Help with highly self critical 3 year old discouragement.

My son is a little over 3. He is very "aware" for a 3 year old as well as rather emotional. He is generally very even tempered and happy, except when it comes to the inability to "do things right". This is leading to very frequent situations where he determines he is "doing a bad job" or "losing" and becomes sad and discouraged as a result. Often to the point that he brings it up hours later after the issue has long since passed. And im not even sure where he is getting it from. No one around him is competitive or critical at all. And we have spent a fair amount of time trying to teach him to try his best, practice is fun, sometimes you lose, sometimes people hurt your feelings, and not to worry about not being able to do things perfect right away. No amount of encouragement or explanation seems to be able to shake his feelings of failure and the sulkfest that ensues.A big part of this issue is the gap between his awareness and his abilities. Being only three, his reading/writing abilities, running speed, dexterity etc need a lot of practice. But he recognizes the "right" way to do something very clearly and holds himself to that standard despite no one around him doing the same. If he cant immediately meet the standard he sets for himself. He becomes upset and discouraged and tries to give up/sulk, we typically respond by encouraging him to keep trying, but it doesn't seem to have much of an effect.Practicing his alphabet and cant draw a letter? Upset at himself. Running with a group of kids who are twice as old/fast as him? Upset at himself. Trying to catch a ball and misses it? Upset at himself. This is leading to a catch-22 where he gets so quickly discouraged trying to do things, he doesn't want to practice, and doesn't get any better. We have tried explaining the importance of practicing and trying your best, but he doesn't seem interested in our opinions on the subject.Right now we have him participating in some casual "sports" with other kids in attempt to help him get over this issue, but so far its mostly been crying and sulking at the drop of a hat in response to the slightest "failure" (missing a ball, running with kids and not winning, another kid catching his ball, etc)I'm mainly wondering two things. Does anyone have any non obvious strategies or methods for helping to change this? Inversely, are there obvious things were doing in response (supporting/consoling him/explaining) that may be contributing to this behavior? Should we be ignoring it?Our current plan is to just keep exposing him to these failures and supporting his good behavior/explaining to him. But I would love any insight into this issue from other parents with similar experiences. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2kMy99S