Overview
The International Student Streethockey Tournament (ISSTT), is one of the more distinctive items on the European floorball calendar. Held annually in Enschede, the Netherlands, it brings together university teams from across the continent for a format that is simultaneously competitive and genuinely festive: fifteen-minute matches played at high intensity, back-to-back across the weekend, with an atmosphere that more closely resembles a celebration than a conventional sporting event.
The standard of play is genuinely high. Several competitors represent their national teams, which makes for some entertaining matchups and a useful reminder that student sport and elite sport are not mutually exclusive categories.
The format keeps the energy remarkably high throughout. Fifteen-minute matches leave no time to dwell on the last result. You reset, and you play the next one.
Getting There
Both years I've attended, the journey has been part of the appeal. Driving from London to Enschede, across France, Belgium, and into the Netherlands, gives the trip an expedition quality that flying never quite replicates. The Netherlands is somewhere I'm particularly fond of, so the route doubles as a reason to spend time there.
The weather has been less cooperative. Both trips have involved snow, and the second year tested everyone's patience considerably - conditions bad enough that a number of teams ended up stranded. It gives the whole thing a certain story value in retrospect.
The Tournament
Going as part of a large group from the same university gives the tournament a character that's difficult to find elsewhere. There's something about representing the same institution, travelling together, and playing against teams from across Europe that turns a sporting competition into a proper trip. The short, punchy format sustains the energy across the full weekend, and the atmosphere, relaxed, welcoming, genuinely international, is a rarity in competitive sport. Highly recommended to anyone who plays floorball and hasn't made the journey yet.