Master your MTB Mindset.
Brain-based training with Dr Kath Bicknell for riders who want more flow, sharper focus and faster progress.
Develop personalised strategies for overcoming mental blocks, improving performance and finding more flow. Online sessions for individuals and small groups available worldwide.
Self-paced sessions and a 1:1 live lesson to improve your focus, control and mental precision. Increase your efficiency and consistency, regulate overthinking and anxiety, maximise your physical performance and be more intentional in how you guide your movement on the bike.
Performance and resilience-building sessions tailored for sports clubs, workplaces and community groups. Learn research-backed strategies for overcoming challenges and reaching your goals with practical tips you can apply straight away.
Transform your potential with expert-led training grounded in my original research in embodied, cognitive science, national-level racing experience and neurotype-affirming coaching expertise.
Keep expanding your skillset while you give your body a rest.
“One of Australia’s leading thinkers in sport and performance…Kath’s approach connects the mind and body in ways that transform how we ride, think, and lead.”
– Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland (DMBinS) program description, 2025 Women in the Bike Industry Summit
“Kath brought electric enthusiasm to the stage while discussing how to harness brain power on the trails.”
– Anna Beck, editor, Australian Mountain Bike Magazine on the inaugural Sea Otter Australia Summit
Use your mind to find more flow more often
Sign up for The Cognitive Advantage Newsletter and receive five mental strategies you can use straight away for more flow, more often out on the trails.
Look forward to research-backed bike wisdom and stories with a point that will improve your performance and resilience on the bike and in life. Content that’s worth your time and adds a fresh perspective to your day.
“Genuinely opens your mind to new strategies and unpacks your unconscious approach to obstacles”
– Refine Your Racecraft Workshop feedback, Hunter Mountain Bike Club
Lastest ‘Bike Body Mind’ articles for Australian Mountain Bike magazine
How imagining the unimaginable makes you ride faster
Why are Mogo’s trails sooooo good? Physically, mentally and socially?
Mental Tips for Riding Technical Trail Features
How Saying No Builds Confidence and Improves Your Mountain Biking Skills
“Kath’s take on performance studies, processes and mountain biking isn’t done anywhere else – she’s forging new ground!…Away from the high level thinking stuff, Kath is also a mountain bike stoke spirit animal – with the kind of positivity around bikes that is infectious, in a good way!” – Mike Blewitt, Bicycle Queensland and Former Editor of Australian Mountain Bike Magazine.
“Australian speaker Kath Bicknell is a the forefront of ‘Brainy Biking’, where cognitive science and body and bike performance converge. Be prepared for thought provoking insights, models and real applications for the next gen of coaching and program techniques – Sea Otter Australia Summit
“Your coaching style feels really grounded and thoughtful – like chatting with a friend who totally gets the mental ups and downs of riding. You give simple but powerful cues that actually stick, so when I’m out on the trail, I find myself coming back to those little mindset shifts. It’s helped me stay more focused, and be more present on the bike.” – 1:1 online coaching feedback
“A place to go if you feel like your cycling has plateaued. Engaging, easy to access and a source of heaps of simple techniques you can apply immediately.” – Online course feedback
Intelligent Action expands on Kath Bicknell’s 16-year research and teaching background in cognitive science, anthropology and performance studies, and her parallel history in sports journalism.
The aim? To encourage people at all levels in mountain biking to feel more proud and empowered by what their minds and bodies can do, and to increase the tools they have at their disposal to achieve that.
Located on Awabakal Country (Newcastle, NSW, Australia), approximately two hours north of Sydney, Kath is available as a live speaker and for tailored workshops. Get in contact about sessions on Mind Skills for Mountain Bikers, or resilience workshops for corporate and community groups.
Designed and led by Dr Kath Bicknell
Discover The Cognitive Advantage: Recent Newsletters
Making decisions when you can’t see the full picture
Cognitive shortcuts that make you a better rider
Two Powerful Cues For Peak Performance
Join the Intelligent Action community on social media for tips, tricks, strategies, news and to shape the content we create.
Rethink thinking and all it allows you to do.
The pathways to success are multiple: make yours more robust
Drawing on original research in embodied cognitive science and a lifelong passion for mountain biking, Intelligent Action teaches simple but effective mind-body-performance strategies you can put into practice immediately in skilled activities or professions of your own.
We deliver original, practically oriented courses and entertaining, thought-provoking workshops and online coaching for individuals seeking ongoing improvement in the skills they have, increased capacity under pressure and alternate pathways to success.
– Dr Kath Bicknell, Founder and Director
Intelligent Action 