Long Course VS Short Course by Vera Soukhanovskii

 Long Course VS Short Course by Vera Soukhanovskii

Have you ever noticed that pools used in high school swimming competitions seem much smaller than those used at the Olympics, or other professional and advanced meets? This is because they are different types of pools: short course pools and long course pools. The main difference between these two types of pools is their length, with SCY (Short Course Yards) being 25 yards, and LCM (Long Course Meters) pools measuring 50 meters long. Most often, high school and college meets and competitions use SCY, while LCM is primarily used during international competitions. 

Of the two, SCY is considered to be faster due to each race having more walls and turn opportunities. These push-offs from the walls generate bursts of speed and allow swimmers to use their underwater kicks before resurfacing and becoming prone to water resistance. Up to 60% of a SCY race can be spent underwater, while LCM only offers up to 30% of underwater swimming. This is important as turns help swimmers maintain constant speed and momentum, and the time spent underwater is usually faster than above water swimming. Long course, on the other hand, requires more strategic pacing and better endurance, as the wall to wall distance is much longer. LCM swimmers focus more on stroke efficiency, and also need to work on their breathing due to more time spent above water. SCY times are also faster because yards are shorter than meters. For example, 100 meters is equivalent to 109 yards, and along with speed lost due to less walls, long course times are always a few seconds slower than their short course event equivalents. 

Another thing to keep in mind when training for the different pool types is stroke rate, and also considering fatigue and tiredness. Stroke rate is how quickly swimmers take strokes, but the faster your stroke rate is, the earlier fatigue begins to set in. Long course swimming is more tiring since swimmers have to maintain a faster stroke rate for longer periods of time due to less recovery time on walls. Therefore, maintaining a higher stroke rate in LCM races is a lot more difficult than a SCY sprint. 

SCY pools are primarily found in the US. This is due to the US never changing to the metric system, so they use yards to measure distance instead of meters. The NCAA, or the National Collegiate Athletic Association, is a student athletics program in schools in the US. They host the largest SCY meet every year for the fastest high school and college students to compete in a 25 yard pool. Most meets in other countries are usually measured in LCM. 

My personal experience with SCY and LCM is a little different. For my swim team, we split the year up into two main seasons, each dedicated for the two different pool measurements. From September to March, we train in SCY yards pools and all of our meets are in 25 yard pools. During practices, we focus more on our turns, faster movements and the shorter sprint races. From April to July, our main priority is endurance and efficient swimming during our LCM season. Additionally, our practices are very different, as we also prioritize exercising outside of the pool more to build our endurance. We cycle through these seasons yearly, and spend a lot of time getting to know the differences between SCY and LCM pools. 

Works Cited

Biskaduros, Paige Walters. “How to Race Short Course vs Long Course in Swimming.” How to Race Short Course vs Long Course in Swimming, MySwimPro, 3 June 2024, blog.myswimpro.com/2024/06/03/how-to-race-short-course-vs-long-course-in-swimming/.

“Reddit - Please Wait for Verification.” Reddit.com, 2026, www.reddit.com/r/Swimming/comments/vkrbos/why_do_they_swim_yards_in_ncaa/. Accessed 29 May 2026.

Tseng, Megan. “Long Course vs. Short Course: A Look at Some Differences.” Swimming World News, 3 Nov. 2021, www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/long-course-vs-short-course-a-look-at-some-differences/.