Sergei Golubitsky Golden Bouts Video

First off, the fencing on this DVD is excellent. If you had to watch any one fencer, Golubitsky would be an excellent choice and on here are three bouts where he takes on three top-notch fencers.



Unfortunately, the DVD is let down by two major flaws:

1) Golubitsky\'s commentary is somewhat of a let-down. With a little more focus, it could have been much more than the somewhat superficial stuff that ended on the DVD.



2) Production Values: The picture quality is excellent in the first bout but declines in the next two (another review notes this as well). The actual English commentary is garbled in the second bout with Elvis Gregory.



Conclusion: Still recommended but with reservations.

Golubitsky's style is great. I especially liked the first bout against Young-Ho Kim. However, I was hoping Golubitsky would describe more of his tactics and thoughts during the video clip. This did not occur.

This was my first fencing DVD, and it was well worth the price. Seeing high level fencers at their best was more imformative to me than any fencing book I have ever read.



The fencing in the video was in a class of its own. The bouts were very close, which meant they were not easily won.



Video/audio quality was good. Although I noticed it degraded slightly with each bout. However, this was more likely due to the original source of the video than anything else.



I especially enjoyed the commentary from Golubitski, even though it was sparse.



Finally, my biggest complaint would be the packaging. This is not a DVD that you will be displaying on your bookshelf. It comes with a homemade black and white lable, nd it is in one of those thin CD jewel cases that you get with CD-RW's.

This video comes very, very, very close to what you'd expect it to be. The creators made one bone-head mistake -- they assumed that the primary purpose of this video is to present 3 great fencing bouts. WRONG. These are three of the greatest foil bouts in the last 10 years; lots of people have seen them.



The primary purpose of the video should have been to highlight Golubitsky's tactical and fencing mind... which it does, sort of... but it leaves you wanting more. If you haven't seen Golubitsky's 3 Gold-medal bouts, this is the perfect package for them. Infinitely rewatchable... my favorite is the first bout against Kim. Golubitsky and his opponents make athletes from other sports look like 60 year old janitors (e.g., slow).



I'm somewhat affiliated with Fencing Footage, so take this last thing with a grain of salt if you wish. This video makes a good gift, either to a salle, or to a fencer who hasn't started (or doesn't see the value of) a video fencing library. Its value is immediately apparent. It's one of those, "if you only buy one fencing video this year, buy this one" sort of things.

There is a great review available at the Fencing Footage web site, and it fairly well sums up the fencing on this tape.



The fencing is supurb and the Eurosport footage is what fencing should look like. Nice slow-mo replays and a good view of the action.



The only thing that disappointed me about this tape was that Golubitsky's comments were too few and didn't give a great glimpse into his strategies of the time. I've seen all of these bouts as I own tapes of each of the world championships, so I was looking for something more. Because the fencing is so good, the video gets rated high. It loses a point because it didn't live up to my expectations. I expected more cuts back to points where the touch was explained, instead I got occasional voice-overs from Golubitsky on top of the footage.



If you don't already have the world champs from these years on tape, then this is the foil tape to buy. If you already have those bouts, then you've got 90% of what this tape is.



- Craig