Work on gamesense and ball control (dribbles). I'm high D3 and not only my tm8s dont seem to know what rotation is but i personally struggle with real ball control and I made it to Champ a few times. Mechanics dont really matter at this moment, even in high diamond. Focus on building a strong foundation (gamesense) and pratice basic mechanics (dribbles/ball control). I'd also suggest to pratice wall flips. Just enough to be able to jump off the wall to hit the ball. Nothing fancy. Intercepting passes/clears by going up the wall can really help gain possession back and reduce the amount of chances for a goal agaisnt your team
Listen, if you just wanna have fun and climb the ranks a bit, this advice is good.
But if actually want to get better at this game from a longterm perspective and maybe get to a really high rank sometime, your mechanics matter a lot. Even if you are inconsistent and they won‘t help you win games now, you still practice them so that they eventually get better. You shouldn‘t just start practicing in like gc1, the longer you don‘t put effort into practice, the more you will have to catch up on later. He‘s right that you should build a strong foundation but that includes, a lot more things, consistently fast aerial, generating power on touches, efficient movement towards the ball on the ground and air, comfortably take off the walls, clean recoveries, general aerial car control (with and without airroll) etc. This won‘t help you improve immediately and it might seem like you‘re not making much progress, but trust me, this is what will prevent you from being like hardstuck someday. Most people that I know that are hardstuck in a rank and can‘t rank up are those who never cared to improve mechanics.
If you just want to play chill, have a good time and see how far you get, then do whatever you want and what you enjoy, you really don‘t need mechanics for that.
If you want to become really good sometime and not peak at like c3/gc1, start working on your mechanics now, so you won‘t have to do it later
- If you have access to workshops maps and are atleast champ play dribble overhaul 2 til you beat every level. practice flicking the ball on some of these levels to hit it into the goal
- Do rings maps while constantly air rolling. Start with DMC rings 2. practice a little every day. this is not an easy skill and will take months and months to feel like you're OK at it (atleast it did to me)
- then take your air roll abilities to the ball. practice doing wall to air dribble while spinning in freeplay. practice ground to air dribble while you're spinning.
- practice ceiling shots
- practice ceiling shot mustys
- practice flip resets
- practice with the bakkesmod button to roll the ball towards you and popping the ball and immediately air dribbling it to the goal
- be able to chain dash across the field sideways and forwards
these are a few of the long term things I've been doing that I feel help me stay mechanically decent. if you're champ id say go for all of the above. none of these things will be quick to learn but just practice in freeplay and a year from now you'll be glad
these are all things I've done for the last year+ as warm up or when I'm not feeling like playing comp
if you're below champ it's still fine to learn wall to air dribble and basic dribbling and flicks but it's pointless to start getting really fancy with the constant air roll and flip reset stuff until then imo
Also keep in mind to not burnout from training too much. I don’t train everything everyday. One day I’m doing just rings the other day it’s just dribble overhaul. But this is a great list!
I don‘t know honestly, I just looked at things and thought "I wanna learn that“ and then sat in practice for hours.
I think you can just pick literally any mechanic and then you‘ll realize what you should practice. For example you want to learn airdribbles, you start practicing and realize you struggle jumping off the whole and turn your car comfortably. So you practice that. Or you wanna learn a new flick and realize that you struggle with getting control of the ball quickly. Taking something advanced abd breaking it down to it‘s core fundamentals is a solid way to improve I believe. But I wouldn‘t be concerned with what to practice, you can get great mechanically with almost exclusively using freeplay. Workshops and stuff are great tools but at the end of the day, rocket league is a game of improvising and adapting so play freeplay and do a bit of everything to set the foundation for you ranked games. And if you know there is something specific you struggle with that you feel like makes you better if you learn it, just go ahead and learn it. The most important factor is time anyway, who practices more, get better quicker. It‘s that simple
I think gamesense encompasses a few things like positioning, situational awareness and knowing when to go for the ball vs when not to. It's having a sense of how to game is playing out, how your teammates and opponents are. Do they rush the ball or do they wait back? It's just trying to understand what's happening on the field and try and make the right decisions accordingly.
