So you’ve decided to master the mystical art of manual gear shifting, huh?

Bold move. Who needs the convenience of automatic transmission when you can perform a well-choreographed ballet of clutch, gas, and gearstick with the precision of a caffeinated octopus?

Learning to shift gears smoothly is like developing a sixth sense—and a new relationship with your car’s pedals. But don’t worry, we’ll make sure you’re revving up like a pro without giving your clutch an existential crisis.

Grab your imaginary racing gloves, and let’s dive into the chaotic joyride that is manual driving!

There are different ways of changing gear in a manual car. In my experience, the reason why beginner drivers mess up gear changes isn’t because you can’t remember what to do; it’s coordination and trying to do too many things at once that get yourself in a muddle. So this is what I get you to do to solve that problem.

Pedals

It’s important to practice this at the side of the road because you can do it again and again and again to get that skill you need.

Where you usually go wrong if I try to get them to do this on the move first time is when you press the clutch down really slowly, and that makes the car jerky because there’s a partial connection between the engine and the wheels as the clutch goes down slowly.

You want the clutch to go down quickly so there’s a clean, quick separation. Another mistake you make if I get them to do this on the move is you come off the gas long before pressing the clutch down, meaning the car slows down to the point where we’re too slow to go up to the next gear, so we can’t actually do the gear change.

Another mistake that you make, and this one really lowers their confidence, if you hold the gas on, press the clutch down, the gas goes, and you panic, come off the clutch, and the car’s jerky.

That’s possibly damaging for your car, it reduces their confidence, and it’s just not very controlled. Getting them to practice this at the side of the road means you can do it again and again and again, whilst only focusing on this, and it gives them a significant head start for when you go to change gear on the move.

I find it to improve confidence more quickly too. Once you can do this, then we move on to the next step.

Gear Lever

That is to combine the use of the pedals with the gear stick. I’m not going into detail on using the gear stick, but what I will do is tell you the common mistakes you make.

The first mistake is when going between gear one and two. What noobs do is you obviously start in one, and when you go to two, you pull the gear stick back; it self-centers, and you get four.

When going between one and two, it’s important to hold the gear stick fully left. Don’t let the gear stick self-center; hold it fully left as you pull it back to make sure you get gear two because gear two is all the way left and back. The next mistake you make is when going between gear two and three.

This time, you don’t let the gear stick self-center when it needs to; you grip the gear stick hard and push it forwards into gear one. But when going to gear three from two, what you need to do—I’m back in gear two now—is push it forwards until the gear stick pops to the middle.

The spring is there and designed to help you find the middle, so I’m in two again. It will find the middle itself if you push it forward, let go in the middle if you want to make sure it is the middle, and then forwards for three.

If you want four, it’s the middle and backwards for four. When you figure this one out, what you do is you go, “Okay, when I’m in gear two, I want three; I’ve got to go forwards to the middle and forwards.”

So you grip the gear stick hard, push it forwards, push it right to the middle and forwards again, and get gear five because you didn’t push it to the middle; you pushed it too far, and as a consequence, you got five.

When going between gear two, which I’m in now, to three, let it show the middle, and then forwards for three. The reverse varies from car to car, so make sure you know where the reverse is in your car to make sure you don’t accidentally select it.

Pedals and Gear Stick

To combine the use of the pedals with the gear stick, I start with the engine turned off, and from the passenger seat, I’ll move the gear stick to gear one, press the gas, hold the wheel, and pretend you’re driving down the road.

Cover the clutch, clutch down, off gas quickly, move the gear stick, bring the clutch up to about halfway, pause a moment as you add some gas, and then finish bringing the clutch up.

Then from the passenger seat, I’ll move it to gear one, and I’ll get them to do exactly the same thing again until you get that coordination.

Clutch or Coast First

A question you may have is should I press the clutch down and then come off the gas or come off the gas and then clutch down, or can I just do them together?

Well, if you do the clutch super quickly and get a clean separation from the engine to the wheels, you can do it together.

You can do the clutch slightly before coming off the gas or even come off the gas slightly before pressing the clutch; as long as it’s close, it’s not going to make much of a difference, and as long as you press the clutch down super quickly.

If you press the clutch down slowly, any change in the gas pedal whilst the clutch is on its way down is probably going to lead to a jerky car, as there will be a partial connection between the engine and the wheels at some point during the time you’re pressing that clutch down.

So to pretty much guarantee smoothness, clutch down then off gas, but if you do clutch down quickly, you can sort of do them roughly at the same time or one a bit before the other, and you will still be fine.

What you don’t want to do is come off the gas for a long time and then press the clutch down because then, well, you would slow down and you’d be too slow probably to go up to the next gear.

On the Go

Once you get the coordination of the pedals and the gear stick correctly, then we try on the move, and this is when you usually get it right the first time. You’re well-prepared; you’ve been able to practice it without thinking about everything else on the road whilst driving.

You’ve just been able to think about the pedals and the gears again and again and again in close succession instead of driving along and having to wait for that opportunity to practice being able to change gear again.

