We all know that the quickest way to improve your ground game is to play 1v1s. If you are anything like me, though, you can’t stand them. Not only is there no one to blame but yourself, any slight mistake you make almost always concedes a goal. Luckily, there are some excellent training packs to help you practice.

Dribbling

Dribbling is the foundation of the ground game. You can’t learn to do flicks until you get a good grasp on dribbling. I would advise jumping into free play and just start popping the ball on top of your car to get a proper feel for dribbling, but it’s not entirely necessary. This first custom training pack starts off suspending the ball so all you have to do is drive under it. It is a large 50 shot pack and, as you go through the shots, it gets a little more challenging but never too complex and therefore a great place to start.

TITLE: ROCKETEER DRIBBLING
AUTHOR: LLEXIS
DOWNLOAD CODE: 9863-6D3C-AF72-A7E3

The next dribbling pack is a little more advanced and involves catching the ball on top of your car from different angles prior to your dribble. Catching the ball is an essential skill to learn. There are many in game situations where you can catch a flying ball and go right into a dribble as opposed to just hitting it and giving possession to the opposing team. In addition to catching the ball, it will teach you to quickly toggle Ball Cam because you will at first need it on to see the trajectory of the ball and then you will need to switch it off once you start dribbling to not be driving blind.

TITLE: DRIBBLE TRAINING
AUTHOR: VIRGE
DOWNLOAD CODE: 04C1-42C8-6E5D-6F75

Flicks

Now that you have a good foundation with dribbling, you can move onto practicing flicks. A proper flick requires that you are first dribbling the ball. You need to find the flick sweet spot because, if you have the ball too much towards the back of your car, you will not be able to execute properly. The ball needs to be slightly towards the front. The best way to start learning is get the ball on top of your car and just start doing jumps. Don’t touch the left joystick just yet, just drive with the ball on top of your car and jump. Try different speeds. Try holding jump. Try holding jump and double jumping. Then you can slowly incorporate the joystick but don’t flip just yet. Try to slowly move the left joystick in the air and see how the ball reacts.

This will help build your cornerstone for flicks because the initial ball placement of your first jump will determine the success of the flick. Once you have a pretty good comfort level, you can try the most basic flick by just double jumping forward. It will likely take a combination of everything you’ve learned so far and multiple tries to get it just right. After that you can try other basic flicks such as a backwards flip which will shoot the ball a lot higher. From there the sky is the limit. You can go on to learn advanced flicks that involve you binding air roll right/left to separate buttons. Unfortunately, there is no specific training pack for flicks but what you can do is run through the dribbling training packs again and always end the shot with a flick.

Fakes

Faking comes down to awareness. Knowing where your opponents are on the field and what they are likely to do based on what they think you are going to do is the essence of the fake. Since Rocket League is such a predictive game, fakes can really throw your opponents for a loop. YouTuber Graphic has a great video about it below and although a lot of it is recorded in 1v1, these skills apply to 2v2 and 3v3 as well.

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Ce7svileWYk" width="560" height="314" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

Fast Kickoff

There is some good news and bad news for practicing the fast kickoff. The bad news is that you are likely going to have to play some 1v1s. The good news is you can do it in a controlled setting. I’ve found the best way to practice is to play a local 1v1 exhibition match against an All Star bot. The All Star bot will boost to the ball like anyone else not doing a fast kickoff. The major drawback is after the kick off there either needs to be a goal scored or you have to restart the game, either of which takes time. A good way to really perfect it is to just do it in your normal matches. If you are too scared to concede a goal you will never try it and will never get better at it. Imagine if you were to never try it in competitive games for the next year because you didn’t want to concede a goal. Now imagine how good you would be at it a year from now if you did it in every match you played. The current fastest kickoff is to drive diagonally over whichever boost pad is closest to you and then to do a diagonal flip toward the ball.

You’ll want to start the kickoff holding drive and boost at the same time, as well as hold boost during most of your flip depending on what position you are starting in. In both positions you will want to land so you can start to flip into the ball, which will take a lot of practice with the timing. In addition you will want to be as goal side as possible which means hitting the ball as aligned with the center of your goal as you can be. There is a great video below by amustycow that really drives the pointers of the fast kick off home.

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/hKMnJn04LlY" width="560" height="314" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

Shadow Defense and Positioning

Another vital aspect of the ground game is shadow defense and positioning. Shadow defense basically involves keeping a short distance between you and the attacking opposing player instead of instantly challenging him when you’re the last defender. This way you can guide the attacking player and the ball into the corner instead of A: Missing the challenge or B: Challenging and potentially losing the 50/50. This is especially useful in 2v2 and 3v3 to buy the rest of your team time to get back and help you on defense. Luckily, there is a great training pack to get you used to the basics, albeit without the attacking car.

TITLE: SHADOW DEFENSE
AUTHOR: ORANGEPIE
DOWNLOAD CODE: 5CCE-FB29-7B05-A0B1

As far as positioning goes it depends on if you are playing 2v2 or 3v3. Since we are under the assumption you don’t like 1v1s, we can skip the positioning for that. With 2v2, you want to pretend the pitch is divided up into 9 equal sections. You never want to be in the same section as your teammate and you never want there to be more than an entire section between you. With 3v3 it’s a little more complex, but to simplify it on defense you should be trying to clear or take possession of the ball and if you fail or your teammate has a better position to do it you should rotate out. On offense, there should always be one person defending at just over mid-pitch. When an offensive player needs to come back or spots you in a better position to hit the ball, you can rotate forward. The Rocket League community has great videos on positioning and here is one on 3v3 positioning by SunlessKhan:

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/THcMLWOEc_o" width="560" height="314" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

Conclusion

Learning to dribble is the foundation to build your ground game. Add in flicks and you’ll start to play a more precise game. Properly pulling off fakes will prepare you for a more mental game. Throw in fast kickoffs and your team can instantly be on the offensive. Last but not least, shadow defense and positioning will complete your ground game. Now you can plan and play. No longer do you have to rush to the ball as fast as possible and hit it as hard as you can. You won’t be punished for skipping 1v1s as there are alternate ways to obtain the same skill set. Keep practicing and I’ll see you on the pitch!