baton Rouge). I recently discovered my 2014 ford has hill asssits which will hold the brake after releasing the petal and disenguages it after the accelerator is pressed. Neat, but unneeded now that I've been driving a standard for 3 years.

Someone's advice with 4-LO is very smart, and would create an easier learning curve. Though I'm sure 4x4 manuals are getting hard to find.

The key is to not damage the clutch when learning, because with proper useage you can make the clutch last 50k+ miles longer with proper technique. The clutch serves as a buffer between the engine rpm and speed of the transmission (the ratios of the axle(s)x tires x gears). The closer the engine is in sync with the transaxle, the less wear on the clutch. I usually don't recommend downshifting to slow the car down, unless you know proper technique. It will cause more clutch wear. I've gotten to the point where I can do it (you blip the gas a little-- Matt Farah shows the technique), though I'm lazy and just shift into neutral while slowing. It may cause my brakes to wear faster, but they're much cheaper to replace than pulling the transmission out my car for a clutch job.

I can go on and on about this, but the basics are to learn on flat land without using the gas by slowly releasing the clutch (atleast 20-30
times with minimal stalling), then move to the balancing of the gas and clutch, then practice hill starts with the ebrake. I'd watch atleast the smoking tire (Matt Farah) video. Starts in 1st gear and reverse are the hardest, shifting into higher gears is much easier. Though, proper clutch/gas balance (finding the right rpm) will also save your clutch for shifts while moving.

I learned when i was 19 by buying a small motorcycle. It's great to learn the concept of timing the clutch release. Obviously not the exact same as a car, but after riding a bike, driving a stick was not an issue.