Administrative vs. Performance-Based Swim Conversions – What’s the Difference?
-
When you see FINA Points, converted times, or course comparisons on Swim Standards, you might notice an option called “Conversion Mode” — Administrative (NCAA) or Performance (Swimulator).
At first glance, they both seem to do the same thing: change a time from Short Course Yards (SCY) to Long Course Meters (LCM) or Short Course Meters (SCM).
But under the hood, they’re doing very different things — one is a rule-of-thumb, and the other is data-driven.Understanding these models helps you interpret scores, rankings, and FINA calculations accurately — especially when a swimmer’s best time is from an SCY meet.
🏫 Administrative (NCAA) Conversion
The Administrative (or NCAA) conversion method uses fixed factors to translate times between courses — SCY ↔ SCM ↔ LCM.
These constants were created by NCAA and other governing bodies decades ago to standardize meet entries and qualifying times. They are simple and fast but not precise — they don’t consider stroke efficiency, turn frequency, or swimmer performance profiles.
Example:
100-yard freestyle × 0.875 → estimated 100-meter (LCM) time
This method is ideal for administrative tasks such as meet seeding, entry cuts, and event qualification — but it’s less accurate for comparing performance potential.
⚙️ Performance-Based (Swimulator) Conversion
The Performance-Based (or Swimulator) model is grounded in regression analysis from thousands of real swims.
Instead of fixed multipliers, it calculates conversions using event-specific formulas that reflect how swimmers actually perform across courses.
Formula:
LCM Time = a + b × SCY Time
Each stroke, distance, and gender has unique coefficients (a, b) derived from real data — capturing the nuanced differences between SCY, SCM, and LCM swimming.
That’s why Swim Standards uses this mode for analytical features such as:
- FINA (World Aquatics) point scoring
- IMX / performance comparisons
- Swimulator-style time projections
✅ In Short
Mode Based On Best For Example Administrative (NCAA) Fixed conversion factors Meet entry, eligibility, seeding 100FR × 0.875 Performance (Swimulator) Real-world regression models Rankings, analytics, FINA points 100FR = 0.6 + 1.107×time
🧠 Why Swim Standards Uses Performance Mode
Whenever a swim time is entered in SCY, Swim Standards automatically converts it to LCM using the Performance mode before calculating FINA (World Aquatics) Points.
This ensures consistent, world-comparable results.You can still toggle between modes when using the FINA Points Calculator to see the difference for yourself.
📎 Learn More