In my experience, it saves a significant amount of time in helping someone learn how to change gear successfully.

When no one’s coming, no need to signal, no one around, let’s go. When the revs get to about 2,000, cover the clutch, clutch down, off gas into gear two, find the clutch bite point, hold it there, add a bit of gas, and then finish coming off the clutch.

Releasing the Clutch

Something you can’t practice when you’re stopped at the side of the road is lifting the clutch up smoothly after you change up a gear.

You can only get better at this when you’re on the move; you need to practice it when you’re actually doing a real gear change with the car moving.

When I lifted the clutch after going up a gear, I actually paused at the bite point and I said this as well; you don’t actually have to do this to do a smooth upshift.

If you come off the clutch slowly, as the clutch actually has very little work to do after an upshift, it’s probably going to be smooth but not necessarily; it may still be jerky.

It depends on the car, it depends on how quickly you’re trying to accelerate, and it depends on how high your revs were when you went to change up a gear. The only way to actually guarantee a smooth upshift is to have a slight pause at the clutch bite point every time you lift the clutch.

Now, how do you know when to pause? How do you know when you’re at the bite point?

Well, when you lift the clutch up, lift it up carefully, and you’ll feel the car start to slow down ever so slightly as the clutch reaches the bite point.

At that moment, add a tiny bit of gas to stop it from slowing down, and then gradually come all the way off the clutch. Then you can use the gas at will to go as fast as you need to.

Random Cars

To give you a heads up, though, the clutch bite point is usually around halfway up the pedal travel.

Yes, sometimes it’s a bit low, sometimes it’s a bit high, but usually around halfway. That’s what you’ve got to learn—you’ve got to learn roughly where the clutch bite point is in your car, and actually, the sensitivity of the other pedals and all the other controls varies from car to car.

If you get out of car “A,” don’t try to drive car “B” the way car “A” likes to be driven; you have to now learn car “B.”

Whenever I get in a different car, I usually put it in gear, get an idea of the sensitivity of the gas, and find the bite point a few times.

So I have an idea of what I’m working with. Then, when I’m on the move, I use the brakes a couple of times just to get a feel for them, and I’m very careful until I’m used to it. What I do find is if I start off carefully, I get used to it more quickly.

Steering Wheel

A very common mistake is losing the steering while changing gear. So the noobs change gear but then veer off into the middle of the road or towards the curb, or in this case, the grass.

I find the solution to this is to break down the gear change into stages.

The first stage would be to cover the clutch and clutch down whilst coming off gas. The second stage would be to focus on the steering, the third stage would be to focus on the gear stick, and the fourth stage would be to bring the clutch up to the bite point, add a little bit of gas, and finish off the clutch.

And then, you focus back on the steering. You keep the steering straight, stage by stage, going back to the steering every time you get a chance to stop the car from veering off.

you soon realize that you can combine each stage seamlessly, keeping the steering in a straight line whilst you change gear. It doesn’t take long.

After doing it this way for a few times, you soon start to change gear smoothly and keep the car straight.

Now when I say “stage one,” I mean cover the clutch and press the clutch down and off gas. Stage two is focused on steering.

Stage three is using the gear stick. Stage four is to lift the clutch up to the bite point and add gas and then finish off the clutch. Then, focus back on the steering again.

Another thing noobs tend to do is lose a lot of speed in between gear changes. That’s fine; don’t worry about it too much.

Downshifting

When you change down gears, generally, you’re already off the gas pedal and slowing down anyway. Clutch down, change gear, lift the clutch back up to the bite point, and now you’re going to hold it there for a bit longer because as you change down, the engine revs are going to have to increase to match the road speed of that lower gear. It takes a little bit longer to be smooth.

Let me give you an example of how I would do it. Clutch down into gear two, and then as I bring the clutch up to the bite point, the revs rise.

I hold it there until the revs are finished rising, and then I release the clutch for a nice, smooth, jerk-free transition.

You don’t want to bring the clutch up too quickly whilst the revs are still rising because that’s likely going to make the car jerky, and it can even damage the transmission.

Clutch Wear

In terms of clutch wear, don’t worry about wearing the clutch out by pausing at the bite point to match the revs.

That’s actually what the clutch is for, but you can wear it out by holding it at the bite point for too long. It does wear the clutch out if you hold it there and don’t move the car, but if you get the car moving and then pause at the bite point briefly to match the revs, that’s fine.

If you want to avoid clutch wear, there are ways to do this. 

For example, instead of holding the clutch at the bite point when you’re on a hill, you could use the handbrake.

Also, practice getting the car moving without the clutch, so the clutch has to do less work to help reduce clutch wear.

You can even practice matching the revs manually with the gas pedal so the clutch has to do very little, and that’s something you’ll do if you’re an enthusiast.

You’ve now survived an entire guide on manual gear shifting without drifting off into the grass. You’re one step closer to achieving gear-shifting zen.

By this point, your car should feel like an obedient partner rather than a mechanical beast. Go forth, young Jedi of the gearstick, and may your shifts always be smooth, your clutch unscathed, and your steering perfectly aligned!