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Improving My Kick

Just a quickie today. I am working to improve my kick. When you swim you need to have your motions flow smoothly. Kick from the hips. Make sure that you do not keep your legs completely straight (here is a good example). That means that you need to allow enough bend in your knees that you slightly break the water.

Your knees can bend but not too much. If you are kicking and your knees are coming down and forward, then you'll actually be propelling yourself backwards.

Make sure you're rolling your hips as you kick with each leg and that your legs are slightly turned inwards so that your feet aren't just slapping up and down.

Imagine you're kicking in a bucket. Obviously point your toes. This should work as a cue. You don't want to take big sweeping kicks, but rather smaller ones so don't kick any wider than the width of a bucket.

Kick faster not deeper if you want to move forward more.

Good form is the most important thing in pretty much every single sport, but much more so in swimming and running. It is easier to get it right from the start, and knowing the right drills to help with that will definitely put you at an advantage.

Swimming, unlike nearly every other sport, has no 'shock' movements.

Water workouts, by their nature, are 'replenishing'. Think of a rehabilitating runner, where do they start? With water-work. The water 'soaks up' injuries.

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Blending Reality

I think that color does as much for a movie as the story, acting, and direction. For example the vibrant use of neons in Only God Forgives and The Neon Demon. Both of these films are hypnotic. Everything about both of those movies pops off the screen.

Michael Mann's LA films have an aesthetic, both Heat and Collateral are some of my favorites. Drive replicates it to an extent too. Yet for me Miami Vice contains some of Mann’s best cinematography. It is a film that is usually overlooked.

The whole production did some amazing things on the digital side, as well as seamlessly mixing occasional 35mm footage throughout. The original series was filmed in 35mm, it was an extreme expense at the time for most series, and used similar colors. The production values helped set it above others.

The film Miami Vice drew a lot from the original series not just the aesthetics but the whole ambiance which was skillfully crafted together.

Mann is one of the greats.