[p123]

Originally Posted by MikeCStig

I doubt you'll break anything, you'll be surprised how quick you get the hang of it... I know I was. Plus Subarus are very strong cars
Get someone who knows how to drive a stick to teach you before you try it yourself. Practice shifting with the car parked and the engine not running so you can get a feel for the shifter.
Gear changes are actually the easy part. Just push the clutch, change gear, ease the clutch back out and get back on the throttle. ALWAYS USE THE CLUTCH WHEN CHANGING GEAR. If you don't, you'll grind the gears and that's really the only way to do any real damage. Downshifting is a bit trickier, make sure you're at a low RPM before you shift down. Also, don't skip gears.
Starting from a dead stop is the hard part (at least it was for me). The trick is to find what's called the "friction point" which is where the clutch starts to engage and you start moving. Rev the engine slightly (like 2000 rpm) and slowly let out the clutch. When you feel the clutch engaging and you start to move, give it just a touch more throttle and let the the clutch out the rest of the way. Then be ready to go to second gear (around 2800- 3000 rpm), you don't want to spend too much time in first.
Just be warned, there is a learning curve with manual transmissions. No matter what car you learn in, there will be jerky starts and gear change and you will stall a few times, but these little things won't kill the car.

What is Rev matching don't really get what that means?