At Brizwest Driving School we teach learners how to select gears. If left to their own devices the learner would likely adopt the "claw grip". Some would argue that the claw grip is inefficient and very prone to errors, but given time the learner improves using that method. At Brizwest we teach learners to change gears by guiding the gear lever with soft and gentle pressure applied smoothly in the correct direction.

In guiding the gear lever there are two basic rules:
  finger tips MUST stay off the gear stick
  thumb pointing DOWN for 1st and 2nd gear selection.

A Brizwest Driver Trainer will show you in detail the benefits of using this method and provide you with more information on how to learn to be efficient with your gear selection.