A free session with the squad, no obligation and nothing to pay. You train with the group you would actually join, and the coaches assess on the day. If you are not sure whether your child is ready, this is how you find out.

Book a free Come and Try

Three squads:

• Maximum Juniors, 12 to 18. Athletes aged 10 and 11 are considered case by case, depending on squad size, training ability and experience.
• Opens, 19 to 30. Also anyone of any age competing in Athletics Australia or Athletics NSW Open events.
• Masters, 30 and over.

Juniors move up to Opens at 19. If you are over 30 but still competing at open level, you are in Opens.

Sprints, sprint and long hurdles, high jump, long and triple jump, throws including shot put, discus and javelin, middle distance and cross country, and gym based strength up to ASCA Level 1 including push, pull and Olympic lifts.

No. Juniors in particular start from the ground up on technique, strength and confidence. Come and Try exists so the coaches can see where you are before anything is committed.

Willoughby is the home ground, in the northern suburbs of Sydney. Some sessions run at the Sydney Olympic Park Athletic Centre, SOPAC.

Willoughby closes its natural turf after heavy rain, and that decision is the council's, not ours. When it closes we either cancel or move the session to SOPAC.

Changes go to the Telegram group first, every time. The training ground status page carries the current call for both venues.

It does not change arbitrarily. Every session is planned against what the grounds allow. Willoughby shuts after rain and SOPAC books its track out for meets and school carnivals, often at short notice, and much of the month only the Warm Up Arena is open to general training.

We check both before a block is published. When a session moves, one of them said no. See the timetable.

A stopwatch built for hurdles. Press start on the gun, tap once as the athlete lands off each hurdle, stop at the line. It captures every touchdown time while the race is still being run, so you are not scrubbing through video that night.

The times drop straight into your log, where training reps and races can be laid over each other hurdle by hurdle. Open the timer.

Not for the calculator. Enter a target time and it gives you the touchdown splits to hit, with no sign up at all.

An account is only needed to save what you actually ran, so your times are still there next week and can be charted against each other.

No. They are open to anyone, coached by us or not. The squad dashboard is separate and is for MESSA athletes only.

The calculator covers the 400m and 300m hurdles. The timer and the training log cover the 400m, 300m and 200m hurdles, with heights and spacing set for you by event and gender.

It is the gap between the two halves of the race, shown as a share of the whole race time. Under 5 percent is an evenly run 400m hurdles. A bigger number usually means going out too hard.

The halves are split on distance, not at the middle hurdle, because hurdle 5 sits at 185m rather than 200m.

Fees depend on the squad and the package. They are listed on the coaching services page.

Come and Try is free.

Through this website with a debit or credit card, or any of the payment methods shown at checkout. You will be charged in Australian dollars.

Yes. Ask the coaches before you pay so the voucher can be applied to the right package.

No, but most athletes do. Training is built around a season, and competition is where the work gets tested. The coaches will tell you when they think you are ready.

The coaches plan the competition schedule with each athlete and flag entry deadlines. Entries themselves are made through Athletics NSW or the meet organiser.

Yes, within Australia only, because of the cost of postage abroad. Orders usually take 24 to 48 hours to process and you will get a confirmation email to track the status.

Because it was a service or a free tool rather than a physical product, so there is nothing to post. Coaching packages and the tools work the same way.