The Mike Horn mentality

Prepare for chaos, respond with clarity

Horn’s survival camp with the Indian hockey team in Switzerland was designed to equip players for the unpredictable - not by avoiding chaos, but by learning how to face it with clarity as a team.

The goal wasn’t just to prepare, it was to condition them to respond with intent, not react on impulse, when things went off-script.

The Paris 2024 quarter-final against Great Britain was one such test. India were down to 10 men inside 17 minutes. But they didn’t crumble, they adapted. Just like they’d rehearsed. They drew the match and won in a shootout.

“We practice different match situations and plan how we should play if someone gets a green or yellow card,” Manpreet Singh, who was part of the team, said. “But this wasn’t a common situation, to play almost three quarters with one man less.

“It was unexpected. But we train to play with structures in case of one man down and in that, I had to fall back in defence to cover up.”

Horn’s daring tales of adventure, where he faced the most unforeseen challenges in virtually life-and-death scenarios, also taught the 2011 cricket team a similar lesson - to prepare for every situation without worrying about the outcome.

“You have to prepare yourself. That was the message Horn was passing,” Harbhajan Singh had noted. “You can't just hold a ball when you are not even there mentally and instead are getting worried about the results. He says it was important to remove the excess baggage.”

Upton likens the process to de-weeding - clearing out mental clutter, fear of failure, and ego to create space for clarity and focus. Horn echoes that belief, emphasising that success often begins with shedding the distraction of failure itself.

“How can you win if you are afraid of losing? It is only when your will to win is bigger than your fear to lose that you can win,” the legendary adventurer says. “This is the most important aspect that differentiates sports stars. Some play to win and some play because they are afraid of losing.”

For the Men in Blue in 2011, the lesson bore fruit in what was perhaps the most crucial juncture.

Under pressure in the final against Sri Lanka, Indian captain MS Dhoni, who had struggled for form throughout the tournament, opted to promote himself up the batting order ahead of the in-form Yuvraj Singh, the eventual Player of the Tournament.

While the call raised many eyebrows at the time and had social media in a frenzy, the decision worked. Dhoni finished unbeaten on 91, hitting the winning six to end India’s 28-year wait for an ODI World Cup title.

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