Yards to Short course meters (or even long course)

That's a good question. Even though I swim yards more often, all of my best times (converted or not) were swum in either long course or short course meters- I use the same converter as you do. So, we're opposites. One hypothesis I have is that I take it a bit easier at first in meters races, which allows me to pace better. Either that, or the extra 15sec spent on a 200 favors me (I don't think that is the case, however).

It's difficult to convert times from one course to another course. 2:03 200 scy is faster than 2:25 LCM Short course has twice as many turns and push offs, the fastest you're ever going to move in a swimming race is when you're streamlined and you've just pushed off the wall. Your speed and distance depends on your size, shape, and mass along with how hard and how well you push off. Most swimmers are usually faster SCM than they are in LCM, unless they have terrible turns and push offs. 1 yard is 36 inches; 1 meter is 39.3700787 inches 39.3700787 divided by 36 = 1.0936133 As an example Cesar Cielo's US Open Record in the mens 100 yard freestyle is 40.92 YouTube - The Fastest 100 yard Freestyle EVER! Cesar's 100 long course meter freestyle world record is 46.91 YouTube - Cesar Cielo BRASIL (46.91) 100 m livre new world record Roma 2009 46.91 / 40.92 = 1.1464 so there's a 14.64% time difference for him when we compare his best LCM time with his best SCY time (his 46.91 is probably a faster swim, he definitely wore a faster suit.) (So converting times not as simple as comparing the mathmatical difference of meters to yards to come up with a conversion factor) Amaury Leveaux's world record in the 100 SCM free is 44.94 YouTube - Amaury Leveaux - WR- 44.94 -100m Freestyle - Rijeka 46.91 / 44.94 = 1.0438 it also vary's from stroke to stroke and for men and women. MEN 50 free LCM/SCM 20.91 20.30 1.030 50 back LCM/SCM 24.04 22.61 1.063 50 *** LCM/SCM 26.67 25.25 1.056 50 fly LCM/SCM 22.43 21.80 1.0289 WOMEN 50 free LCM/SCM 23.73 23.25 1.0206 50 back LCM/SCM 27.06 25.70 1.0529 50 *** LCM/SCM 29.80 28.80 1.0347 50 fly LCM/SCM 25.07 24.38 1.0283 There's plenty of swimmers who do well short course and not as well long course. Fewer who do well long course and not as well short course. Given one time in one course, how would your time compare for the same event in another course? IT DEPENDS Swim both around the same time (as in days or weeks) and find out for yourself. I know that there are sites/programs and maybe even tables out there for converting times from yards to meters. But do they work for everyone? last april I was able to swim a 200 yard pushing it hard but not max for a 2:03 which according to one site would mean I could swim roughly 2:17 at practice in a meters pool. today i pushed a 200 and hit the wall at 2:25 or so. I started thinking about it for the rest of practice and decided that my yards times are much faster than my meters time converted because my body type benefits greatly from taking 2-4 less strokes/length as well as getting that break on the turn earlier. anyone have recent times in yards and meters that could test any of the converting sites and see if they are even close. here's the one I use more often www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/.../conversions.asp

I figure adding 10% is a pretty good approximation for SCY to SCM. As Ande noted a meter is only 9% longer than a yard, but when you also figure in that you are swimming slightly longer time-wise in meters you need to add in a little more. If you are a great underwater swimmer and use nearly the full 15 meters off every wall you should be considerably more than 10% faster in yards. You're allowed to swim 60% of the race underwater in SCM, but almost 66% of the race underwater in SCY, after all!

Well, it turns out I swam quite a few SCM and SCY meets this season. (jaadams1 also did, so he might have data to show, too) I'll just post the 3 consecutive meets ..............2/5/11........ 2/13/11.......... 2/20/11 ................(Y)......(M converted to Y)... (Y) 100 fr .... :57.75 .......:56.53 (1)........ :57.13 200 fr ....2:07.14 .....2:03.35 (2).......2:04.21 100 IM ...1:10.96 .....1:08.96 (3) ..........-- 100 ba .......-- .........1:08.65 (4) ......1:09.15 Metric times converted using the Swimming World Conversion Utility (1) 1:03.09 (2) 2:17.67 (3) 1:16.66 (converted using 200IM as the race) (4) 1:16.62 On the face, it appears that, for me, the conversion utility is a bit generous. But since I swam in different pools on different days with different meals, etc., it's hardly a repudiation of the tool. BUT - the 2/13 swims were at a meet where Megan Jendrick broke 3 WR's, so maybe I was faster that day....

