Do you live in Burton on Trent and want to learn how to drive like a pro?
Well you’ve come to the right place because in this post, we’ll be going over
TIP 1: Keep going through the gears
You might be rolling your eyes and saying “Is he seriously telling me to go through the gears?”
YES.
You’ll be surprised by the number of people who make mistakes with their gear changes.
Often, they go into the wrong gear and are constantly looking down.
As you’ve probably 100 times over…
…never take your eyes off the road, it’s dangerous!
You don’t want to be looking at your gearbox whilst driving at high speeds or even at low speeds.
When you get confident with the gearbox, that’s good but also dangerous.
Here’s how…
Let’s say your instructor asks you if you’d like to first practice some gear changes before you drive and you say no.
But when you shift gears you end up putting it in the wrong one and your instructor tells you.
This is just going to ruin your driving flow and hinder the lesson.
If you just took 5 or even 1 minute out to practice gear changes, you may not have made that mistake.
TIP 2: Don’t be afraid of the biting point
The biting point is when you pull up the clutch the majority of the way and your car is ready to go.
In fact, the car leans over. Like it’s about to shoot off.
This can worry a lot of people. I used to get worried about this when I first started to drive.
I wanted to give you a quick heads up and tell you that it’s OK. Your car is not going to go shooting into the distance.
The worst that can happen is it will stall if you don’t do it right. This simply means your car will jerk forward a little.
Practice going and stopping and this will relieve you of any anxieties you have of this part of driving.
TIP 3: Have the heal of the foot on the ground for better control
This tip will help you so much.
A lot of the time you feel like you don’t have 100% control over the clutch or gas.
HOWEVER…
By simply having your heal on the ground and that little ball on your foot on the pedal will help tremendously with control.
You see, when you have your entire foot on the peddle it will decrease your control since you’re having to carefully balance a lot of weight.
This will also tire your entire leg.
So instead, have your heal on the ground, not on the pedal.
TIP 4: Plan, plan, plan
The magic source of being a good driver is planning.
When you’re about to take of you need to plan. When you’re about to stop you need to plan.
It’s all about planning.
When you’re about to take off you need to check all your mirrors, your blind spots, and plan exactly where you’re about to go.
When you’re about to stop you need to check your side mirrors, your mirror to see who’s behind you and then indicate where you’re about to go.
You need to make planning a habit. At first, you’re going to make a lot of mistakes and mess up.
But that’s OK, the learning comes from the mistakes.
TIP 5: Stop worrying about what other drivers think
This is what we come across in so many of our learner drivers.
They’re so caught up in what others think. Don’t worry about it. The people looking at you or the ones you think are looking at you have been in the same situation you’re in.
Other drivers have made the mistakes you’ve made and the ones you’re going to make in the future.
And guess what, the other drivers are also going to keep on making mistakes.
WHY?
Because it’s human nature. Even experts mess up.
Conclusion
So those were the top 5 tips for learner drivers in Burton on Trent.
Remember, we all make mistakes and mess up. Some more than others and that’s perfectly OK.
Take a deep breath, roll your shoulders back, and relax.
You’re going to be a top notch driver in no time. Especially if you talk to one of our driving instructors in Burton on Trent.
