if you are trying to learn to pedal in circles focus on the ball of your feet, the metatarsals, the contact point with the pedals, not your toes or your heel. if you focus on either of those you will either point your toes too much and end up clawing back with your toes and this may cause cramp in your feet, sometimes clawing is due to having the saddle too high because as you have to lift your heel at the bottom of the stroke to get through the bottom of the stroke this shortens the leg extension. if you push down through the heal too much you could end up loosing power, also this could be due to the saddle being too low, because as you push the heal down you lengthen the leg extension.
One way to focus on the ball of your feet is to set your bike on the turbo and close your eyes (only do this on the turbo!) then picture in your head the ball of your feet and the pedal, the contact point, push them all the way to the bottom, pull (stroke) them through the bottom, pull them up and finally push them through the top, try to forget about your toes and your heals.
The above is my theory and observations on pedalling.
more to come later......
