[2019] The "Secret Mechanic" in Rocket League...

TL;DR: Collision mechanics are why your car gets knocked off course after making contact with the ball in air, ruining your stupid-dope awesome highlight air dribble. Combat this by keeping your car moving while making contact with the ball.

So I recently saw someone ask a question in a post earlier today and I felt that the answer was something that a lot of players (especially in lower ranks) do not know and can benefit from.

So there was a post of a highlight GIF from u/KxZeN performing a ground to air dribble to flip reset goal. In the comments a Diamond player asked, "When you first start the floor to air dribble, how do you keep your car perfectly placed? When I hit the ball and try to dribble, my car always goes in a weird direction."

The answer is basically collision mechanics.

This isn't talked about often and is actually really important in aerial hits. Applying movement inputs to the car at the same time you hit the ball will lessen the effect the ball has in throwing your car off.

If you hit the ball perfectly with the front bumper, in the dead center of the ball, you will not see any movement of the car of course. But slightly left or right on the ball or bumper and your car seems to get flung off course like you hit a 500 lb ball.

How to combat this:

When making contact with the ball, trying air rolling, or at the very least, use the left analog to "hit through" the touch on the ball. Adding this kinetic energy through the touch will help dictate the direction of the car more than the ball will. Ever notice how players like Squishy or Jstn seem to kind of glue to the ball after their touches? Try to pay attention to their controller inputs on Youtube (play the videos at slow speed).

Why is this useful:

- One reason this is useful is for follow up hits on the ball in the air in situations like ground-to-air dribble, wall-to-air dribble, accepting a pass in air into an air dribble, setting up your own rebound/ double touch, etc.

- Another reason this is useful is similar to the first reason but more applicable to any level player who is attempting aerials. Any time you make contact with the ball, it benefits you to control the orientation of your car after the touch even if strictly for recovery purposes. The first reason of course mentions more advanced mechanics to follow your first touch, but is you are a lower level player, think smaller. Perhaps you make contact with the ball after taking an aerial shot and can orient your car directly towards the goal after the touch. This means you might be able to boost towards that play faster than if you had to readjust and point your car in the right direction after the ball threw you off course.

The point of understanding the collision mechanics is to maintain fluidity in your gameplay.

Fluidity = Speed.

Speed = More Options.

More Options = Higher chance to win in a given situation.

This is definitely a topic that is rarely discussed, and as a few higher level players mentioned in the OP thread, is something that seems to be seen almost entirely in upper ranks. I think this mechanic will benefit from a proper video tutorial that is a bit more demonstrative and easier to digest (props to you if you actually read all this crap).

I suck at making youtube videos, but I would love to see someone like u/amustycow or u/sunlesskhan cover the topic.

Hope this helped someone out there. Thanks for reading.

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