For many students, coaches, and athletic directors looking to start an ultimate team, it can be difficult to find information on the sport. What follows are some responses to some of the most frequent questions, and some places to go for further information.

If you have questions after reading this, please contact the NEPSUL!

What is the size of the Ultimate field?
The playing field in ultimate is 70 yards long by 40 yards wide and has two 25 yard end zones. "Brick" marks (simple x's using line paint) go in the center of the field, 20 yards in front of each end zone.

What equipment is needed by a team?
+ Cones
8 cones (saucer cones or lightweight cones that can be fallen upon) for the corners of the end zones.

+ Discs
Practice disks can be bought from Discraft, the makers of the 175 gram Ultrastar, the official disc of the Ultimate Players Association. They sell packages of ten misprinted discs for $42.50 plus shipping. 10 to 20 discs should last at least a season, if not two. You can request that they screen the content of the images to make sure they are appropriate for younger players.
To order, call Discraft at 248-824-2250 or access the practice disc order form at:
http://www.discraft.com/forms/PracticeDiscOrder.pdf

+ Cleats
Players should all wear cleats, as Ultimate is a sport that involves a great deal of planting, cutting, pivoting, and running on slippery fields (especially in the New England spring!). Most players wear soccer cleats, although some chose to wear football turf shoes for the ankle support that they give. Gaia is an ultimate equipment (jersies, bags, videos) company that also makes cleats.

+ A Suggestion
More and more tournaments are UPA sanctioned events, which means that the players must be members of the UPA, or buy a one-day membership for insurance purposes. Joining the UPA is a good idea as it supports the growth of the sport, and UPA members are entitled to discounts at a number of ultimate equipment comapnies (Gaia, Discraft, VC Ultimate, etc... )

A yearly Youth Membership costs $20 and includes a subscription to the quarterly UPA Journal.  Join the UPA at: https://www.upa.org/members/create_account.php

Where can I learn more about the rules?
The Ultimate Players Association has the tenth edition of the rules available for download. http://www2.upa.org/ultimate/rules

Where can I find out about Drills and Strategy?
The UPA has done an amazing job of putting together these links: http://www2.upa.org/ultimate/skills

The Ultimate Handbook www.ultimatehandbook.com/uh is a particular favorite, as is Bharat Mediratta's Animated Skills and Drills: http://www.menalto.com/ultimate/play_list.php

Finally, Dan-Cogan-Drew, the founding coach of the Chase Collegiate team, has been working on a video-paper project to help break down different aspects of ultimate to help coaches teach throwing skills and strategy.

His three original video-papers can be found here: 
http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/~benjie/ultimate/

Some of the newer ones (not all are finished) can be found here (a hand will appear when you scroll over a finished one. There is one in "offense," one in "throwing," and one in "training"): 
http://www.cogandrew.com/videopapers/ultimate/index.htm

How can I find other teams to schedule games?
Coming to the NEPSUL website is a great start, as we have a list of schools with programs.

There are two mailing lists that are very useful for advertising your team's existence and scheduling games.

The first of these is the NEPSUL list, which can be joined from the home page of the NEPSUL site.

The second is the Juniors Ultimate Group, which is a national mailing list for high school and middle school players, coaches, and administrators. To join this list, send an e-mail to:
ultimate-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Are there other high school Ultimate leagues in New England?
Yes, The Boston Ultimate Disc Alliance runs a high school league, as well as an annual championship tournament. Unfortunately, the championships tend to coincide with graduation weekends at independent day and boarding schools, and this is part of the reason the NEPSUL was created.

Nevertheless the BUDA website does feature rankings and contact information for a large number of teams, and is highly recommended.

Are there teaching curriculums for PE programs or for a first season?
Yes! Here are links to two, the first of which is very basic, the second is designed to be implemented over a longer period of time.
http://www2.upa.org/resources/highschool/curriculum
http://www.reed.edu/~xiax/index.html

Other useful sites?
This article on starting a high school ultimate team is on the UPA website, and has some great suggestions for building a program:
http://www2.upa.org/resources/highschool/hsteam
It is simplified into ten bulleted steps here:
http://www2.upa.org/resources/highschool/10steps