Going from SCY (25-yard pool) to LCM (50-metre pool) is the biggest conversion jump in competitive swimming. You lose a significant number of walls and switch from yards to metres, so times are typically much slower in LCM. This converter lets you project your short-course yard performances to the Olympic long-course format with individually tunable wall-advantage settings.
SCY → LCM Converter
25-yard pool to 50-metre pool
Formats: ss.hh, m:ss.hh, or h:mm:ss.hh
Advanced: Per-wall advantage (seconds)
Why SCY to LCM Is the Biggest Jump
The SCY-to-LCM conversion involves two compounding factors that both slow the swimmer down:
1. Fewer walls: A 200 in a 25-yard pool has 8 walls, while a 200 in a 50-metre pool has only 4. Each lost wall removes a powerful push-off and streamlined underwater phase.
2. Greater distance: A metre is longer than a yard (1 yard ≈ 0.9144 metres). So even the same nominal event (e.g. "200") requires swimming a greater total distance in the LCM format.
Combined, a typical 100 SCY time might add 5–10+ seconds when projected to LCM, depending on the event and the swimmer's wall proficiency.
Who Uses SCY to LCM Conversions?
- Olympic Trials aspirants: American swimmers training in SCY who need to know if their times project to Trials qualification standards (published in LCM).
- NCAA swimmers going international: Collegians preparing for Pan Pacific, World University Games, or World Championships in LCM pools.
- Coaches setting goals: Projecting winter SCY best times into summer LCM target times for training focus.
How the SCY to LCM Conversion Works
- 1Parse your SCY time and convert the event distance to metres (yards × 0.9144).
- 2Calculate source walls (25yd lengths) and target walls (50m lengths).
- 3Remove SCY wall advantages to estimate your free-water speed (m/s).
- 4Apply that speed over the longer LCM distance and add the fewer LCM wall gains.
Results are estimates. Tune the per-wall sliders to match your individual turn and underwater proficiency.