Here is my experience for one more data point: For conversions between SCY and SCM, I find the Swimming World converter to be reasonably accurate. If I take my LCM time and convert to SCY, I get a time that is faster than I can swim. If I take my SCY time and convert to LCM, I get a time that I can swim easily. On the other hand, I have found that if I take my SCY time, convert to SCM, then convert that SCM time to LCM, I get a reasonaby accurate prediction. YMMV

Here's mine purely for statistical purposes. :D I'm only listing similar events that can be compared. BLUE = SCM --> SCY conversion with swimmingworld.com 200 Free 2:11.24 --> 1:57.59 SCY Oak Harbor (SCM) 11/21 1:54.59 SCY Coeur d'Alene Meet (SCM) 3/5 **~2200 ft. elevation 200 Free .................1:56.52 ORCA Meet (SCY) 3/12 ~200 ft. elevation 500 Free .................5:17.14 Lake Washington (SCY) 2/20 ~100 ft. elevation 400 Free 4:40.62 --> 5:20.75 SCY Coeur d'Alene Meet (SCM) 3/5 **~2200 ft. elevation 800 Free 9:54.00 --> 11:18.94 SCY NW (SCM) Zone 11/12-11/13 **~4200ft. elevation 1000 Free ...............10:53.88 ORCA Meet (SCY) 3/12 ~200 ft. elevation 200 Back 2:33.78 --> 2:17.79 SCY NW (SCM) Zone 11/12-11/13 **~4200ft. elevation 200 Back 2:29.60 --> 2:14.04 SCY Coeur d'Alene Meet (SCM) 3/5 **~2200 ft. elevation 200 Back .................2:15.94 PNA Champs (SCY) 4/9 ~200 ft. elevation 50 Fly 28.68 --> 25.70 SCY NW (SCM) Zone 11/12-11/13 **~4200ft. elevation 50 Fly 28.99 --> 25.98 SCY Oak Harbor (SCM) 11/21 57.34 SCY Oak Harbor (SCM) 11/21 2:14.18 SCY NW (SCM) Zone 11/12-11/13 **~4200ft. elevation 200 Fly 2:25.90 --> 2:10.73 SCY Oak Harbor (SCM) 11/21 2:09.22 SCY Coeur d'Alene Meet (SCM) 3/5 **~2200 ft. elevation 200 Fly .................2:06.07 PNA Champs (SCY) 4/9 ~200 ft. elevation 200 IM 2:28.80 --> 2:13.32 SCY NW (SCM) Zone 11/12-11/13 **~4200ft. elevation 200 IM .................2:10.30 Lake Washington (SCY) 2/20 ~100 ft. elevation 200 IM .................2:11.83 ORCA Meet (SCY) 3/12 ~200 ft. elevation 400 IM 5:19.04 --> 4:45.86 SCY NW (SCM) Zone 11/12-11/13 **~4200ft. elevation 400 IM .................4:39.78 Canby Animal Meet (SCY) 2/13 ~200 ft. elevation 400 IM 5:08.06 --> 4:36.02 SCY Coeur d'Alene Meet (SCM) 3/5 **~2200 ft. elevation 400 IM .................4:41.94 Inland NW Champs (SCY) 3/26 ~1000 ft. elevation 400 IM .................4:35.01 PNA Champs (SCY) 4/9 ~200 ft. elevation Conclusion: For the most part...it seems that my SCY swum events/times are faster than their comparable conversions from SCM. Also...elevation may need to be considered too. 2 of my SCM meets were at **4200 & 2200 ft of elevation. Other Conclusion: I like the 200 Fly :banana: A+ for completeness! the altitude information was a nice touch. Fantastic conclusion statement, too! I thought more data might yield more consistent results. It looks like, in your case, shorter races convert mostly to faster times and longer races convert mostly to slower times. Beats me if that says something about the conversion utility or not. It was an interesting read though. Thanks

A+ for completeness! the altitude information was a nice touch. The altitude definitely made a difference that I could feel in most of the swims at Salt Lake City @ 4200 ft. (I normally practice @ 1200ft.). The swimming at 2200ft wasn't that big of a deal, but I could feel a little discomfort in the longer races (400s). I like going to sea level or close to it @ Seattle area.

The better your turn relative to your stroke, the faster your times will be relative to the distance. Make sense? If you have a fast flip, catapults for legs, a great streamline and some killer dolphin kicks, but are mediocre at the actual "swimming" part, you will rank from best to worst scy, scm, lcm. If the opposite is true, and your strength is swimming, not making use of walls, your best to worst course would be lcm, scm and scy. The well balanced swimmer will have the most accurate conversions. If your LCM time converts faster than your SCM time, your stroke is better than your turns, while if your SCM converts faster than your SCM time, your turns are better than your stroke. My 50 LCM times convert to times much faster than my best SCY time, which tells me there is easy improvements to be made by focusing on improving my walls, especially since my training usually gets lighter during the summer because of decreased lane space, and I spend 10 months of the year training SCY.

geochuck is Canadian so I bet he is converting from SCM to LCM. I don't think so. No way a turn is worth two seconds. The world records in the men's 100 free are very close to two seconds different between short course and long course, so that tells me a turn is worth about a second (in freestyle).

We just had our last SCM meet of the season and I had to work as an official. Next time I can swim SCM will be sept thanks for all the input. my best 100 *** SCM vs LCM as a master 1:13.42 vs 1:16.87 according to the site 1:16.08, since the LCM time was 6 months before the SCM time I would say that the SCM to LCM works. if I get to race this summer in Texas and it's yards I'll be able to compare june LCM to july SCY. it would be so cool to swim down around 1:05 in yards! my Lifetime best is 1:02.98 (1995)