Originally Posted by
BarracksSi
^^^ Ah, that was my next guess, that you reposition your feet. Not necessarily a bad idea, since the position of a clipless shoe's cleat can affect leverage, too.
Keep in mind that your effort to keep your feet on your pedals during the whole stroke also works against you. As you're pushing down in front, you also end up pushing against your rear foot, so some of your energy is spent pushing against your leg instead of the chain.
Yes my feet are definitely working against each other at times (both pushing down), which is wasteful and inefficient, this is why I find clipless better on the flats at constant speed (especially over longer distances). But when accelerating all out or pushing hard up a hill, I find the leverage better with the platform pedals. If my goal is to get to the top of the hill as quickly as possible or sprint to the finish in the least possible time, then it doesn't matter if I am inefficient as long as I can output enough power to compensate for the waste and then some.
Especially true when sprinting as it is the first couple of strokes that slingshot the bike.