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@Scrabble
After many years riding fixed, I can do little skids to knock a bit of speed off fine (basically if you're clipped in just hop/unweight the back wheel a little and try to lock things up) but i've never got into those massive whippy things you see in the videos. However I have learnt skidding is heavily influenced by certain conditions: road surface, tyre size/pressure and gear ratio.
Skidding a hard skinny tyre in the wet on a slight downhill with an easy gear is a doddle. Skidding a softer 32c on heavy dry roads is very different. Big ratios are also much harder. Somewhere in the middle is what you're probably riding. For learning, try pumping your rear tyre up a bit more than you'd usually ride and find some smooth tarmac perhaps on a gentle downslope.
In terms of leg muscles, even after plenty of years of 25 mile a day fixed commutes, I would not have wanted to try brakeless - but this winter I did loads of lunge/squat exercises for ski fitness and it made a huge difference to my fixed riding. Suddenly significantly easier to control speed, particularly on descents. Just felt like I suddenly had a new set of muscles to help. Still never taking my brake off though!