Below is a teddit link so it does not require login nor actually give any ad impression to reddit. (means you also can not “interacting”, up/down votes, comments, etc)
https://teddit.net/r/RocketLeague/comments/14n5pzz/average_day_in_a_ranked_1v1_match_gold_ii/
Watch the clip and give it some thought. I will post my experience in the comments, feel free to share your thought.
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::: my analysis and methods to defend air dribble like this
- first of all, the player give up possession too quickly(it’s 1v1 gold2), when opponent use a flip to push the ball away he clearly has the ball and advantage to take the mid boost as well. The best line of defense of air dribble is to not let the setup happen in first place.
- then he turned off ball can to run away, until he about to get big boost, another big nono. why? because if opponent messed up the setup, it’s a free goal, and you aren’t anticipating any of that by taking eyes off the ball.
- Bad positioning to defend a dribble, especially this, facing against ball’s momentum.
- Always defend from one side of goal and don’t get in between post when shadowing dribble like this, good air dribbler can change and tip the ball behind you. If You are already inside goal, hugging one side and face the same way ball is getting dribbled toward.
- For 1v1 go inside goal aren’t really necessary if you see setup like this. Not a ceiling shot, ball is not on top of car’s nose, so it can only go side ways or down, ball travels too fast and he lost the ability to tip ball toward near post about 2 touches in. And he didn’t get the flip reset or anything, also losing the dodge after 1.5s, very important timing to remember for your challenge timing for 2s.
- original post pretty much couldn’t save the ball because he isn’t oriented properly, with full boost and facing toward right, this should be a doable save even for gold 2 in 1s. :::
Bonus content, what happen if it’s higher ranked player? I am only about D1~D2 in 1s last season so take it with some salt when I said “higher ranked” player means C1~GC1 player when plays other queue.
The basic requirement of a good air dribble, requires the following:
- opponent have full boost, if they don’t have boost they don’t have threat
- they got good soft first touch where ball is floaty, strong touch like the one shown in clip aren’t actually threatening and good player will improvise with other approach.
- they will stay “behind” and “below” the ball, behind means it serves to force a dunk/good air 50 if you can defend it, below means they can try to get reset, tip the ball different direction and air bump/demo you out of ball’s trajectory.
So to identify how to beat good air dribbler you always keeps taps of the following when defending:
- did he used boost a lot? before taking possession? good 1s player can hide this when taking pads, but if you know he has less than required boost to finish a air dribble, taking away their boost or bump before the setup is best. but remember don’t aerial challenge or dodge when bumping cause it takes really long to recover.
- tracking car/ball position and orient properly, give your self an angle to go up back wall or stay on the ground when you drive toward your near post to defend. matching ball’s momentum.
- if not ceiling shot or getting flip resets, they lost ability to speed up ball or change direction dramatically after 1.5s.
- if it’s ceiling shot/flip reset you would have to practice defending from air, back wall, or inside goal depending how and where they get it. (honestly against good player that’s a lot of guess work “after” they got the reset, it’s still doable but very situational. ) The reason being to have successful defend in 1s context, you need to 1. block the ball entering goal, 2. have enough boost left and good recovery, 3. regain possession of ball and boost denied opponent to keep going on offense. And you have to remember, they don’t have to shoot on goal, they can double tap as well. You would have to guess and account for all of that, including faking when defending air dribble shot with a reset. And you would have to do this pretty frequently going up ranks in both 1s and 2s.
Last but not least, practice doing air dribble yourself, it helps you to understand the weak spots during a setup you can challenge to force them maybe mess up a setup. how to identify that they already lost the ball or failed the shot. Then you’d get more comfortable at making your game plan when facing a good mechanical player. It’s very good practice even when losing, so don’t just rage quit when you see a too good for me shot. Cause in my perspective, that “shot” I referenced here happens like every match if you let them do the setup, it’s very regular, low quality, pretty easy to defend shot. And, usually free goal if you have full boost.
I used to face players like these when I was gold in 1s as well. Since my aerial defence waa bad I used to steal all the opponents boosts, you can’t do air dribble on me when you don’t have boost xD.
Now since I’m gotten bit better I wait at the net and I hope I make connection with the ball. Most of the air dribbles at my level(I’m still gold in 1s but high gold III div 3-4) don’t have any horizontal deviation so if I align properly and fast aerial, I can defend most of their shots. Plus it would keep me a really good position for a counter attack as people who go for air dribbles land in very bad position and hence recover slower.
- first of all, the player give up possession too quickly(it’s 1v1 gold2), when opponent use a flip to push the ball away he clearly has the ball and advantage to take the mid boost as well. The best line of defense of air dribble is to not let the setup happen in first place.