Driving 101: Reverse, Gears, Turns, Neutral, First Gear, Second Gear

The trick in driving firstly, is to be calm and relaxed at all times. This is what I learned after the first two hours with my instructor. Don't let nerves get through you.  Breathe in and relax when you get behind the wheel.  Also, it pays for you to master footwork. Even when you are not driving always practice your left foot by imagining it pressing  clutch, and your right foot pressing break, and gas. You can also make an improvised gear stick so that you can coordinate your footwork with your arm movements.  This will help you gain confidence when you get behind the wheel.  I practiced my footwork first for an hour. Imagining me behind the wheel and driving.  Later, I imagined moving the gear stick according to my footwork.  It did help a lot in terms of making me feel more relaxed and feel more confident.  I also watched some youtube videos that made me feel  more relaxed and gave me more confidence.

So what happened on my Day 2 of driving lessons?  Well, after checking my posture, the side mirrors, the length of my arms from the steering wheel, unhandbraking, wearing the seatbelt and turning on the ignition, I was set.  The one thing I appreciate about my instructor is the fact that he does not scold his students in a way that it demoralizes them or me, for that matter.  He was very patient.like a saint, which is just as well as he really needed it with me. I think there was a time when he almost hit himself out of frustration over me.  

So, since I was parked inside a subdivision, I needed to make a few turns to go back to the main road which incidentally was very packed on that Sunday morning.