I received the Acrobatic Tumbling DVD two days ago, here are my thoughts:
The good:
- Interesting approach to the cartwheel. Most resources that I've seen present the cartwheel and handstand as two distinct entities, while this dvd presents them as linked and shows the progression between them.
- The lead-up exercises are explained thoroughly and are shown in a logical order. The dvd is flawless here.
- Spotting methods are explained for most movements.
- It covers common mistakes and actually shows some of them so that we really know what is the wrong/right way to do a move.
- Quick shipping.
The not so good:
- The english voice-over isn't synced at all - there are parts where there is a 10 seconds silence while the animator is still moving his mouth.
- It all seems rather stiff compared to other instructional videos that I've seen. It's quite tedious to watch compared to, say, Juji's tutorials (http://www.trickstutorials.com). Then again, this is a minor problem that can easily be overlooked. Let's just say that watching this dvd won't make you feel like running outside and trying out the stuff.
- It would have been nice to have subchapters for each technique progression so that we could skip around until we reach the exercise that we need.
- The glue that holds the plastic protection on top of the back cover was badly applied, causing ripples.
The bad:
- The video quality is subpar (blurryish). It feels like I'm watching a youtube video on a bigger screen.
- There are video glitches in some places (the video freezes for a few seconds while the voice keeps going). This is most likely due to the fact that the dvd itself seems somewhat damaged. The face on which the data is written has some faded parts (it almost looks like someone dropped liquid on it and tried to wipe it off unsuccessfully). I will try it in another dvd player this week. Am I the only one who has encountered this problem?
Overall, is it worth the price? If you don't mind the annoyances mentionned above, then it is definitely worth it. If you already have some basics in gymnastics, then you might be better off using that 50$ to buy access to the local gymnastics club and use free online resources instead.
I'm looking forward to getting this sometime in the future too.