Cleat release-which direction do you?

As I am sitting here pondering "why only the left foot", I think I have discovered why. I started bowling when I was 6 years old and did so competitively, very competively until I was 22. Probably 5 days a week, I paid for a chunk of my college by bowling. I bowled a lot, I even made it to the hall of honor or something like that they call it. Right handers in bowling slide with the left foot. I think maybe it is the muscle memory of putting the left foot bend into a slide, I did this thousands of times. You are balanced in a left lunge, so maybe that is why the left is so natural for me. But it could just be that I am a freak.

Oh and to keep on the original question. To get the right foot out, I still turn heel out. So both heels out, left must be first or I hit the deck.

I told DH about this thread and his mind couldn't even process heels in to unclip. He was truly baffled trying to even picture it. So put him down as out. :p

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Originally Posted by liza

:confused:

I'm assuming you're in the US -- maybe that's a bad assumption.

But... if you are... unclipping left means you are leaning into traffic, not away from it, right?

(That said, I unclip left 99% of the time because I"m right-footed and like to start with my dominant foot clipped in, although I can unclip right-first if I need to).

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I'm not, sorry, should have made that clear...I actually live in the UK, so I'm leaning away!

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Originally Posted by Aggie_Ama

I told DH about this thread and his mind couldn't even process heels in to unclip. He was truly baffled trying to even picture it.

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Exactly!
I couldn't picture it either!

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Originally Posted by Aggie_Ama

I told DH about this thread and his mind couldn't even process heels in to unclip. He was truly baffled trying to even picture it. So put him down as out. :p

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Tell him to imagine pain in his ankle every time he turns his heel outward. Suddenly, heel in makes sense.

I think it just has to do with how you are built, but out is definitely uncomfortable, and I used to try to do it when I first started. One day I accidentally unclipped by turning my foot in and that was it for me. I couldn't believe how easy it was compared to out.

I'm so confused :o

You know, I've taught ballet classes since I was in my early teens. Some people cannot turn their toes out very far no matter what. Others, can get 180 degrees with no problem in first position, and I could from my first lesson. 5th position is even worse. I have girls bending their knees trying to get their toes turned out more and they just aren't built like that. I think eventually my turnout got even wider, but the knock kneed position of skiing and yes, turning my heel out is really uncomfortable.

I don't force their feet into an unnatural position, and I don't think that's healthy in any sport, therefore my conclusion is that there is no "correct" way to uncleat, not based on any cycling knowledge, but from a lifetime of dance.

I had a friend who took ballet for many years - she could take her feet, put her heels together with her toes out, and then proceed to bring her heels all the way to the front (sort of inverting her knees), put them on the ground, and then swivel her toes forward, and repeat... walking across the room.

It seemed to be a combination of being fairly double jointed and then having regularly injuring joints in ballet.

I always turn my heel out. I am pigeon-toed so it feels natural.

Kim