One extremely important factor in ranking up in Rocket League is a player's ability to hold onto the ball without ball chasing. This demonstrates their level of skill in regards to being able to control the ball.

The best way to control the ball is to dribble. For rookies, this basically means having the ball very close to you as you move around the field. Doing this targets your ability to control your car with on-point mechanics in order to, in turn, control the ball.

Why Dribbling Is So Important

Dribbling has multiple positives surrounding it. Some of these include:

Intimidating the opponent or opponents
Making it easier to pass to a nearby teammate
Being able to transfer into a flick

These are just to name a few. It is quite a crucial skill to learn and comes from practice in not only online matches but also Free Play as well as custom training packs, of which there are a lot to choose from that focus heavily on your ability to dribble.

Dribbling, then, has a lot of aspects that result in a player's self-improvement, and it is a skill that is seen on a regular basis in the high ranks going into the pro level, as players have come to turn dribbles from a basic ground mechanic to an in-air, difficult to save one, and it continues to grow and adapt today.

Beginning a Dribble

Now the importance of dribbling has been established, you are going to want to start one up. If we are talking about ground dribbles, there are two forms of dribbling - where the ball is on top of your car versus when it is rolling on the ground.

If the ball is rolling away from you, it is much easier to go for a dribble where the ball remains grounded. Though this is much easier for opponents to read and therefore defend, you can still pull off some impressive shots from this kind of dribble.

For example, below is a clip of me doing a ground dribble. I faked the first defender and then quickly flicked the ball over the second.

You may also want to incorporate other mechanical skills such as faking into your ground dribbles to increase the level of unpredictability as well as just adding that extra bit of flare to your plays.

Alternatively, there are dribbles where the ball is on top of your car. This is certainly more difficult to pull off, but being able to do so will be much more rewarding. What makes this kind of ground dribble better is:

It is easier to turn the dribble into a flick
It is much more difficult to defend
There are more options to choose from

To begin a dribble where the ball is on top of your car, you will want to gently touch the ball so that it pops into the air not too high, but just the right amount of height for your car to drive beneath it. This is much easier when the ball is either stationary or moving towards you.

However, if the ball is moving away from you, it is not impossible to get it onto the top of your car. Instead of hitting it straight forward, you will want to hit it, basically, from any other angle. For example, giving it a small hit from the side and then driving into the ball will make it pop into the air for you to drive underneath it. You could also drive in front of the ball and do it this way, but this is much more difficult to control.

Keeping the Ball on Your Car

Something a lot of beginners have trouble with when it comes to dribbling is keeping the ball on the roof of their car. If you find that the ball is drifting to one side, or moving forward or backwards, this is a result of how you are positioning your car.

The best way to fix this is to keep an eye on the ball indicator (the white circle that appears to indicate where the ball is when it is not touching the ground). This feature of the game is actually very handy and under-utilised, as it can severely improve your dribbling when the ball is on your car.

You will want to move forward whilst being within that white circle. Just keep your eyes on the car and the circle and work from there. Once you have practiced this frequently on Free Play and online matches, you will adapt to looking at the ball and your surroundings eventually and it will become a natural process.

Turning Your Dribble into a Flick

One useful thing you can do with a ground dribble is turn it into a flick. This is easiest when the ball is on top of your car, as it involves 'flicking' the ball into the air and hopefully over the defenders in the enemy net.

There are many ways to flick the ball and a lot of them are quite fancy, whether this be a tornado flick, a 180 degree backflip flick or the like. For the sake of simplicity, though, a simple, basic flick is best to be described.

To perform a simple flick, the ball should be on top of your car first and foremost. When you are ready, jump and then flip either forward or diagonally. Hopefully, this should propel the ball forward and upwards, creating an unpredictable play.

This is easier said than done, of course, and will require a lot of practice for beginners in those lower ranks. It is possible to backflip to get a flick, too, but this is dependent on how your car is positioned, as you do not want to flick the ball directly upwards, but forwards too. This is a much more difficult trick.

Air Dribbling

Ground dribbles are not the only mechanic you can perform to maintain possession over the ball. In fact, there is a version of dribbling called air dribbling which is done, well, in the air. The chances are you have seen these being attempted in either your own online match experiences or from professional players who have come to master air dribbling.

Predictably, air dribbling is much more difficult to pull off than a ground dribble. This skill can be started from two positions primarily; on the ground or on the wall. The most common of which is from the wall, as the ball is already in the air and is much easier to control.

To start an air dribble, you will want the ball to roll up the side of the wall. Once it does this, you need to follow it up the wall and tap it such that it moves away from the wall and into the air.

As soon as you make this first hit, you should jump immediately and boost towards the ball in the air. If you jump too late, you immediately are letting go of control over the ball, as you will have to fly further to reach it. However, if you jump early and quickly, you will find it easier to hit the ball continuously as you fly through the air. Air dribbles are all about the takeoff, and once you've mastered this, you will be able to work on the actual dribble.

Conclusion

Overall, dribbling and air dribbling in Rocket League is extremely effective and impactful in an average online match. The primary positives include:

Being able to control the ball
Putting off opponents
Being unpredictable

However, as with all things in Rocket League, there are some negatives too. A few include:

The chance of ball chasing if you do it too often
Taking a play too slow can make it easy for opponents to read

To practice dribbling in all forms, there are many options. It is difficult to pinpoint a particular form of practice that is preferable over all others, as there are positives for each. In Free Play, you are alone and can practice ball control much more easily. In custom packs, there are packs dedicated towards dribbling which force you to keep the ball on your car and off the ground. In online matches, you are put in a realistic environment, and this is always very useful.

But no matter the way you want to train, be sure that you do, since dribbling and air dribbling are such important mechanics which are very popular as a result of simply how useful they are in-game.

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