It's great that you're enjoying the sport. I personally still keep one finger hovering over the brake levers (I one finger brake anyway) when decending if I think there's a chance I'll need to hit the brakes. If it's a section I'm familiar with then I won't have them out at all. As far as confidence braking, like others have said there are some hills where you just have to hit the brakes. When I use them though, I like to use them only to slow down to the speed I want and then let off again versus lightly applying them all the way down the hill. You may have to do these several times down the hill but you'll have better control when not applying the brakes. It's a similiar concept to braking when you approach a corner...slow down to the speed you want before you hit the corner and then don't brake once you enter the corner.