[stk910]

The five most important things to me when learning to drift were:
1. First start drifting in a place with a LOT of runoff room, on both the inside and outside of each corner. For example, I started drifting at a large gymkhana course with pylons, and spun all day. Sure you can just buy a drift missile and crash it into everything, but if you care about the look of your car too, that's not an option.
2. Have a properly set-up car. Not just tires, camber, suspension mods, 2-way or welded diff, etc... but the interior as well. Putting in a bucket seat, 4-point harness and a Nardi wheel vastly improved my car control, and gave me proper support during violent transitions.
3. Don't be a pussy. It's far better to spin in every corner than understeer through all of them. You will learn more from spinning than from understeering. Don't be afraid to pull the e-brake at a speed you are very uncomfortable at, or to clutch kick the shit out of your clutch, or to throw the weight of your car from one side to the other at speed.
4. Understand the different drifting techniques. Watch the drift bible, and some of the earlier drift tengoku videos.
5. LOOK at where you want to go. Look at the next corner while you are in the middle of your drift, or at your clipping point. If you just look around aimlessly while drifting, you will often spin.

Number 3 and 4 are the most important. I started drifting about 8 months ago, and have only been to 7 drift sessions. I can continuously drift all of Fuji Drift Park and Honjo Circuit, now rarely spin, and have yet to crash. Another guy that started about the same time I did and has been to more events still can't drift to save his life. He is too scared to kick his clutch because he doesn't want to break anything, and doesn't want to pull the e-brake. He just mashes the gas mid-corner at low speed and spins out, or understeers almost every corner. A lot of seat time is important too as many are saying, but if you are doing nothing with that seat time, it's worthless.