Indian hockey team to travel to Switzerland for three-day camp in Mike Horn’s base before Olympics

Upton, who played a role in India winning the 2011 Cricket World Cup, had also arranged a similar camp for the South African cricket team in 2012.

Craig Arthur Fulton, Chief Coach Indian field hockey team, during training at Sports Authority of India on 2nd July 2024. | Photo Credit: MURALI KUMAR K/THE HINDU

The Indian men’s hockey team will undergo an arduous three-day training camp in renowned adventurer Mike Horn’s base in Switzerland to strengthen the mental toughness of the players ahead of the Paris Olympics.

The training camp at Horn’s base was arranged by renowned South African mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton, who will assist the Indian men’s hockey team in Paris.

Upton, who played a role in India winning the 2011 Cricket World Cup, had also arranged a similar camp for the South African cricket team in 2012.

“We will be taking the Indian hockey team to Switzerland to the Swiss Alps to go to Mike Horn’s training camps. It is something we did with the South African cricket team back in 2012, we climbed down mountains, jumped off waterfalls, went down canyons, walked in mountains,” Upton, who has been on and off conducting camps with Indian hockey team, said in his Instagram page.

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“It was actually amazing experience to take players out of their comfort zone. Went a lot of time listening to Mike Horn who is probably the greatest adventurer ever to have lived and alive today.

“He tells incredible stories which just puts into perspective what real pressure is about. He faces pressure of death and the players get to see the pressure we experience, for example, the hockey team is gonna experience is not real pressure,” he added.

Upton, who has been roped in by India’s South African head coach Craig Fulton, said from Switzerland they will head to the Netherlands for a short training camp and then head to Paris straight from there.

“So the first piece is the three-day training camp in Switzerland. The players will be staying in tents in the mountains and not in comfort zone. So that’s really exciting and from there we will go to Holland for 10-12 days training and then to the Olympic village,” he said, elaborating on India’s final preparations going into the Olympics.

Horn, a renowned adventurer and a motivational speaker, uses his experiences to motivate sportsmen and other people involved in challenging work such as deep-sea drilling.

He also conducted motivational sessions for the Indian cricket team at the request of coach Gary Kirsten in 2010-11.

Horn was also roped in by Kolkata Knight Riders in 2014, when the franchise won the Indian Premier League under Gautam Gambhir’s captaincy.