Sporting activities are no exception and there is much research that points to their ability to convey benefits in four main areas: physical, social, emotional and cognitive. After school sporting activities are well known to aid overall health and the development of children’s movement skills and physical competence. It can be argued that these are necessary, if not deterministic conditions of engagement in lifelong physical activity.
In the social sphere, there is evidence to support claims of positive benefits that derive from the opportunity to develop skills in leadership, decision‐making and social integration. These resulting benefits include higher levels of social confidence
Engagement in sport classes has been positively associated with numerous dimensions of psychological and emotional development, most commonly improved self-esteem, fewer depressive symptoms and reduced social anxiety. Extracurricular sport competitions can also teach a child how to deal with failure gracefully and effectively, channeling that energy into (sometimes literally) getting back on the horse.
The correlation between motor skill development and cognitive development is well established in younger children but there is also evidence that even for primary children there is a significant correlation between motor skills and cognitive learning abilities in mathematical analysis and language comprehension.
