One of the drills that I use for Traffic Skills students is to have them ride around the little course we set up for handling skills, practicing starting and stopping, first unclipped, then clipped in. Repeat many times, until you start to build the habit of leveling your pedals, clipping out the foot you plan to put down, then braking smoothly to a stop. With the foot that's still clipped in, raise that pedal to the "power pedal" position, then take off again...

The League has just come out with a new program at Interbike, jointly with the National Bike Dealers' Association, to have a system in place to teach bike shop employees a systematic method to teach basic handling skills to new or returning cyclists. Called "Bicycling 123," it includes a program for the League to certify "Skills Instructors" at bike shops, and "Youth Instructors" at schools and other community organizations to set up and teach bike rodeos. Based on all the queries I've seen, the clipless conversion drill is a good one to add to the curriculum for our Skills Instructors...

Tom