The ultimate frisbee Substack community
A short post today, more in-depth stuff will be coming soon. I like to make lists. Here's a list of all the ultimate frisbee-related Substacks I've found. Let me know if you know a blog that's not on this list, I'd like to keep this page updated as the community grows.
Feel free to not read this the way you would a regular blog post. It's less "article" and more "resource". Just a little something I felt like putting together, maybe someone will find it useful some day.
bettereveryday coaching — Written by (former?) Ranelagh coach Ian French. He lists some of his own top posts here.
Part coverage of European frisbee news, part coaching/strategy blog. We have similar playing/coaching philosophies and somewhat different writing styles. For example, my post Oodles of OODAs has a lot in common with his post on Scanning the Field.
Zone Offence Moves I Like is exactly the kind of thing I would write.
Ranelagh's Substack — News and updates about top Irish club team Ranelagh. Ian French also writes posts here. They offer a paid subscription to raise money for the team.
silly drop — Short, illustrated posts chronicling some of the author's frisbee adventures. Not many posts but bettereveryday coaching has them as a recommended blog so I'm including them here as well.
InsideOut Ultimate — An Australia-based publication with a number of contributors. Some Aussie frisbee news, some tips & strategy articles (don't miss Give Goes are a Cheat Code), some comedic posts (e.g. 'I wish I was a smarter defender,' Says Freakish Athlete), and some miscellaneous opinion articles.
I'm especially impressed with their news coverage—they recently had daily updates during both the WFDF U24 worlds and the AOUGC.
Hive Ultimate Articles — Apparently there is a Substack where Hive reposts their articles? Although it seems that they stopped updating at the end of 2022. I'm not sure exactly what's going on here, but you can always follow their new posts on their site at hiveultimate.com.
The Breakside — Author Noam Gumerman says:
The goal of this newsletter is to tackle what I see as a gap in the present coverage of Ultimate as a sport. I hope that this newsletter will provide an outlet for important, yet overlooked people and stories to receive the coverage and perspectives they deserve.
Though, to be honest, I'm not sure I've actually seen much of the "overlooked people and stories" in the posts that have been published so far. Which is not to say previous posts aren't good. I'm obviously a big fan of Amateur Statistics For Professional Athletes Part 1. Impressively has already been mentioned on Ultiworld.com twice (here and here).
I hope Noam sticks with it, I think his blog could go places. I'm looking forward to more updates on the Davenport University frisbee program (one of very few schools offering ultimate frisbee scholarships).
Ultiverse — Written by some of the people behind Ulti.tv. They only have a couple posts in 2023, so it seems to be half-dead. There are a number of posts from 2020/2021 on their attempts to start a European "UltiLeague" (for example).
(It's not a "dot substack dot com" domain, but I decided it still counts for this list. Substack lets you use their technology/layouts on your own domain name, which is what's going on here. Most Substackers don't do that because it can be a hassle (and costs money), but some do.)
Closely related is:
Live Ultimate (live.ulti.tv) — Essentially the newsletter of ulti.tv. Sign up to get notified when there's live ultimate being streamed. I don't know much about ulti.tv, but scrolling through their pages I'm impressed how many free streams they offer.
Update (2024-01-04):
TOP Therapy (Fiona’s Substack) — Fiona is a top European frisbee player. Her blog mostly focuses on physical therapy/strength and conditioning, but with a focus on ultimate frisbee.
Update (2024-02-28):
I recently stumbled across Autimate (Austrian ultimate). They put out a number of posts in May and June 2023 and haven’t been seen since then.
Update (2024-04-19):
Bricklock’s blog — Written by Nicholas Whitlock, a New Zealand ultimate player (and thrower of one of the biggest hammers you’ll ever see. Recaps of the author’s tournaments and a few strategy articles.
Update (2024-10-09):
SidelineBandit’s Substack — Another New Zealand ultimate player. A little bit of everything.
Those are the blogs I've been able to find so far. Let me know if you're aware of a blog I should add to the list.
Hey, could you also share other sources of ultimate knowledge (besides substack). It seems to me that on the internet it's not always easy to find answers to all my questions about the intricacies of ultimate, and it's generally difficult to find all the sources of information scattered on various blogs and sites.