Driving Theory vs Real-Life

I had a chance of experiencing a car skid on a highway. Luckily there wasn't any cars around, and I did not hit anything. It happened like this :

I was driving around the city, when one of my passenger commented that why I always try to beat the traffic lights (the amber light). So right at the next light, I was travelling around more than 60km/h (I believe it was still less than 70km/h) on a 3 lane road. I was on the left most.

Traffic lights turned amber. I hit the brakes. Was already quite near the junction. Felt the hard deceleration, heard tyres screeching, and the next thing was the tyres lost traction, and slided to a little to the left and still kept going forward.

I have passed the traffic stop line, light was still amber, released the brakes and accelerated to past the traffic lights.

I looked at the rear view mirror. Skid marks on the road looks no more than 5 metres.

I knew there was no ABS on the rented wagon. I knew perfectly well in theory, how to brake with and without ABS (The pumping action needed manually in hard braking without ABS). I knew perfectly well in theory how to handle a skid.

I can control vehicle during a "test brake" session. I did not have a "test skid" practise. Those sessions were with mental preparation.

This time, it was real, as I did not expect the vehicle to skid. It was real, because I didn't expect the tyres to loose traction so easily. It was real, because I forgot to lift my foot out of the brakes. Had I not seen that I have passed the stop line and the light is still amber, I wouldn't have accelerated. I believed I would have held on to the brakes and tried to steer.

Now that is the difference between real life "panic" and mentally prepared practise session.