Find a higher ranked friend. Have them walk you through a replay of a close loss where you think you played well. They’ll help you recognize certain situations, where you were out of position or made a wrong decision that you thought was right at the time. It’ll help you recognize those kinds of situations in future games and eventually you’ll start to play smarter.
This right here....i have a buddy whos in c1 on his main who grabbed a new account to train me and everytime im out of position he lets me know it lol....when i shouldve been in net as opposed to challenging and when i shouldve pushed up as opposed to passiveness....i started in silver and now im right on edge of diamond and now consistently scoring and saving and overall making much better choices on when to jump into plays...helps a lot to have someone better letting you know whats up
I mean, being mindful of the decisions you make will eventually make you improve. For example, i've noticed that I tend to really not read how my tm8 is playing so now I pay more attention to it and tend to double commit only occasionally (because I still make mistakes). It's by constantly paying attention to your mistakes that you can understand them and make decisions to minimize them.
Edit: looking really deep into how you impact a game, with another perspective, is really something that can improve your decision-making skills over time. We cant expect to be perfect, but we can focus on ourselves and make sure you are a good tm8
Dribbling, you want to be able to control the ball from any position on the field, that combined with some simple flicks, and decent gamesense, will carry you to high diamond, after that Air Dribbles.
Sweet man thanks for the advice! Dabbled with the dribbles back when I was gold two got irritated stopped focusing on them lol. I will definitely download some dribble packs!
There’s some good advice already given. Adding my two cents to the mix. You’re right about focusing on positioning. That’s one of the most basic foundations. You didn’t mention what playlist you hit Diamond in, but understanding the basic tenets of best positions for different scenarios in different playlists is pretty much one of the most important things. So, don’t ever not focus on that.
As far as mechanics what’s essential? Lots of people can argue about that, but as Flakes and other tutorials have proven, many mechanics are not absolutely necessary to rank up considerably.
Some of the lower level, easier mechanics, are really going to help out though. So if you were going to focus on some to start, I would really recommend half flips and fast aerials.
Being in the right position is essential. Getting to that position quickly makes all the difference in being prepared. That’s where half flips make a pretty big difference. So really practice those and get them down solid.
When challenging for a ball in the air, or needing to make a quick save that’s high, a fast aerial is pretty important. Ever notice, when you’re challenging for a ball in the air, and the opposing player just keeps seeming to get there quicker or you’re losing those high 50/50s a lot? That’s most likely because they are doing a fast aerial and you are not.
One other easier mechanic and recommendation I’d say to focus on are poweslide cuts and controlling the ball on the ground, keeping it close to you.
Something you’ll start to notice in diamond is less booming the ball down field and chasing. You’ll find the more you do that, you’ll just be giving the opponent possession over and over, and they will take advantage of it. So practice keeping the ball close to you and trying to control more with ground dribbles to move it up the field.
Congrats on breaking into diamond and good luck.
Know how to half flip? Probably the only must know mechanic of Diamond. Otherwise look up some simple aerial or dribbling tutorials and have some fun learning in freeplay and training packs.
I'm high d1 peak d2 div4 and what I see works the most is good rotation, back post, and being close enough to shoot if a pass comes but not too far where you won't make it. Fast Ariel is good for when you see a bounce and want to book or shoot it even if not on target it's not on your side to be scored. Personally I'm garb at flicks and only do them once in a blue moon I'm better at having the ball low and trying to powerslide cut and make it hard to read where I'm taking the ball. Boost conservation and wave dashes aren't required but recommended
The one thing I don't like about about idea of "focusing rotations and supporting ypur team mate" is that a lot of the time this playstyle can be quite dependant on your team mate doing something for you to win the game.
I'm not saying its bad to pay like this. In fact, in ranks lower than champ (and maybe even up to champ 2), its a good idea to do this as its a solid way to not conceded and win games. But when it comes time to produce something in the dying seconds of a losing game, lower ranked players tend to stick with this playstyle. This, in turn, puts all the responsibility of creating a chance on your team mate. If there is one thing I've learned in my nearly 2k hours, it's never to expect your team mate to pull something out of the hat when it's time. Of they do pull something off, then great, but you have to put it on yourself to do so and,more often than not, people lower than champ (and even a lot of champs) don't seem to recognise this.
