Sounds to me like your foot came off the throttle when it left and caused the pedal.

As far as staging with a brake, I personally never go in at a dead idle. I usually turn on the pre-stage, get your shizzit together, give the motor some rpm and "drag" it in with some rpm like you would footbraking. Stop it with the footbrake, grab the transbrake and you are good to go. When you see 4 stage lights put it on the wood for a pro tree