As you start climbing higher and higher through the ranks on Rocket League, you will notice players getting faster, hesitating less, and becoming more consistent when making plays in the air and off the walls.
In order to keep up with this heightened level of play, it is essential to practice and get comfortable taking advantage of these opportunities when they present themselves.
This article will show you how you can take advantage of the walls to play faster and more efficiently.
If you are interested in hiring me for a coaching session, you can find my coaching profile linked here, as well as other coaches and courses for Rocket League
My name is Sabi. I am a professional coach for GamersRdy. I have over 10 years of professional coaching experience and a Masters degree in sports psychology.
By the end of this article, you will have learned the physics of wall mechanics, why it is important in order to compete at higher ranks, and how you can go about mastering this mechanic.
Playing the Wall
Playing off the wall can be highly beneficial, and mastering this skill early will certainly give you an edge over the competition. Being comfortable playing off the wall allows you to get into the air faster, use less boost and open up more angles of play that were not otherwise available.
And as a wise man once said, “Opportunities multiply as they are seized” meaning that as a result of the faster speed of play and taking advantage of the walls you will begin to see more and more opportunities present themselves, resulting in more shot opportunities and less time spent panicking in defence.
How the Walls Work
The first thing we must understand is how our car behaves differently on the walls.
There are a few things that you need to keep in mind when looking to make a play off the wall.
Number 1:
In order to maintain control on the wall you will need to maintain either forwards or backwards acceleration. If you idle on the wall then you will notice that your car begins slowly gliding back down to the ground.
Number 2:
If you are looking to make a quick play off the wall you will need to be aware that there is a dead spot depending on your angle of approach where a jump will not lift you off the wall.
Because the wall is curved, if you jump too early you will end up jumping from one part of the curve to another rather than lifting or pushing your car away from the wall.
There is an easy visual queue to look for when approaching the wall. All around the arena there will be advertisement banners. These are placed on the flat portion where the side walls begin.
A good rule of thumb is to wait until you are at or above this line in before attempting to jump off the wall. The same thing applies for trying to make a play when driving down from the wall. You want to start your jump before passing these banners to avoid your car sticking to the wall leaving you confused as to why your jump didn’t do anything.
Number 3:
Something that a lot of players don’t realize when going for plays off the wall is that starting a dodge in any direction will immediately stop all of your vertical momentum.
This means that you can be very accurate with your touches off the wall when dodging but you also need to make sure you are at the correct height first, otherwise you run the risk of floating past the ball as you watch your opponents score an open net.
A very simple drill you can do in Free Play is to begin by getting a feel of how far away from the wall you are capable of playing with a variety of jumps and dodges.
For example, begin by driving up the wall and performing a single jump, taking note of how far away from the wall you land. Then repeat this process with a double jumping, and finally while dodging.
So let’s give you some tools to prevent such scenarios from happening.
Training Pack: 9369-DAD2-1EAB-9B25
I’ve prepared a training pack that will help you to get comfortable with wall play. It is set up in increments that will help get you comfortable with the mechanic step by step, beginning with the basics and leaving you with the creativity to approach shots in different ways.
If you have the luxury of being on PC, I strongly recommend you utilize Bakkesmod to add some variety to your training. That way you are more realistically developing your mechanic skills rather than building muscle memory for a single specific shot.
The first shot is designed to let you experiment with getting to the ball and seeing how your car influences the trajectory of the ball upon impact.
For this shot start by simply driving at the ball from different angles, taking note of how for example if you hit the ball from more underneath not only will the ball get upward momentum but it will also be launched further away from the wall.
The second shot is designed to get you jumping. The ball has now started rolling and is positioned slightly off the wall. You can choose to approach this shot by simply single jumping into the ball, or if you feel comfortable with that, you can dodge into it and try to put the shot on target.
The next shot pushes the ball even further off the wall, giving you the option for more creative approaches, from double jumping off the wall, dodging into the ball, or even pre flipping if you are feeling spicy.
From this point on you have all of the skills required to execute proper wall aerials and the following shots are designed to tap into and challenge your creative problem solving,
Thanks for reading this article, and I hope you guys found something helpful. Again, if you’re looking to hire a coach you can find me here as well as other coaches and courses.
