The ability to competently defend your team's backboard will become an essential skill if you want to continue to climb the rank ladder. As players begin to look for backboard rebound shots with greater frequency and execute those shots with more consistency in Diamond and Champion ranks, your progression will hit a major obstacle if you don't know how to defend against this type of attack. The specific situations involved with each attack will inform you of how to defend the backboard, but there are three common situations that you can address to shore up your defense and frustrate your opponents.

The Half-Volley Boom

This option is best in a couple of situations. It can grant your teammates time to rotate back if they are still transitioning from offense and if your team has been under pressure for some time, a well-timed half-volley from the wall will give your teammates time to recuperate and gather boost and therefore defend any follow-up pressure with momentum and speed. Here's a clip of Jacob "JKnaps" Knapman scoring from a perfectly executed half-volley clear in the ELEAGUE Cup in late 2017.

The action of defending with a half-volley from the wall sounds easy. You've likely been performing half-volleys with some measure of success for hundreds of hours. However, the frame of view at time of execution when on the wall is completely different and requires retraining your brain to read it all over again. As with traditional half-volleys, you want to hit the ball just after it bounces to give the most power to the ball. The goal of a normal half-volley is to get it to go forward as much as possible, but with half-volley on the wall, the goal is to shoot the ball as far "up" as possible when speaking from the frame of reference from the wall.

To accomplish this, you need to clip the ball closer to its underside as relative to the wall. This type of clear is best performed when directly underneath the ball as it allows the most distance. Additionally, when attempting a half-volley from the wall, it's performed easiest with a side flip as it require less perfect timing of the bounce and gives the ball more of an outward trajectory than toward the ceiling.

Catch and Dump to a Corner

Another option when your team is under pressure is to catch the ball on the wall and direct it through a corner. This is a great option if an opponent is in the air to follow the touch and you're worried about a clear being intercepted or you just want to keep the ball close because you're confident that your team is positioned and stocked with enough boost to transition to offense. Catching the ball for this type of play is difficult and requires you to get a first touch on the side of your car toward the ceiling and toward the front of the car. From that point, you can follow the ball for one or two more touches toward the corner where you can leave to a teammate or keep for a 50/50. It is also important to remember that the farther you are from the corner you're driving to, the harder time you'll have to carry the ball the entire way as you can only control straight on a wall for a relatively short time.

Defending from the Ground

If you don't have a player on the backboard, offenses will be even likely to place a pass off the wall. This not only gives their team a wonderful pass should your team fail to clear the ball, but it also forces you to spend your boost to defend. So you can't afford to miss or to give a weak clear. One important thing to consider is that if you cut off the ball before it hits the backboard, you can direct it to a corner and a relatively safe defensive position.

However, pending your awareness and view of the rest of the field, if you can wait to make the clear until after it has bounced off the wall, this will give you the most clearing potential. When doing this it is essential to jump for the touch before the ball touches the backboard and predict the line with accuracy to cut off any follow up shots before your opponents have an opportunity to place them. This type of play is incredibly difficult from the goal line. If you have a player playing wide, it is best to let the goalie stay in net.

While it's still possible to anticipate a bounce from inside the net, it's much more difficult.

There are a few custom training packs that are great for helping you to train all sorts of backboard defensive situations. They'll help you learn the core mechanics of each technique. However, as with most Rocket League mechanics, you'll likely not build the versatility to bring these skills in game for some time with the lack of variety. I recommend downloading BakkesMod and training with that tool to provide a wider range of organic situations to ensure you're ready when the time comes in game.

"Big D's Backboard D" by Deifik - 859E-5768-6175-235B

"Backboard Reads" by Rizzo - 07E1-81BC-DD2E-BF8C

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