thank you for the info! I appreciate your knowledge and taking the time to help!

Here's a short video of Steve Feschek driving his 1984 Peterbilt Cabover using the clutch to start rolling. Once he has it moving, his right leg moves away from the clutch and never moves until he needs to come to a full stop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO7xCMPkB04

He up-shifts and down-shifts without using the clutch. Note some of the gears are shifted using a range-selection switch, so you don't see his hand move.

I agree with Spank about his "heel toe' suggestion. Essentially, you are applying the brakes with the toe of your right foot while applying some throttle with your heel. The purpose behind it is to increase revs of the engine to ease the strain on the baulk rings when they engage. Double clutching (or de-clutching to some) is to use the engine revs to spin up the drive gear in the transmission to match the tooth speed of the driven gear (the one connected to the wheels) so there is very little to no demand on the baulk ring or synchronizer to match things up.

With a transmission in good condition (not suggested for yours) it is possible to shift up and down through all gears (except reverse!) without using the clutch. It takes a good sense of feel of the gears and the engine rpm, but when you get it right, the shift will slip into gear with almost zero effort. In my first Mini, an 850 with no first gear synchronization I could easily slip it 1-2 or 2-1 without touching the clutch. On another vehicle (Suzuki), when the clutch cable broke, I was able to drive about 8 miles without the clutch, gearing down for cross-roads, though I admit I did have to roll a few country stop signs.

2nd gear syncro (Actually the baulk ring) is often the first one to get worn out. Think of a baulk ring like a clutch-- it is designed to use it's friction qualities to grab the next gear as you start to select it and get the newly desired gear spinning the same speed as the mainshaft, whether that be upshifting or downshifting.  Downshifting puts the most strain on that baulk ring and they do wear out like clutches do.  IF you continue to just grrrrrrrrind it, you will wear out the teeth on the syncro (syncronizer ring) and you'll have to replace that as well.

You can very often "just" replace the baulk ring with a new one and all will be fine again for quite a long time. I say ""just" because it requires complete engine and transmission removal and nearly a complete transmission disassembly just to get to the spot where you can swap out the 2nd gear baulk ringwhich runs $28-$50 depending on which quality you want.

One thing a driver can do to try and reduce the strain and demand put upon the baulk rings is to "heel toe" when downshifting, or blip the throttle before trying to select the next gear. Takes some practice. You can google "double clutch" and probably find lots of how-to videos.

good luck deciding what to do next

hello,

I just picked up a mint condition '92 Mini. when shifting from 1st to 2nd, I need to shift slow and it usually goes fine. However, from 3rd to 2nd is Impossible without grinding and I end up just waiting to slow down enough to go right into 1st. Does anyone have any suggestions?
thanks so much!