Originally Posted by mihlbach

Thats not going to help you stop.
Your gear ratio is fine. The best advice is to just keep practicing. You'll eventually get it. You have to unweight the rear wheel....not by much, and just for a split second to initiate the skid. If you are able to lift your rear wheel off the ground while riding (sort of like bunnyhopping the rear wheel a tiny bit), then you can easily learn to skidstop. Putting your balls to the stem is not the way to do it if your intension is to stop.