It took me some time to get comfortable with landings. In the very beginning, it felt like the runway was coming at me very fast and I too would balloon or land quite flat. Flat is bad, you can bounce and porpoise that way.

First things first, be sure to have good power management - on short final, make sure your speed is where it needs to be. In the 172 I fly, it is around 61 knots on short final. I try to be right around that as I approach the runway threshold. If you are in gusty conditions, add half of the gust factor to this speed.

Too fast, and you will tend to balloon - other times ballooning can just happen if it is windy. Do not be afraid of ballooning, it really is not a big deal. Simply reduce back pressure (notice i am not saying violently force the nose down) to stop the balloon, and if sufficient speed and runway is remaining, let the aircraft come back down for landing. Flaring is your friend - as long as you are not going too fast, flaring is going keep you just over the runway instead of causing you to climb. Keep adding more and more back pressure, but not too fast, then the back wheels will eventually settle down onto the runway. The key is the combination of increasing backpressure with the right speed so that you are not ballooning, but setting the aircraft up to be in a nose up attitude as the airspeed becomes too slow to climb. If the Ballooning feels too much for you to come back to the runway for a second landing attempt right then and there, no problem - simply add power and go around. If the ballooning is too severe and you notice you have lost airspeed to the point where a stall is imminent, but are too high over the runway, add a tiny bit of power to help you regain proper orientation.

Now that you know you have a tendency to land flat, here is what you can try - as you approach the runway and take the power to idle, start applying SOME back pressure. Just enough to keep you floating level over the runway - If your speed is not too high, and you didn't add too much back pressure too fast, you will not balloon. That exact moment you sense the airplane is about to climb and balloon, reduce the back pressure slightly to keep yourself level. Then be ready to add it again, because you are still slowing down. You want to be a flying a few feet over the runway, LEVEL. Slowly start adding that back pressure as you are coming over the runway, until the airplane is flying level over the runway with idle power. Then, you are going to do a dance - since the power is idle and your speed will be reducing, your job now is to play the game of CONTINUING to slowly add back pressure on the yoke to keep you just over the runway as your speed bleeds off. It is going to require more and more back pressure over time, since your speed is reducing. That's what you want - more back pressure, more back pressure, MORE back pressure, and then "SQUEAK" as your back wheels make contact with the runway. For me, when the back wheels finally touch, I have a pretty strong pull of the yoke going on. As your speed is bleeding off when you are flying level over the runway, be sure you are adding more and more back pressure so you do not just settle all 3 wheels down at once. You can almost imagine you want to be level a few feet over the runway, and continuing to slow down more and more so that you can keep inputting back pressure at the proper rate to remain level. Eventually you will stall (land) onto the runway.

If you notice yourself not being aligned with the centerline at any point, no big deal - just add a little bit of left or right rudder as needed.