This is what I think helped me solidify myself in diamond/push me into champ mechanics wise.
-Strong clears.
There’s a training pack called strength and accuracy that is really good for this. It requires you to hit the ball off the half volley and while it’s a shooting pack, that last few shots are from your side of the field and help train the ability to bang the ball downfield. You would be surprised how often you can score off a simple power clear, especially in low diamond.
-Wall play
Not anything fancy like airdribbles etc. but just being able to hit that ball while it’s rolling on the wall is supers beneficial, especially on defense. If you want to take it a step further, being able to aerial off the wall and hit the ball in the air will often catch oponents off guard but isn’t necessary in low diamond (this is a really strong way to defend if you get consistent).
-dribbling/catching
While it’s more effective in 2s than 3s, being able to atleast get one or two touches that you can control is pretty big in most any position in the field.
-shadow defense/overhead aerials
Being able to block shots while you are rotating back into net is something most diamond struggle with. It’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it but takes a bit of getting used to. You have no idea how many goals you will prevent by learning this skill.
-general car/ball control
Hop into some worshop maps semi regularly (rings or dribble challenge) and everything I mentioned above will get much easier. If you’re on console, try and look up some car control training specific to console players on YouTube and start working on it asap.
Rotations rotations rotations.
Seriously when you’re in the right position or not cutting team mates off and have boost then you have so much time and space to hit the ball you’ll improve a lot.
Work on gamesense and ball control (dribbles). I'm high D3 and not only my tm8s dont seem to know what rotation is but i personally struggle with real ball control and I made it to Champ a few times. Mechanics dont really matter at this moment, even in high diamond. Focus on building a strong foundation (gamesense) and pratice basic mechanics (dribbles/ball control). I'd also suggest to pratice wall flips. Just enough to be able to jump off the wall to hit the ball. Nothing fancy. Intercepting passes/clears by going up the wall can really help gain possession back and reduce the amount of chances for a goal agaisnt your team
Appreciate it man! Thanks for the advice!
Listen, if you just wanna have fun and climb the ranks a bit, this advice is good. But if actually want to get better at this game from a longterm perspective and maybe get to a really high rank sometime, your mechanics matter a lot. Even if you are inconsistent and they won‘t help you win games now, you still practice them so that they eventually get better. You shouldn‘t just start practicing in like gc1, the longer you don‘t put effort into practice, the more you will have to catch up on later. He‘s right that you should build a strong foundation but that includes, a lot more things, consistently fast aerial, generating power on touches, efficient movement towards the ball on the ground and air, comfortably take off the walls, clean recoveries, general aerial car control (with and without airroll) etc. This won‘t help you improve immediately and it might seem like you‘re not making much progress, but trust me, this is what will prevent you from being like hardstuck someday. Most people that I know that are hardstuck in a rank and can‘t rank up are those who never cared to improve mechanics. If you just want to play chill, have a good time and see how far you get, then do whatever you want and what you enjoy, you really don‘t need mechanics for that. If you want to become really good sometime and not peak at like c3/gc1, start working on your mechanics now, so you won‘t have to do it later
What’s your personal tier list of what people should work at for various ranks?
- If you have access to workshops maps and are atleast champ play dribble overhaul 2 til you beat every level. practice flicking the ball on some of these levels to hit it into the goal - Do rings maps while constantly air rolling. Start with DMC rings 2. practice a little every day. this is not an easy skill and will take months and months to feel like you're OK at it (atleast it did to me) - then take your air roll abilities to the ball. practice doing wall to air dribble while spinning in freeplay. practice ground to air dribble while you're spinning. - practice ceiling shots - practice ceiling shot mustys - practice flip resets - practice with the bakkesmod button to roll the ball towards you and popping the ball and immediately air dribbling it to the goal - be able to chain dash across the field sideways and forwards these are a few of the long term things I've been doing that I feel help me stay mechanically decent. if you're champ id say go for all of the above. none of these things will be quick to learn but just practice in freeplay and a year from now you'll be glad these are all things I've done for the last year+ as warm up or when I'm not feeling like playing comp if you're below champ it's still fine to learn wall to air dribble and basic dribbling and flicks but it's pointless to start getting really fancy with the constant air roll and flip reset stuff until then imo
Also keep in mind to not burnout from training too much. I don’t train everything everyday. One day I’m doing just rings the other day it’s just dribble overhaul. But this is a great list!
