When I was young and mountain biking I pressed my brakes too hard and went head over handlebars (with a helmet on) and right into a tree, so now I like to balance brakes with dragging heels to avoid that.
That sounds horrible.
Wouldn't walking your bike be preferable to that? .

Instead of walking you through brake skills, I suggest you take your bike in, get the brake checked, get your saddle height corrected, and find out if they have a basic skills clinic

I am a mountain bike coach and one of the very first things we teach is correct braking. Your front brake is 60% of your braking power, but the rear brake balances that out. You have to use both of them together to brake successfully ( no endos, skidding etc) If you are on a crap wal mart bike, chances are the brakes are not installed correctly and/or don't function properly.

I am really surprised you aren't having knee pain with a saddle too low.

Go to the mountain biking section of this forum, use the forum tools to search and search the mountain bike forum for "braking". You will find a bazillion threads on mtb skills and techniques, with lots and lots of information. This may be the link to the search, not sure if this will work or not. http://forums.teamestrogen.com/searc...searchid=90686