all that being said though, I have found in my experience that a lot of driver who drive sticks, don't drive them right. Not accusing you of this. But having ridden with some people and knowing lots of cars coming into the dealerships needing clutches long before they should be due.

I have personally bought cars "needing" clutches and drove them another 100k miles with no issues. But I noticed a lot of people add slipping the clutch as a normal practice as well..

timing is also important, if you take the load off the engine and allow time in the shift for the engine rpm to drop. thus taking the load off the engine, it will shift forward. if you are trying to shift through that, your movement through the shift is negated by the engine moving the linkage.

you can feel the engine rocking through the shifter. rest your hand on it, and push your clutch in and out in first gear. only give it enough gas to not stall. You will see/feel the shifter move with the engine, if it moves too much, you might need to change the enter linkage. You will not feel anything but vibration in a cable shifter.