Heading into the spring can only mean one thing in the world of swimming – long course season is here! For those who spend the majority of the season training short course, the shift to racing (or training) in a pool more than twice as long can be rough at times. Here are six tips for a successful transition from short course to long course this season. 

The pool is longer – your strokes should be too!  
When transitioning from a 25-yard pool to a 50-meter pool, focus on keeping your strokes long and smooth. Long course pools can feel like a landing strip at first, especially if your strokes are short and choppy. Try to establish a low stroke count right off the bat and continue working to lower it throughout the season. 

Recalculate your backstroke stroke count. 
In a yards pool, the flags are five yards from the wall. In long course, they’re five meters away, which is a few feet longer. Therefore, you’ll need to re-figure out what your stroke count is on backstroke. Practice is an ideal time to do this – you definitely do not want to find out the hard way at your first long course meet that your yards stroke count doesn’t quite match up anymore.   

Work the underwaters. 
If you typically do five underwater dolphin kicks off each wall in a yards pool, that might get you a third of the way down the pool. Well, in long course, five dolphin kicks make up a much smaller portion of the pool! In practice, work on extending your underwaters off each wall to have a bigger impact over the longer distance.  

“Where is the wall?!”  
The first time you swam in a long course pool, chances are that you might have been thinking something along the lines of, “where is the wall?!” as you made your way across the pool, wondering how soon the wall might be coming. It can be very tempting to lift your head constantly to search for the wall but – don’t! Keep your head down and aligned with your spine. You’ll get to the wall eventually!  

Kicking is king. 
When you’re swimming in a 25-yard or 25-meter pool, there are twice as many walls as there are in long course. That means you don’t have to kick nearly as long before you get a “break” at each wall. So, when transitioning to long course, being able to maintain a strong kick for a longer distance becomes essential. Take advantage of every kick set and use it as an opportunity to build a strong kick that can hold up over 50 meters. 

Adjust your breathing pattern and practice breath control.  
When the length of the pool doubles, that also means you’re going to be holding your breath a bit longer than normal. Adjusting your breathing pattern, or the number of breaths you’re taking in one length, will pay off in your races as you’re forced to hold your breath for twice the distance compared to a yards pool. If you normally breathe every two, try every three or four. If you normally breathe every three, try four or five sometimes. Challenge your lungs!