Ditto, and its much less of a hastle too.

 

My dad told me the following. You can downshift when you need to but dont do it every single time. He taught me to just drive on the gear that you are in and just break without downshifting till the point where your RPM drops down very low under 1000 and you feel like your car is almost stalling, and than to switch into neutral. In other words brake and stay in the gear and dont downshift. He drove stick shift cars for like 30 years already and I trust him. He said that downshifting is not really necessary but it wont hurt the car if you know what you are doing. He also said and I heard many other people say the same thing that back in Russian they used to downshift during snow on their rear wheel drive cars so that the cars stop like on icy roads. Also switching gears without clutch is not a problem and possible on any car. My dad did it on my car but I personally never did it. I hope my post was useful and not boring.

 

well, i double clutch all the time. i just think its fun, but i also want to work on my pedal work, so thats why i do it. i've gotten pretty good at braking and double clutching at the same time its not only a truck thing, in my opinion. if you're racing (not drag racing) its a good thing to know how to do. you know that jolt you feel if you just downshift and let off the clutch real fast? with double clutching you don't get that at all.. if you're going really fast in a race, that jolt probably will be worse. any forces that act in a way other than towards helping you go forward (when you want to go forward) can only hurt.. double clutching gives you a smooth, fast, seemless downshift

but ey, maybe i'm wrong! i don't know everything..

 

Sounds like you're describing rev-matching. That's different from double clutching. Double-clutching is when you engage the clutch momentarily with the gearbox in neutral, to get the input shaft spinning at the right speed. This saves wear on the synchro. (Unless you fumble it...)

Rev-matching is tapping the gas pedal as you engage the clutch after you have downshifted. This is what prevents the jerk. This doesn't save your synchros, but it prevents the shock-load on your driveshafts, clutch, gearbox, & engine mounts.

You can double-clutch to shift gears, then engage the clutch without matching revs; that still jerks. OTOH, you can shift without double-clutching, then match revs when you engage the clutch, & that's smooth.

Rev-matching is always good. Double clutching is 'usually' not needed in normal cars, normal driving. But its still fun & sounds cool if you don't screw it up.