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I'm the owner of a beautiful 2006 Miata and have recently been asked by several people, including my boyfriend, to teach them to drive stick. I've noticed, at least with the boyfriend, that he stalls a lot when starting from a complete stop because he doesn't understand clutch modulation.

Does anyone have advice for how to better explain it or practice techniques so my poor baby doesn't have to go into the shop for a new clutch? gonk

When I had my Integra, I was not letting anyone drive it until they learned on another car first.

I let one person drive it who already could drive stick. At least he said he could. He kept spinning the clutch until I yelled at him. Some people will do something entirely the wrong way and then just do it exactly the same way the next time.

My advice? Don't even let your boyfriend sit in the driver's seat of your Miata until he gets familiar and consistent operating a clutch on something else.

Simple, really tell em not to even touch the gas until he can start it out with simple clutch movement, then work your way from there.

I'm doing a public speaking demonstrative speech on how to drive one for a grade next week. x3

I taught myself, essentially, and I totally understood it better knowing how exactly M/T works.

Explaining it in Layman's terms:
The clutch pedal does one thing: seperate the pressure plate from the flywheel. The flywheel receives power directly from the engine, but the pressure plate is part of the transmission (which has no power being transferred to it until the driver manually connects them with the shifter and pedals), and when you let off the clutch, they're brought back together.

Say the car's at rest. Being that the flywheel's receiving power from the engine (in simple terms, the accelerator pedal), if not enough power is given to that flywheel from the non-moving pressure plate, the engine'll die when they're brought back to contact (clutch being let out) if there isn't enough gas pushing that flywheel because of sheer friction.

As for smooth shifts, it's the same thing. As one begins to shift, if the flywheel and pressure plate aren't matching rotating speed, then they don't grapple correctly, and it causes the car to bump (namely because of the springs behind the pressure plate).

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As for finding out of someone really knows how to handle M/T or not, let them try starting the car (as most M/T cars require you to clutch in before the starter connects). If they can't do that, then they obviously don't know what the hell they're doing.

The trick is really to read the advice above and just be patient and play around.

Start by sitting in the car in a big open space and just playing with the gears until you can shift into each one without trying to find it. Take your time and learn the motions.

Next, depress the clutch pedal. start the car, and give it a little bit of gas, beginners should get the car to 2000-2500 rpm to be safe. Once you're good you can launch it with less. Or more, as you prefer. Slowly bring the clutch pedal back up.

Now you should be moving. If you start lugging (lurching and bouncing) put the clutch pedal back in right away and try again with a bit more gas. Try letting the clutch pedal out a little more slowly this time. Launching the car can be tricky, sometimes once it moves you have to open the throttle a little more so be ready.

Don't be upset if you stall. It's going to happen, you may as well resign yourself to the idea. Just put the clutch pedal back in, start the car up, and try again. If you keep stalling or lugging, get out of the car and take a break. When people get nervous they tend to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.

Once you manage to get the car moving, it's time to shift. You should shift into 2nd around 15MPH. Put the clutch in, pull the shift lever back (You already know where 2nd is, right?) start to let off the clutch and ease onto the throttle simultaneously. This is easy to learn but difficult to master. If you're good enough, you can do it so smoothly passengers can't even feel it.

You should downshift when you slow down and need to accelerate up to speed again. Just put the clutch in, move the shifter to the appropriate gear, and get back on the gas, same as an upshift.

To learn the proper shift times, look at the car's owner's manual. It will list the ideal times to shift out of each gear.

That's it's pretty much. Once you start to feel comfortable, try more challenging situations, like launching uphill and the like.

Good luck!

And for anyone trying to teach someone. Be patient and take plenty of breaks. People get nervous doing this and are often likely to go ahead and do things when you don't tell them to, and will even do exactly what you told them not to do. Make sure you take lots of breaks.