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hypermiling is like playing an arcade game. You put money in to play. If you are trying to be super careful and never try new techniques you won't get any better at the game.
Sophia is trying to talk to you, it's up to you to listen to her. The more you drive the vehicle the better you will be at predicting what gear is best to be in at what time in what scenario and when to clutch in coast or let off and engine brake.
Just remember the brake pedal is a control to a system that converts fuel to heat and brake dust. Yes its primary function is to stop the vehicle but if you think about it no matter how you got to the speed at which you start to use the brake there was energy input used to get you there.
The key is to use friction and other unavoidable factors to slow your vehicle for the best fuel economy. Coasting achieves just that. Knowing how much power to give before coasting without having to use brakes is very tricky but is the best way to improve your fuel economy.
Trying to explain in layman's terms pulse and glide the best I can...
Say you had a skinny small man and an athlete on bicycles that must complete a lap around a track. Both the small man and athlete could constantly pedal to obtain the goal at a certain average speed but since the athlete's muscles are big the athlete has to hold back. He will consume more energy than the small man to obtain the same goal.
Now if the athlete uses his muscles in a strong pulse of furious pedaling he can glide a long way before he has to do another pulse to get back up to speed. While it takes more energy to to the strong leg pushes he is going to do less of them and in the end will average less energy consumption as a result.
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