I'm undoubtedly biased, since I'm a competitive sabre fencer myself, but I think there's really no sport cooler than sabre fencing. Just watch this DVD of the 2005 Men's Sabre World Championships to see what I mean. Action! Intensity! Men with swords, each fiercely determined to get the better of his opponent! Here we get the best of the best in men's sabre, loaded with fast-paced action. Fencing is a sport that demands a complex mix of skills: not just speed and strength, though those help, but also agility, fast reaction times, a cool head, courage in the face of adversity, and tactical intelligence. There's a good reason why fencing is sometimes called "physical chess": it's for the blend of athleticism and mental focus demanded in order to win.

Overview (feel free to skip down to the next section if you're a fencer)

The sport of fencing is divided into three categories by the type of weapon: foil, epee, or sabre. While all three weapons have the basic elements in common, there are different rules for each weapon, resulting in a distinct style and set of tactics for each one. An electronic scoring system detects any hits that land on valid target area, setting off a colored light for the fencer (or fencers) who hit. Because it's possible for both lights to go off, the referee is responsible for deciding which fencer is awarded the touch, based on the rules of "right of way": the attacker has the advantage, unless the defender successfully blocks the attack (parries) and returns the attack (ripostes). One thing that turns out to be relevant in the bouts on this DVD is the rule that, if a fencer retreats beyond the end line of the strip, the opponent gets a "free" point. Watch for it!

In sabre, fencers use a sabre (a light-weight sport-style one, not a heavy cavalry one) and can score touches with either the edge or the point. The target is the waist and higher, including the arms and head. The individual events are fenced to 15 touches (points), with a one-minute break for coaching when one fencer reaches 8; the team event is fenced to 45 touches. The action is extremely fast-paced and athletic, so if you're a new viewer, don't be surprised if it seems hard to follow at first!

Men's and women's sabre follow exactly the same rules, but the style is somewhat different, as you'll see if you also watch the Women's Sabre World Championships DVD. Men's sabre tends to be faster and more explosive, with more direct actions and fewer complex phrases than in women's sabre. The level of athleticism and mental toughness demanded is equally high in each case.

The event coverage

The first semifinal bout is between Yakimenko (Russia) - Pozdniakov (Russia). Here, the footage picks up immediately with the start of the bout, with no introductory material introducing the fencers (this is no great loss). We get to see some phenomenal long attacks from Yakimenko, and some nice parry-ripostes and distance maneuvers from Pozdniakov. Overall, though, I didn't find this to be a terribly exciting bout, but two things definitely stood out as examples of what my coach is always trying to hammer into my head: 1. If you hang out too long after you finish an attack, you will get hit; and 2. Counterattacking blindly is a Bad Idea (tm). Hey, at least it makes me feel better that even elite fencers can occasionally fall victim to the same panic response that I did in this year's Div II Women's Sabre at Summer Nationals. (Not that my coach will let me use that as an excuse, of course.) The coverage runs 12 minutes; normally we'd expect a DE bout in sabre to run more quickly than that, but there are some equipment difficulties early on to slow things down a bit. There are some slow-motion repeats here, but I wish there had been more.

The second semifinal bout is between Covailiu (Romania) and Shturbabin (Ukraine). I liked the technique much better in this bout; the fencers seem more willing to maneuver over the whole strip, and we see some nice parry-ripostes in here, and even one spectacular one-light counter-parry-riposte by Covailiu. The bout overall is also more exciting; the fencers are much more evenly matched. Late in the bout, with a tied score, we get a lull with a number of tense simultaneous actions, finally broken by two decisive actions. The bout runs about 15 minutes. (On an amusing note, the actual elapsed clock time of the bout is approximately 20 seconds.)

The gold-medal bout is between Covailiu and Pozdniakov. This is a very exciting and closely fought bout, certainly deserving of being a gold-medal bout. The action is varied and interesting, and the bout could go either way up to the very end: in sabre, it is extremely dangerous to think "oh, I only have to get one more touch to win," because even large deficits can be made up. The ending is particularly tense since Covailiu is dealing with what appears to be a strained calf muscle in his leading leg. The audience seems to think he's stalling for time when he raises his hand to ask for a moment's break, but it's quite clear from the slow-motion replay that his (quite dramatic) fall is absolutely genuine. It's very difficult to stay mentally "in" in a difficult bout (or any bout) when you feel that you can't count on being physically 100% capable, so Covailiu's focus is impressive. The gold-medal bout runs about 17 minutes, and is followed by about 3 minutes of the medal ceremony.

