One more suggestion......... if you need to apply the brakes strongly, slide your butt way back on your saddle, partly hanging off the back end. Might feel funny, but what it does is let you use the front brake (which is the brake with the most stopping power) without doing an endo. Mountain biking, on a really steep downhill, you might have your butt completely off the saddle and behind it to keep traction whilst applying that front brake to control speed. Practice on not-so-steep downhills till you get a feel for how far back you need to be to balance the force of using those front brakes to really stop.

Annie
-Get on your bikes and ride!-