Swimmer profile - Tony Bray - swimming challenges and the Channel!

How long have you been swimming? How did you get into it, what you like about it, what motivates you?

I started swimming in 2012, when I set myself the challenge to swim the Solent, from Ryde on the Isle of Wight to Portsmouth.  I hadn’t done any swimming since school, other than pottering about on holiday, and by now I was in my fifties, so I set a date for July 2013.

Knowing that to get where I needed to be, I would need some serious motivation I selected a charity to raise money for, and in July 2013 me and 3 friends swam for Ryde to Southsea for Motor Neurone Disease.

Following that crossing, I decided to make the swim an annual event and launched the Ian Pratt MND Challenge, named in honour of my great friend who sadly lost his battle against MND after such a brave and courageous fight in May 2020.  To date, we have had 257 successful Solent crossings and raised in excess of £200,00 for charity. Check the swim out www.swmmingthesolent4mnd.com.

I have personally swum the Solent, either as part of the event or just as general training 11 times and have also swum Coniston end to end, so was looking for another challenge.  I watched a BBC documentary about Channel swimming and was lucky enough to secure sponsorship from my company with half of the funds I raised going to their charity.  That was it, the Channel was now a realistic goal for me.

What made you go for technique lessons and how did you discover TI?

At this point, I decided that perhaps it would be sensible to look for a coach, and a great swimming buddy suggested that I look for TI coach in my area.  That’s when I came across Penny Wilkin, who has been helping me since 2017.

What do you like about TI?

I have learnt so much and my efficiency has improved significantly.  My strokes per length are down and my speed is up.  I have a saying that “swimming is easy, but swimming well is not”, it takes a lot of concentration, effort and technique is everything.  There is still some way to go for me, it’s not that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, it is just that it might take a bit longer!!

I did attempt the channel in August 2018, but sadly, after over 13 hours swimming, and having made it into French inshore waters, the weather, which by that time was only just about swimmable, combined with the change of tide made it impossible to carry on.  It has taken a lot to come to terms with not making it to France, especially when I was getting glimpses of the French coast, which seemed so tantalisingly close at times, but it’s a dream worth chasing.  So I had another swim booked for 2020 which has now been deferred to 2021.

What has it done for your swimming? What is different?

My TI sessions, as designed by Penny, are different, some based simply on technique, some on pace, some on endurance, and some of variable pace.  I don’t get time to be bored because each session IS different, and I go into each session with the goal giving it my all and getting the most from it.  

The only bit of additional kit I use is a tempo Trainer and it is an integral part quite a few of my sessions.

The sessions I find most difficult are those with variable pace, but they are also the most challenging, and for me that means fun.   There are days when everything seems great but there are some when it all seems such a slog.   I get a great deal from pushing hard through the difficult sessions, swimming the channel is not going to comfortable so why make training comfortable.

TI has improved my efficiency, which is so important, especially for long swims, and I am so grateful for everything that I learnt along the way.  I am a much better swimmer now than I was back in 2013 when I first swam the Solent, and with TI, provided you apply yourself, you just keep improving.

At some point I will step ashore in France, and TI will have been such a big part of that.