About
Swim Time Converter is a free, fast and privacy-friendly tool for converting swimming performances between the three pool courses used in competition.
Why we built it
Swimmers regularly have to compare times between yards and meters — when moving between U.S. and international meets, when using split/pace tools, or when checking where a personal best would stack up in another course. Most published conversions are bundles of spreadsheet tables that are awkward to use on a phone. We wanted one calculator page that works on any device, does the whole course at once, and uses a widely understood method.
Everything runs in your browser. There is no server-side database, and your times never leave your device.
The conversion method
The calculator implements the factor-based approach published by Colorado Timing and used widely by timing and team-management platforms. It converts yard times to meters with a factor of 1.11, applies stroke-based per-turn adjustments for pool length changes (0.8 s freestyle/medley, 0.6 s backstroke, 1.0 s breaststroke, 0.7 s butterfly per extra turn), and pairs distance freestyles (500↔400, 1000↔800, 1650↔1500) with their own factors.
This is the same family of methodology used in common references for age-group and masters swimming comparison. It produces close estimates — no conversion is official without the governing body that issued the time.
What we provide
This site is a set of free browser-based tools:
- The Swim Time Converter for SCY, SCM and LCM times
- Six dedicated conversion pages — SCY to LCM, SCY to SCM, SCM to LCM, LCM to SCY, LCM to SCM and SCM to SCY — with the math explained per pairing
- A Pace Calculator and a Split Calculator for training and race planning
- A Critical Swim Speed calculator, an Interval & Send-off calculator and a Speed & Race Projection calculator for threshold testing and set building
- A Swimming calories calculator and a Lengths & distance converter for everyday pool math
- Plain-language guides in the Guides section
Limitations
No conversion is exact, and different methods can disagree by a few tenths. Turns, breathing patterns, altitude, pacing and stroke style all affect real race performance. Always use official submission rules for times entered into competition, and consult your governing body when a converted time matters for qualification.
Contact
Questions, corrections or suggestions? Reach us through the Contact page.