What Is Long Course? What Is Short Course?

What Is Long Course?  What is Short Course?

The standard American short course pool is 25 yards long.  This is called “short course” or “SCY”.  All most all short course competitions (including college) are in 25 yard pools.  Very rarely do you see short course 25 meter competitions in the United States.  In the rest of the world, 25 meter pools replace 25 yard pools.  USA Swimming club teams (like T2) generally swim short course meets from September through March.

The International standard pool is 50 meters long.  This is called “long course” or “LCM”.  There is no such thing as 50 yard competitions.  The Olympics, Pan-American Games, World Championships – these are all 50 meter long course competitions.  USA Swimming club teams (like T2) generally swim long course meets from April – August.

While Long Course Season is generally in the Summer and Short Course Season is generally in the Fall/Winter/Spring, some of our more experienced top level athletes may swim long course meets throughout the year.  Also, some of our younger swimmers may end up swimming additional short course competitions in the Summer while the rest of the team competes in long course meets.  For T2, while there are “Championship Meets” in the Spring and at the end of the Summer.

Times:

Having competitions that are both long course and short course often causes some confusion about times.  Long course times will be slower because 50 meters is longer than 50 yards.  Turns are another factor.  Turns are generally faster than swimming. 

Some people use “conversions” to estimate what long course swims would be in a short course pool or vice versa.  The conversions are not real.  They are essentially made up.  At T2 we generally will not convert times unless we are requested to do so for meet entries.  Athletes have two sets of best times.  One for long course swims and one for short course swims.