put my 8 year old in martial arts six months ago, mostly to tire him out.
honest admission: the original goal was not character development, it was a tired parent's calculation, structured activity, burns energy, fills a weekday afternoon.
he started kids BJJ at Team Perosh MMA in Five Dock. i sat through the first few classes watching from the side expecting to observe the tiring-out process.
what i didn't expect was how quickly the frustration tolerance thing changed. BJJ specifically involves failing constantly, you get put in a bad position, you try to get out, you don't, you try again. it's actually a pretty direct training ground for not immediately giving up when something is hard.
by month three his teacher mentioned spontaneous that he'd been noticeably more persistent with tasks at school. i hadn't told her he was doing martial arts.
i'm not saying martial arts is magic. i'm sure there are other activities that do similar things, but if you're a parent who defaulted to the soccer/swimming rotation and hasn't thought about this one, it does something slightly different and is worth considering.
what activities have you found actually shared skills outside the activity itself?