The yards-to-metres conversion is the most fundamental unit translation in swimming. Both SCY and SCM are short-course pools with the same number of walls per race, but a yard is only 0.9144 metres — meaning every lap in a 25-metre pool covers more distance. This converter accounts for the distance difference and the subtle wall-advantage variation between 25-yard and 25-metre pools.
Yards → Metres Converter
SCY (25yd) to SCM (25m) pool conversion
Formats: ss.hh, m:ss.hh, or h:mm:ss.hh
Advanced: Per-wall advantage (seconds)
The Yard-to-Metre Relationship
1 yard = 0.9144 metres (exactly). This means a 25-yard pool is about 22.86 metres long — roughly 8.6% shorter than a 25-metre pool. Even though both are "short course" with the same turn count, the 25m pool requires you to swim farther on each lap.
As a rough rule of thumb, yard times × 1.1 approximates metre times for the same nominal event. But this shortcut ignores wall-advantage differences and isn't accurate for longer events. Our converter uses a physics-based model for much better estimates.
Quick Distance Reference
| SCY Event | Actual Distance | SCM Equivalent | Actual Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 yd | 45.72 m | 50 m | 50.00 m |
| 100 yd | 91.44 m | 100 m | 100.00 m |
| 200 yd | 182.88 m | 200 m | 200.00 m |
| 500 yd | 457.20 m | 400 m | 400.00 m |
| 1000 yd | 914.40 m | 800 m | 800.00 m |
| 1650 yd | 1508.76 m | 1500 m | 1500.00 m |
How the Yards → Metres Conversion Works
- 1Convert your SCY event distance from yards to metres (× 0.9144).
- 2Count walls for both the 25yd source and 25m target courses.
- 3Strip SCY wall gains to isolate your free-water speed in m/s.
- 4Apply that speed over the longer SCM distance and add SCM wall gains for the final time.
These are estimates — not official conversions. Use the per-wall sliders for personalised accuracy.