Week 13: Take a Shot

As we draw nearer to the end, I decided to take this opportunity to be a bit reflective this week. I started by watching the matches I played last week to get my new rank for the season with my subject matter expert to get feedback on what I was doing well and what still needed work.

The most common issue we noticed was my aim when shooting the ball. There were several instances when I would take a shot on net either close up or from a distance and it would have been a goal if my aim was on target.

So, for this week I focused on my aim with the Striker training packs on Rocket League. When I first started to dabble with the pack, I did the Pro level one and realized that it was a bit too easy. As a progress checkpoint for myself, I thought this was exciting because the Pro level packs had a good level of difficulty for me previously, but now that I have gotten better, I can move up to the All-Star pack.

My focus here was to make sure that the shots I took were on target. The training pack helps to focus this as well because you only pass a level when you get the ball in the goal. The All-Star pack was also helpful in creating different kinds of situations in which I might try to shoot the ball. I set my own criteria that I wouldn’t move on to the next level until I got three shots on target in a row. Some were easier than others, but once I figured out the best approach for the situation, it was like clockwork.

A Word from the Pros

We also spent some time watching more professional matches to compare what they do to what I still need to work. One of these elements was staying with the ball more. 1 v 1 matches are purely games of possession. If you leave the ball when you should challenge, you most likely just gave up a goal. There were several times during my matches that we watched when I left the ball and allowed my opponent to take a long range shot that scored. When watching the pros, they never leave the ball, they are always in close range ready to challenge or defend as needed. Going forward I will try to be more cognizant of staying close to the ball to continually try to gain possession.