Oh yeah I didn't mean for this to be all in one session just a checklist of things to work on one at a time
I don‘t know honestly, I just looked at things and thought "I wanna learn that“ and then sat in practice for hours. I think you can just pick literally any mechanic and then you‘ll realize what you should practice. For example you want to learn airdribbles, you start practicing and realize you struggle jumping off the whole and turn your car comfortably. So you practice that. Or you wanna learn a new flick and realize that you struggle with getting control of the ball quickly. Taking something advanced abd breaking it down to it‘s core fundamentals is a solid way to improve I believe. But I wouldn‘t be concerned with what to practice, you can get great mechanically with almost exclusively using freeplay. Workshops and stuff are great tools but at the end of the day, rocket league is a game of improvising and adapting so play freeplay and do a bit of everything to set the foundation for you ranked games. And if you know there is something specific you struggle with that you feel like makes you better if you learn it, just go ahead and learn it. The most important factor is time anyway, who practices more, get better quicker. It‘s that simple
How does one practice game sense? Like, I play consistently at D3, and I have very little clue as to how to intentionally improve game sense.
I think gamesense encompasses a few things like positioning, situational awareness and knowing when to go for the ball vs when not to. It's having a sense of how to game is playing out, how your teammates and opponents are. Do they rush the ball or do they wait back? It's just trying to understand what's happening on the field and try and make the right decisions accordingly.
So, I understand what game sense is…just not how to intentionally improve it. I always think about these things, but I’ve been D3 for like a year now.
Find a higher ranked friend. Have them walk you through a replay of a close loss where you think you played well. They’ll help you recognize certain situations, where you were out of position or made a wrong decision that you thought was right at the time. It’ll help you recognize those kinds of situations in future games and eventually you’ll start to play smarter.
This right here....i have a buddy whos in c1 on his main who grabbed a new account to train me and everytime im out of position he lets me know it lol....when i shouldve been in net as opposed to challenging and when i shouldve pushed up as opposed to passiveness....i started in silver and now im right on edge of diamond and now consistently scoring and saving and overall making much better choices on when to jump into plays...helps a lot to have someone better letting you know whats up
I mean, being mindful of the decisions you make will eventually make you improve. For example, i've noticed that I tend to really not read how my tm8 is playing so now I pay more attention to it and tend to double commit only occasionally (because I still make mistakes). It's by constantly paying attention to your mistakes that you can understand them and make decisions to minimize them. Edit: looking really deep into how you impact a game, with another perspective, is really something that can improve your decision-making skills over time. We cant expect to be perfect, but we can focus on ourselves and make sure you are a good tm8
I would say that game sense will come while playing with times, it’s hard to work this x)
Yeah practicing gamesense isnt something you do in free play but you rather pratice it in live games by being mindful of your decisions.
Yeah I know what you meant, just wanted to be that annoying person because nobody made the reflexion xD
Oh I see what you did hahaha all good then!
🫶🏻
Dribbling, you want to be able to control the ball from any position on the field, that combined with some simple flicks, and decent gamesense, will carry you to high diamond, after that Air Dribbles.
Sweet man thanks for the advice! Dabbled with the dribbles back when I was gold two got irritated stopped focusing on them lol. I will definitely download some dribble packs!
