For me it can be a little like "being afraid of the ball" when you're trying to catch it. If you're in "fear" mode, you are looking for one thing to pay attention to, because it might hurt you... and pulling attention away from riding smoothly *forward* and being in the process of riding and anticipating. My few attempts at anything like mountain biking have been pretty silly because often you need to speed up to anticipate instead of slowing down.