In today's world where sedentary lifestyle prevails physical activity is extremely important for the health and improvement of anthropological status of children. The aim of this thesis is to determine if there is a difference in motor abilities of preschool children considering involvement in extracurricular sports programs. The paper explains in greater details about motor abilities, characteristics of motor development and developments of motor abilities and characteristics of motor movements of preschool children. It presents examples of motor games that contribute to development of motor abilities of children. Previous research on the motor abilities of preschool children and research conducted for the purpose of writing thesis are presented. The research was conducted in kindergarten „Srednjaci“ in Zagreb on a sample of 49 children, 25 of whom are athletes and 24 non-athletes. The age of the children who participated in the study is 5 to 6 years. For this purpose, the battery of six motor tests was used. The results of the research indicated a statistically significant difference in three tests. Children involved in extracurricular sports programs were better at standing on one leg, hand tapping and circle on all fours. In other tests, children athletes also performed better according to arithmetic means, but the difference is not statistically significant which is why the initial hypothesis is only partially confirmed. In order for the hypothesis to be fully validated, the research needs to be conducted on larger sample of children.