Chris Akrigg : "not if, but when"
"fear N. : A feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by the presence or imminence of danger."
We are afraid of falling, afraid of breaking stuff, afraid of getting hurt, afraid of pinching, etc, etc... I will not explain why, because I have absolutely no idea !
And we all know, fear blocks us, keeps us from doing "things" that would be easy in another context. A simple example : we may be able to ride on something with a width of a tire, "perched" at 10" in height, but absolutely incapable (because paralyzed by fear) to do the same thing on a wall of 30" perched at 30 feet heigh.
When we see passages in crazy video (or true, but it is rarer) - I'm thinking of lowering the bridge in two-time by Danny Macaskill at the end of the video that made him famous (April 2009), or the huge curved wall in Follow Me - we tell ourselves that these people are not afraid anymore, anyway. But when we read the interviews of these MTB-mutants, there's one thing that comes up : "I was scared, but I had to do. So I do." If my memory serves me, this is Paul Basagoitia about his run to Crankworks, the very one who disclosed to the public.
"So we can drive being afraid?" Yes.
We can do several things to fight this fear, but what differentiates two riders with identical skills is the ability of ride DESPITE the fear!
We do not leave fear, she is not afraid of we. By cons, if we do close-combat with her, breaking her members one by one, she understand who's dad !
Basically, the most effective way to fight fear is to take upon himself and to engage in spite of her. Or not having a brain. Or disconnecting thanks to various substances (well, I've never say that, especially because this is a VERY bad idea : the balance becomes more precarious).
Or the mind to work from home, warm and quiet. We sit down, we begin by closing our eyes and touch our fingertips by focusing on this contact to disconnect from the outside world. Then we repeat that we are the best, we do not fear, we imagine doing this gesture and / or passage that scares us. We can take the opportunity to view on the podium or whatever. This is not a nonsense, it is the mental visualization.