When I started driving I demonstrated good handling in the family automatic. As soon as I was mostly comfortable with that vehicle my parents transitioned me over to the 1976 Volvo 245 with a 4-on-the-floor (with electronic OD). I spent hours at the practice lot at my school in the off hours doing parallel parking, backing, emergency maneuvering, and precision wheel placement until it was second nature. I felt like I went in and out of that parallel parking spot so many times that I wore grooves in the tarmac. Once I got the hang of that in the parking lot we were out on the street and then I spent an entire day with my mom in the car going up and down the steepest hill in town with a Stop at every intersection.
It was brutal, exhausting driving - especially after about the 5th hour on the hill. But I was the only person I knew driving a manual transmission in San Francisco and parallel parking on those steep hills (both left and right sides). I still have to coach my friends through parallel parking, and sometimes I just have to park their cars for them.