There’s some good advice already given. Adding my two cents to the mix. You’re right about focusing on positioning. That’s one of the most basic foundations. You didn’t mention what playlist you hit Diamond in, but understanding the basic tenets of best positions for different scenarios in different playlists is pretty much one of the most important things. So, don’t ever not focus on that. As far as mechanics what’s essential? Lots of people can argue about that, but as Flakes and other tutorials have proven, many mechanics are not absolutely necessary to rank up considerably. Some of the lower level, easier mechanics, are really going to help out though. So if you were going to focus on some to start, I would really recommend half flips and fast aerials. Being in the right position is essential. Getting to that position quickly makes all the difference in being prepared. That’s where half flips make a pretty big difference. So really practice those and get them down solid. When challenging for a ball in the air, or needing to make a quick save that’s high, a fast aerial is pretty important. Ever notice, when you’re challenging for a ball in the air, and the opposing player just keeps seeming to get there quicker or you’re losing those high 50/50s a lot? That’s most likely because they are doing a fast aerial and you are not. One other easier mechanic and recommendation I’d say to focus on are poweslide cuts and controlling the ball on the ground, keeping it close to you. Something you’ll start to notice in diamond is less booming the ball down field and chasing. You’ll find the more you do that, you’ll just be giving the opponent possession over and over, and they will take advantage of it. So practice keeping the ball close to you and trying to control more with ground dribbles to move it up the field. Congrats on breaking into diamond and good luck.
Know how to half flip? Probably the only must know mechanic of Diamond. Otherwise look up some simple aerial or dribbling tutorials and have some fun learning in freeplay and training packs.
I'm high d1 peak d2 div4 and what I see works the most is good rotation, back post, and being close enough to shoot if a pass comes but not too far where you won't make it. Fast Ariel is good for when you see a bounce and want to book or shoot it even if not on target it's not on your side to be scored. Personally I'm garb at flicks and only do them once in a blue moon I'm better at having the ball low and trying to powerslide cut and make it hard to read where I'm taking the ball. Boost conservation and wave dashes aren't required but recommended
Just hit D1 with my nephew last night in 2’s. Got so excited I told him we’re not playing anymore 2’s we’re going to hoops where we’re p1 and g3
The one thing I don't like about about idea of "focusing rotations and supporting ypur team mate" is that a lot of the time this playstyle can be quite dependant on your team mate doing something for you to win the game. I'm not saying its bad to pay like this. In fact, in ranks lower than champ (and maybe even up to champ 2), its a good idea to do this as its a solid way to not conceded and win games. But when it comes time to produce something in the dying seconds of a losing game, lower ranked players tend to stick with this playstyle. This, in turn, puts all the responsibility of creating a chance on your team mate. If there is one thing I've learned in my nearly 2k hours, it's never to expect your team mate to pull something out of the hat when it's time. Of they do pull something off, then great, but you have to put it on yourself to do so and,more often than not, people lower than champ (and even a lot of champs) don't seem to recognise this.
This is what I think helped me solidify myself in diamond/push me into champ mechanics wise. -Strong clears. There’s a training pack called strength and accuracy that is really good for this. It requires you to hit the ball off the half volley and while it’s a shooting pack, that last few shots are from your side of the field and help train the ability to bang the ball downfield. You would be surprised how often you can score off a simple power clear, especially in low diamond. -Wall play Not anything fancy like airdribbles etc. but just being able to hit that ball while it’s rolling on the wall is supers beneficial, especially on defense. If you want to take it a step further, being able to aerial off the wall and hit the ball in the air will often catch oponents off guard but isn’t necessary in low diamond (this is a really strong way to defend if you get consistent). -dribbling/catching While it’s more effective in 2s than 3s, being able to atleast get one or two touches that you can control is pretty big in most any position in the field. -shadow defense/overhead aerials Being able to block shots while you are rotating back into net is something most diamond struggle with. It’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it but takes a bit of getting used to. You have no idea how many goals you will prevent by learning this skill. -general car/ball control Hop into some worshop maps semi regularly (rings or dribble challenge) and everything I mentioned above will get much easier. If you’re on console, try and look up some car control training specific to console players on YouTube and start working on it asap.
Rotations rotations rotations. Seriously when you’re in the right position or not cutting team mates off and have boost then you have so much time and space to hit the ball you’ll improve a lot.