Thanks Valeria for sharing your videos with us.
By watching the videos we can clearly see a lot of different technical aspects that you can improve. However the good news is that when we improve a certain element of our technique, we tend to improve other elements as well.
Starting from the beginning, on your ready position, the left hand doesn't seem to be holding the racquet and is almost overlapping your right hand. Your left hand fingers are barely touching the racquet. It is an early sign that your left hand won't play an important part on the preparation of your forehand.
The forehand preparation should start with two hands on the racquet. How long should you hold the racquet with the left hand ? Roughly until your shoulders turn perpendicular to the net. Check Federer, his left hand is still on the racquet and his shoulders are perpendicular to the net.
Although some players who have a double handed backhand, position their left hand just next to the right hand on ready position, I normally advise players to shift their left hand closer to the throat of the racquet just like Agassi, Roddick and Safin used to do. I think having the left hand on the throat on ready position helps the turn of the shoulders on the forehand side, and more than compensates for the (minimum) time lost on the backhand because of the need to shift the left hand back down to the handle. On your case though, Valeria, you have a one handed backhand so try positioning the left hand on the throat of the racquet until your shoulders turn perpendicular. Just like Federer on the previous picture.
This is an easy fix and you should start noticing the results straight away. If you can keep your left hand on the racquet longer until or shoulders turn perpendicular or almost you will improve another part of your swing that is letting you down, THE UNIT TURN!
The next aspect of your technique you need to address is the unit turn. The word says it all you want your body turning as a unit with no independent movement of any parts, specially the right arm and racquet. Watching your video Valeria it is very clear to observe that on the first 10 or 15 seconds of the video (slow motion time) Your right arm racquet is moving independently from your shoulders. You are getting your racquet back early which is a common misunderstanding in club tennis. What the pros really do is they turn the shoulders, torso and feet and the right arm and racquet moves passively.
Despite the fact that your initial unit turn is not very sound since your racquet head is moving faster than the rotation of your shoulders, in the middle part of the turn your shoulders seem to catch up with your right arm and it moves at roughly the same speed until the ball bounces. Therefore you turn your shoulders perpendicular to the net on all shots.
If we keep and eye on the right hand and the racquet head throughout the shot and especially on the forward swing we can easily understand why you are not hitting your forehands with topspin. Instead you are slicing the forehands and sometimes with side spin.
When the ball bounces your racquet head is at the same height of your right hand which is fine. What is not so great is that when your hand starts moving forward your racquet head starts going up and it stays up until just before you hit the ball. If you freeze the video on the forward swing you can see it clearly.
Good luck!
Great analysis andre perfect
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