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!

Review by Michael Perine for 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!
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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.

Review by Honibee for 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!
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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"

Review by Lee Young Chul for 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!
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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.

Review by David Hirsh for 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!
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I bought the ten pack of instructional dvds. I have learned much from the videos and have watched them several times. The one problem that I have is that not all the videos are divided into chapters so it is like watching a tape rather than a dvd. You have to fast forward through the disk rather than going to the particular chapter. I also find that on occasion Jensen does not describe what all parts of the body could be doing to achieve a more powerful stroke or more control (e.g. while the racket makes contract on the forehand, what the non-racket hand may do, where the knuckle is placed on the racket during the serve). I realize that for some these things happen automatically, but I think for some us, the possible optimum placement should be discussed. On the other hand, he communicates the basics of each stroke with a nice mix of the traditional and modern approaches.

Review by Zugzy for 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!
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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.