The slow-motion replays help a lot, though with the absence of a commentary for the individual bouts, it's really necessary as a viewer to know what to look for. If you know to watch for who's extending first, or whether the fencer pulls back in a preparation, or makes a successful parry-riposte, the replays are extremely useful, but if you aren't familiar with sabre, it's hard to see what's happening in the two-light actions. (Incidentally, I'd heard talk that Pozdniakov did some crossovers that didn't get caught, so I was keeping an eye out in the slow-motion clips for any sneaky footwork. I didn't see any, though: we do see some extremely deep flunges, but the blade always lands before the feet cross, as far as I could see.)

It's amusing to note a lot of little details that happen at every tournament; these guys are elite fencers, but they, like I and every other competitive fencer, still have to deal with annoying technical glitches (where's that beepy sound coming from?!?), mask cords getting knocked off and flying off the strip, premature victory yells (oops), and socks falling down. What I'd like to know, though, is why all the men's sabrists seem to have baggy, ill-fitting lames. The women's sabrists seem to manage to wear lames that are reasonably tailored to fit; why do the men look like they're wearing metallic potato sacks? I know from my own observation that men can look good in sabre lames, so it's not a male thing in general... just a minor mystery for the World Championships.

The team event is between Italy and Russia. Fencing for Russia, we have Frossine, Yakimenko, Pozdniakov, and Diatchenko; for Italy, we have Pastore, Tarantino, Montano, and Aquili. This feature runs 52 minutes, and fortunately we do get a commentary track for this event. The commentators are Alex Ripa and top US sabrist and Olympic fencer Ivan Lee, and they give a good breakdown of what's happening and what's important about the calls. Lee in particular has useful observations, since he has competed against most of the fencers involved in the team event. Overall this is an interesting bout, and fans of sabre fencing will find it quite satisfying.

The DVD

The Men's Sabre World Championship DVD is packaged in an ultra-slim plastic keepcase; at least in my copy, there's no cover insert.

The menus are nicely done, with an animation that's eye-catching without being intrusive. Oddly, the default highlighted selection is the final, not the first semi-final, but other than that everything is straightforward and easy to use. (I do wish that the names of the fencers hadn't been listed in the gold medal bout, as this would have increased the excitement). You can choose to "play all" or select the bouts individually, which is a nice feature: after watching the whole thing, I know I'll want to go back and look at specific bouts again.

Video

The footage is presented in its original television aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and looks quite good. The image is clean and crisp, so we can see the details of the fencing action clearly, even though the lighting conditions in the venue are far from ideal. The camera angles are well done, giving us the closest view possible that's consistent with seeing all of the action. The slow-motion replays definitely add to the quality of the experience, and the on-screen updates of who scored what touch are accurate and useful.

Audio

The sound here is clear and entirely satisfactory. The ambiance of the bouts is captured very well, the referee's voice is clear (as are the excited yells of the fencers...) and, when we do get the commentary in the team event, the commentators' voices are clear and clean-sounding.

Extras

We get a lot of bonus material here! There are two bouts from the round of 8: Limbach (Germany) vs. Yakimenko (Russia) (10 minutes), and Pozdniakov (Russia) vs. Montano (Italy) (15 minutes). There's also one bout from the round of 16: Huebner (Germany) vs. Shturbabin (Ukraine) (10 minutes). These bouts give an interesting look at the earlier portion of the World Championships in which multiple bouts are being conducted at the same time. (Yes, it's much more typical to be competing against a background of noise from other strips!) This gives us a nice, substantial set of extra bouts that show some of the progression of the fencers into the semifinal round. There's also a brief word of introduction from FIE president Rene Roch.

Final thoughts

The men's sabre event in the 2005 World Championships is a very exciting event, certainly worthwhile for any fencer who's interested in seeing top-level competition. As a competitive sabrist myself, I find the action fascinating to watch, both for its entertainment value (high) and its relevance for training (more for men's sabrists than for me, but still worthwhile). There's no commentary for the individual event, but there is for the team event; I'd say that this makes it a better DVD for viewers who are already familiar with fencing, while the women's sabre DVD (with its more extensive commentary) is better for viewers who are new to fencing. With over 90 minutes in the main program plus 30 minutes of excellent bonus footage, this is a DVD with a lot of content; combined with the overall solid presentation of the material, I'll say this is worth a look for any viewer interested in the sport, and that it gets a "highly recommended" for fencers.