Customer Reviews

Pro Tennis Lessons Complete 10 DVD Boxed Set, Starring Renowned USPTA Pro James Jensen: Includes over 12 Hours of Professional Tennis Instruction for all level Players!

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I own too many sets of tennis tapes, including Tennis 2000, Vic Braden, Tom Avery, Tony Roche and others. James Jensen's DVDs are undoubtedly the worst. I have watched four of the ten Pro Tennis DVDs so far. They all have one thing in common. Jensen talks and talks and talks, standing in front of the camera with a racquet in his hand which he shadow swings through empty air. His monologue is soooooo redundant. How many ways and times can he restate the same basic concepts? No one knows.

Personally, I like the Tennis 2000 series. Tennis 2000 utilizes regular and slow motion video of pro players. Along with the visualization, Tennis 2000 analyzes the form and stroke of each player. It adds scientific studies of biomechanics. In the Consistent Tennis Wins series, Tom Avery demonstrates everything he says on the court while hitting shots with a student or another player. His strokes are not as advanced as the Tennis 2000 strokes, but even Avery's tapes are infinitely better than the James Jensen's series. Jensen barely hits a tennis ball in hours of painful instruction.

I read the stellar reviews of the Jensen's Pro Tennis series and I seriously wonder who is writing these. But, hey, don't take my word. Buy just one of the DVDs. If you can stay awake though 90 minutes of Jensen's monologue then pluck down your 300 bucks for the whole set and buy yourself some sleeping pills. You probably need them.

These dvds offer basically solid, if uninspired, advice. They are most useful to players ranging from just beyond absolute beginner to intermediate level (through 3.0 level, maybe 3.5 for the more advanced ones).

That said, there is little use of slow motion and no use of stop-action, and you only see Jensen (occasionally with his partner Gary) - it would have been more interesting and instructive to see a variety of players with different styles hit strokes, and to see the strokes in stop action, with narration going over the strokes. Jensen jabbers way to much, often saying nothing. For example, in the backhand dvd, he claims repeatedly that he will show you the way to determine whether a one- or two- handed backhand is best for you. You wait and wait - until finally he gives his advice: "Try both and see which one is more comfortable for you" Duh! With all that talking, he never gives any real advice or discussion on the topic. A two-handed backhand is a more powerful shot when you don't have to stretch for the ball, and is probably easier to learn and better for children. A one-hander has more range and is usually more comfortable hitting slices and backhands at the net.

With the good and bad, there is also the ugly. There are several glowing reviews for people claiming to be 4.0 or 4.5 (advanced) players. These reviews are almost surely phoney - there is absolutely nothing in these dvds that would be useful to anyone at that level. For example, according to ussearch, noone by the name of "Dean Esterberg" lives in Davenport WA, nor is he listed in the USTA records, even though he claims to be "a certified 4.5 player"

I've never written a review before, but felt compelled to do so after reading daveparker's petty and cynical assessment of a product he has never even seen. Dave must be fun to play tennis with...

I'm from London in the UK (so no, I am not the father/son/brother/agent of Jensen) and we have no tennis instructional DVD's of this high quality - maybe that's why we are no good at tennis!

I bought the 10 DVD box set and as you Americans like to say, it's AWESOME. Top quality production and very clear instruction - I watch them consistently before and after matches.

I've saved a small fortune on tennis coaching fees with these DVD's, but I'd still recommend having the occasional private tennis lesson, to ensure that you personally are implementing all of Jensen's instructions correctly.

Good luck.

I have seen 9 of the 10 DVDs (I skipped the Doubles dvd) and I will say that overall that I liked them. Mr. Jensen is very good at verbally explaining the techniques of each shot. My main complaint is that I wish he used more video slow motion shots to explain each shot and less talking. Sometimes the talking is a bit too much.... but you can't say that he does not try hammer a point home, at least.

Even with that said, I will say that the DVDs are worth the purchase. He does give good advice and has the kind of enthusiastic personality that makes him a nice instructor to learn from.

There are a lot of good tips for beginner and intermediate player in this collection.
It really helped me improve my game.
The video is simple but all the info is there. The best video collection I have seen so far.

James Jensen is a great player and a great teacher. In a lot of these videos, he is playing against other pros and explaining the exercises and drills while doing so. He has the level of fitness and technique to be able to do so. The doubles video actually has a doubles match going on. The single strategy video demonstrates patterns against another pro. To say this series is James Jensen just standing there talking is a blatant falsity. There is a lot of demonstration by as good a teaching professional as you will find anywhere. He has beautiful footwork and strokes and can teach all the shots and strategy. If you go through these ten videos, you will have the basic knowledge you need to play properly. You still have to practice it and play a lot of games, but at least you'll know what you should be doing. (PS It's a lot cheaper at tenniswarehouse.com)

i didn't want to spend a bunch of money on lessons and i was a near beginner (had natural skill) but i wanted to improve my game. i saw that you could add these dvds to your netflix wishlist. when i saw that you could buy them for $130 (~$10/dvd with each dvd ~1 hour), they had good ratings, and there was a dvd for each area of the tennis game, i was sold. i strongly recomment - as i did - taking notes while watching these dvds. this way, you can refer to your notes instead of re-watching an entire dvd. however, i see the advantage of watching the entire dvd as well. also, (and i'm not sure how much this helped) but i had my tennis racket with me while i was watching the dvds so that i could practice the stance, swing, etc. anyhow, i practiced against the wall and on the court, as recommended on the dvds, and i have improved substantially from ~30-40 on my work's tennis ladder to 10-15. the nice thing about these dvds is that they'll always be worth something, unless the sport of tennis disappears...so you can either hold onto them, allow a friend to borrow them, or sell them used for some of your money back.
scott

I'm not fluent in english. and i understand almost just the lessons 70%. I over and over again see the dvds. and getting knowing the details of DVD contents. My gym teacher first teached me tennis. I'm very shy about not getting better in tennis. but I met this dvd and all things my gym teacher said is found in this dvds and i understood the meaning and everyday getting better. in the below reviews, because one bad review , I write this review. if you understand this instruction. you will be indulged in tennis enchantment. I recomment this DVD. I'am south korean. i hope my review is helpful.

I bought the Jensen Tennis 10 DVD set on recommendation of a friend and the reviews here. I have had them a few months and they are worth all the bucks I laid out. Unlike a lot of junk out there they live up to the hype and deliver top quality instruction. I stopped paying a coach $60.00 bucks an hour and now work exclusively from Jensen's lessons with great results.

I don't know Jensen never met him so my unbiased opinion is these lessons are definitely all they are said to be. If they weren't I would simply return them but these gems I will keep.

For someone to be jealous of a good reviewed product and to put them down without having seen them is very strange indeed. If you take the time to view all 12 hours of instruction then you may begin to understand why many players like me enjoy and benefit so much from them.

This 10 DVD Tennis series offers terrific insight into the game. I like Pro Jensen's teaching method of building your game from the ground up. He is always interesting and keeps your attention throughout each program. I really thought I had a decent game until I went through each of these DVDs. It was nothing but eye opening about how off my techniques really were. With the help of this set I've made numerous simple adjustments to my strokes, footwork and court strategies that have brought my game up many notches. For example the simple punch stroke as he calls it in the Volleys DVD has made me a much more consistent and accurate net player. This simple stroke keeps my ball in play where before I was constantly over swinging and hitting my Volleys out. This technique alone was worth the price of the series. I have easily come away with 5 or more game improving techniques from each DVD and when added up make for 50 plus improvements to my game. I am elated with my better play and all I can say is get the set and see for yourself how fast you can improve.