Sledging fail

Yesterday I went sledging with some friends.  The slope we were using had two sections.  I was completely unable to get onto the lower section.  I'd either stop early or slide of the edge.  For some reason, this got inside my head and I got really frustrated.  I didn't care about doing the lower section, or I'd have just started halfway down.  I just wanted to try the whole thing.  My friends gave me advice but nothing I tried made any difference.  I tried different starting positions, different amounts of leaning, different positions on the sledge, different sledges, different leg positions.  No win.  What frustrated me was not that I couldn't get onto the lower section.  It was that I wasn't improving.  There was nothing I could do to get there.

It's a bit like losing a competitive sport match.  There are two ways of losing - losing because you played badly, or losing because the opposition were simply too good.  I think most people prefer to lose by just being outclassed, because they want to have played as well as they can.  I disagree.  I would prefer to lose because of playing badly, because then at least I can go away and improve, I know there is something I can do to change things next time.  I don't like losing at all, but especially if there is nothing I could have done to do better.  Just like the sledging - I hated being unable to change anything to improve.