My husband was very athletic and played football in the army. Physical things always came easy for him. My cousin's sons are very bright and athletic. My daughter, who I couldn't afford to send to dance lessons or gymnastics when she was in elementary school, learned dance routines and how to do a cartwheel and all the things cheerleaders need to be able to do in middle school well enough that she became a cheerleader. She tried out and earned a place on the cheerleading squad when some of the girls who had years of lessons didn't make it, so I would say that she is also physically gifted, but she never appeared to be as "academically gifted" as my son.
My son, although he learned to read on his own at 2 and seemed gifted in other ways always had difficulty with anything physical, but he was able to learn academic things twice as fast as most kids, but it took him twice as long to learn to do anything physical because he has motor dyspraxia.
If there is any physical activity required, like in piano, he makes only average progress because even though he recognizes patterns in music very quickly, his other difficulties slow him down.
