First clipped ride

[alpinerabbit]

I have a bum ankle and have trouble with my range of motion and am terrified to go clipless!
What's the best way to practice if you don't have a trainer?

The angle you need to turn/twist to get out is actually quite small. So is the force required if the tension is not set very high.
Surely a LBS would let you try before you buy?

I spent Thu evening with my workmate who just got a new MTB with clipless and she did not fall, but we also just practiced around her neigborhood.

First I had her hold on to a fence to try the first few times. then we practiced -
In and out, in and out, first one foot with the other rested on the non-clip side of her pedal (she got one-sided ones), then stopping and starting, then in and out with both feet alternating while riding, finally both in, stopping, starting again. Maybe a quarter of an hour and 5 ins and outs?
Then along some gravel paths in the park, & finally up a little incline, all very slow. Not even at the very end when I made an abrupt stop (unintended) and there was nowhere for her to go to get around me did she fall.