Swim time converter
Yards to meters, short course to long, or that old 20 yard pool down the street. See what any swim is worth in any pool, and exactly why it changes.
Three things change between pools
A converted time isn't just yards swapped for meters. The converter shows you each piece, for every swim.
Distance
100 yards is 91.44 meters. A 100 in meters is about 9% farther, and that's the biggest piece of any yards to meters conversion.
Walls
A 100 has 3 turns in a short course pool and 1 in long course. Every wall is a push off and an underwater that's faster than swimming.
Pace
Longer races are swum a little slower per meter, and yards pools swim a little fast. Both show up in the pace line.
Built on real swims, not a decades-old table
We tuned our model on thousands of swimmers who swam the same event in two pools within a month, then tested it on 134,000 more pairs it had never seen.
Four models, side by side
Pick one, or compare them all under Compare models. When they agree, you can trust the number. When they don't, you're probably converting a very young or very fast swimmer.
Commit Turn Model
Rebuilds the race wall by wall. Turn value depends on the stroke, the race length, the swimmer's speed and age, and how good their underwaters are.
Commit Peer Percentile
Ranks the swim among swimmers of the same age and sex, then finds the time with the same rank in the other pool.
Hy-Tek / USA Swimming
The factor table most meet software uses: a fixed multiplier plus fixed seconds per turn by stroke.
British Equivalent Time
The published UK method. Handles odd pool lengths like 20 yards and 33⅓ meters.
Common questions
How do you convert yards to meters in swimming?
Start with the distance: meters are about 9% farther. Then account for walls (each one is a push off that's faster than swimming) and pace. The converter does all three and shows you each piece.
How accurate are swim time conversions?
Our model misses by 2.21% at the median on swims it had never seen. The same swimmer in the same pool a few weeks apart already varies by about 1.9%, so no converter can be perfect.
Why is backstroke different?
Underwater dolphin kick is much faster than swimming on your back. Fast backstrokers gain more from every wall than any other stroke, which classic tables get backwards.
Can I convert a time from a 20 yard or 33⅓ meter pool?
Yes. Pick Custom and enter the pool length in yards or meters. The converter counts the walls and blocks events that don't fit the pool.
Will a meet accept a converted time?
That's up to the meet. Most meets set their own conversion rules for entries, usually the Hy-Tek table, which you can also pick in the converter.
Convert times right inside Commit
Every swimmer time in Commit has a convert button: best times, top times, meet results and entries. Coaches and parents both get it.