This is how a perfect season starts: the Klein Zwitserland kick-off with X-Skills

The start of the season. All the youth selection teams — U14, U16, U18 — are ready and eager. Everyone wants to get going. But how do you start a day like that so it feels special? Not like just another training session, but like the real kick-off?

Klein Zwitserland knows how. For the third year in a row, the club organises a season kick-off: a full day for all selection teams, built around bonding, fun and team spirit. Team sessions, training sessions, Hockey5's, workshops — and in the evening everyone winds down together at a barbecue.

And for the third year, X-Skills is part of it.

The setup: one hour per team, one game against each other

Every team comes by for an hour, one after the other. Not for a test, but for a game against each other. The stations:

• Hardest hit
• Fastest dribble
• Passing accuracy
• Scanning speed

Every player joins in. Every hit, every dribble and every pass gets measured. And yes: the hardest hit draws by far the most attention. The numbers give the training just that bit of extra edge, and that is exactly the point. At some moment during the day, it feels like a real competition.

What it does

Players see immediately where they stand. Not as a ranking ('you are third'), but as a fact ('your hit is 95 km/h'). The hardest hit of the day is up on a board somewhere, and so is your own score. Some try again straight away. Others cheer when a teammate hits harder. Meanwhile, coaches see exactly where their team is strong and where it still needs attention.

But this is not the moment to write that down for a training plan. This is the moment to watch, to feel it, and to have fun. The numbers do their work by themselves — above all as part of a great day.

This is not so everyone knows who is best. This is so everyone knows where they stand.

Personal bests, your own level, seeing what goes well and where you can still improve. The atmosphere? Brilliant. Everyone takes part, nobody stands on the sideline. And because it sits inside a full day of training and matches, it feels like part of the fun — not like a side note.