The UltimateStrategy and Coaching blog is written by Martin, who seems to be an Ultimate Frisbee coach in person.  This blogger regularly watches club ultimate frisbee matches and is up to date with the direction of the sport.  He focuses on the current news in the Master’s Ultimate National series.  He has very good insider, insight towards the sport and gives not only a newcomer but an Ultimate player a good view of the inner workings of the Ultimate Community and leagues.

            One of his posts highlights one of the problems of the national championship system which is the roster turnover.  Roster turnover refers to the fact that rosters are not very constant in the Ultimate Frisbee world, whether it is club or pickup games.  This presents a problem for strategically planning because the players on the other team can be random.  His solution to this problem is to make the team’s strategy very modular and experimental; the team should be prepared to use many different defenses.  The importance of a coach that recognizes the weaknesses of the opposing team is vital to the defenses that are thrown at the other team.

            Martin also describes the necessities of a coach in Ultimate Frisbee.  Not only has he been a coach on and off, but attended a USA Ultimate Coach Certification session; this only provided very basic information according to him.  What is interesting about his perspective is that he evaluates himself as a coach and in this manner you can see inside the mind of an actively working Ultimate leader.

            Coach Martin does not enjoy the new leadership in the Ultimate competition organization, named Ultimate Players Association.  It has been re-branded to USA Ultimate and he feels that the new CEO does not value the concerns and desires of the new players and coaches in the Ultimate Community.

            I think this blog relates to my blog in several different facets including the topics of USA Ultimate and coaching in general.  Although the blog is not strictly academic, it provides a breadth of information from one coach’s perspective which can be very valuable.  Each of his topics or posts are pretty detailed and gives pertinent information if you are connected to the Ultimate Community as a casual follower on the internet.  I also think playing Ultimate Frisbee and being an active part of the Ultimate Community in real life is required because some of the things he references are common topics among Ultimate Players.   Therefore, I think his audience is the Ultimate Community.  I think this blog could feed my work because of some of the new topics that Martin brings up from a coach’s (or outside) perspective since I am only a player.  I think the different perspective will not only bring different viewpoints on some of the topics I discuss in my blog but bring new ideas and issues to the table that I had not thought of before.  Following and interacting with Martin’s blog will be an interesting endeavor