On the list of mechanical skills a player in Rocket League has, there are some that are seen as more important than others. For example, the ability to dribble is more important than the ability to pull off an amazing double flip reset shot. At the same time, though, there are mechanics that are pushed to the side and forgotten about. One strong example of this is recovering after making an attempt to advance a play.

While you might just assume recoveries are simply getting back to your half of the field, there is a lot more that goes into them than you may think. So we got the help of Maurice "Yukeo" Weihs to explain them further.

Importance of Recoveries

To fully understand how important recoveries really are, we asked Yukeo, to which he said, "Recoveries in general are super important. For example, if you throw away ball possession, you need to try your best to make up for it for a chance to save something. Otherwise, you will leave your teammates in awkward situations."

Generally, if you make a mistake when you are pushing forward on the field, you really do need to know how to recover well. It is even more useful to plan ahead in your mind. If you imagine what the consequences of an action may be before you do it, this will allow you to understand how long it might take you to recover and other important decisions that you need to make in that moment.

How To Recover Effectively

So that being said, how would you actually recover after giving away ball possession on offense? Well, Yukeo suggests, "For recoveries, you should always make sure you land on your 4 wheels as soon as possible. Obviously using your boost will help with better recoveries. Also wave dashes or double jumps down towards the floor can be very helpful."

To clarify, a wave dash is a mechanic that allows you to pick up a lot of momentum, similarly to flipping. This is extremely useful in recovering. An example of wave dashing is shown below, but for further information and even more in-depth description, you could read our article "Wave Dashing: A Rocket League Guide".

As Yukeo states, there are a few factors that contribute to a good recovery. These are:

Landing on all four wheels as soon as you can
Using boost (Be sure to use this sparingly since you may need this for a save in defence)
Wave dashing
Double jumps (These are much more effective than you might think!)

So as it shows, recoveries are all about finding the fastest way back to your half of the field after you have attempted to make an offensive push. Elaborating on this, Yukeo states, "Whenever you need a fast recovery, you have to try and find the fastest way back. Preferably, you want to rotate back as fast as possible but also go over as many boost pads as possible to keep your momentum."

As a tip, you should always remember to utilise the smaller boost pads around the field. Only going for the larger pads on the edges of the field might mean you are taking a slower route back to your goal, which means less time to save a shot from the opposing team. It is a good idea to learn where those smaller pads are located, but this will eventually come with time and experience.

Momentum

As Yukeo briefly mentioned, momentum is a large part of recovering. Rocket League is a very fast paced game, especially in those higher ranks, so a few seconds taking longer to recover are a few seconds longer that the other team has to scoring a goal.

To emphasise the importance of momentum, Yukeo says, "Having momentum is very important. If you are able to land and instantly flip afterwards by using powerslides you will be able to keep your momentum instead of breaking it, which will make it way easier to recover."

For example, if you land sideways, holding the powerslide button and flipping sideways allows you to maintain that momentum rather than just letting your car hit the ground awkwardly. Again, this could be the difference between being another goal down or not. To add on to the topic of momentum, Yukeo adds, "If you don't land on your four wheels you will lose all your momentum, which will decrease your recovery time by a lot. You can improve your landing by using air roll and powerslides after an aerial play."

We did a separate guide with Yukeo all about momentum, so if you would like to find out more, be sure to check out "Momentum in Rocket League - A Guide With Yukeo".

Slow Recoveries

So why, exactly, is recovering quickly such a big deal? If you have teammates after all, why does it matter so much that you are back straight away? To answer this, Yukeo replies "If your recoveries are slow, your teammates will have a hard time defending. They have to delay their challenges to get you enough time to rotate back, even though you put them in the awkward spot. Also if your recoveries are too slow, a lot of open nets can be created."

Many of the lower ranked players often find themselves leaving teammates in situations that they cannot always handle. For example, diving in to a challenge too quickly might mean your teammates are in a two versus three or, in an even worse scenario, one versus three. A huge part of adapting as a player and improving in your overall gameplay comes from understanding not only what you are doing but how your actions can affect your teammates. This is something you will learn as you play more frequently.

On the flipside, then, if your teammate is the one who is recovering from a shot and has left you in an awkward position, Yukeo suggests, "You will have to delay your challenge and make sure it is not a risky one. You have to try and get a very good 50/50 that doesn't bounce straight to your own net." Of course, this can be difficult with the added pressure of being a teammate down.

Practicing Recoveries

So with all that being said, you may be wondering what the best way to practice this skill is. Perhaps online matches, or custom training packs dedicated to this type of mechanic. Actually, Yukeo suggests, "In Free Play, flying to the wall and instantly jumping off from it is a good way to improve your recoveries. Once you go advanced, you can also try and do that while hitting the ball to areas where you can use your recovery to reach the ball again as fast as possible. This can be very useful to bait people into challenging you, because they might not expect your fast recovery. Also wave dashing and flipping a lot will help you improve your recoveries."

But as a few overall tips for the absolutely best possible recoveries you can do, Yukeo states, "Using powerslides and air roll, and timing has to be right to have good recoveries. I think playing 1s will help you improve with your recoveries a lot, because if you don't, you will concede."

It seems like a lot to take in, and that is because recoveries are such a large part of the game. Sometimes it is good to check that list of mechanics that you have under your belt and move aside the ceiling shots, flip resets and air dribbles to really ask yourself if you have the simpler things down. Because the seemingly simpler ones, when you get stuck into them, are actually not so simple after all.