To be fair to new drivers, this is how they are taught now
You're right. Recently had a dissagreements with my daughter over this. She comes at me with "Dad, don't you know it's, Gears for Going, Brakes for stoping!" She then argues that "It's cheaper to replace brake pads than clutches". I then counter this with "But if you value your clutch so much, why do you sit at traffic lights, in gear with your foot on the clutch". Her answer "Because that's what your supposed to do".
She never learned hand signals either. So when I ask "What would you do if your indicators fail" . She replies "You'll fix them for me, won't you daddy, because you love me". How come, when I've won an argument, I feel like i've lost.
Adam, you'll find that if you make casual gear changes, you don't even need to think when changing up without a clutch. I've tried it in every modern motor I've driven. Just put your foot to the side of the clutch pedal and use an imaginary clutch pedal instead. As you put pressure on the lever, while the revs are coming down, once the revs match, it just slides in.
changing up, you just treat it as if you're changing up, but deliberately miss your gear. ie. Foot down on imaginary clutch pedal, into neutral, Foot off the imaginary clutch (as if to pull away in the new gear), (right foot goes down automatically), As the revs go up, you notice you're not in gear, so you put your imaginary clutch pedal back down, and slip it into gear.
I thought my skill, in this area, was a throwback to my greenlaning days in my old Series 1 Landie, but getting my wife and daughters to try it, I've found that it's not my natural tallent at all. It just works for everyone! (believe me, my wife has no natural talent for driving. It's not uncommon for her to come into the house, toss the keys at me and say, "You'll have to park the car, someones knicked my parking space!" )
On modern cars, when the revs are not right, the gear change becomes stiff. If you apply no more force to the gear lever than you would normally, this holds the gearchange off untill the revs match. If you are making a casual unrushed gearchange, you barely notice this slight hesitancy.
