How to Teach someone to Drive a Stick Shift in five Easy Lessons
So you are looking to teach someone how to drive a stick shift. That can be a scary thing, but if you have a good teacher, you have the means to pull off the skill. It is simple in concept, yet hard to actually learn how to drive a stick. It takes practice, but if you can muster up the patience, and stick with it, you can learn to drive a stick shift. Here is how you can do so in five easy lessons.
The first lesson should just be talking about what the parts of the stick shift do. It can be hard to figure out why you need a clutch, and why you have to actually move the stick and the clutch at the same time. I was able to learn how to drive the stick once I figured out the relationship between the stick and the clutch.
The second lesson should just be driving around a parking lot. You should teach the student how to turn the car on with a stick shift, how to shift, and to do so without grinding the gears. This is something that anyone can do without thinking about it. You should send them around the lot showing them how to shift, and when you should shift, and how to listen to the engine to figure out when to shift.
Once you have drove around the parking lot, and you have some sort of experience, you can take the car out on the road. This is where you are going to learn to drive under pressure. You are going to learn how to start, and stop, and then start again without stalling out the car. It can be hard to stop and then start, and not stall, so make sure you can do that before moving on.
The next step is learning to stop and start on a hill. You have to have good timing, and manage to get the car to start without rolling back. If you are in a stick shift, you are going to roll unless the emergency brake is on. You have to be able to know how to gun the engine, and have the car moving before you have a chance to roll back. This is important in case you ever are stuck at a light on a hill with traffic behind you.
The last lesson is taking the car out on the expressway. This is where cars can break down all the time, and where traffic can be flowing, and then stop at once. You have to be able to go from fifth gear, to first gear, and then back to fifth gear again. This is where you learn how to use all your gears, and how to really drive a stick shift.
If you can master all these lessons, you will have been able to teach someone how to drive a stick shift. Spend as much time as you need to on each lesson, and don't move on to the next one unless you feel comfortable with the last. Driving a stick can be hard, but it isn't impossible, and is a good skill to learn.
