How to Freestyle: A Comprehensive Guide

This guide explains freestyling in three different levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced. For each level, there are specific shots to work on and shots to be consistent at. It will also explain teams, how to join them and what a good application looks like.

First of all, what is freestyling?

Rocket league freestyling is a showcase of mechanics and shots that not only look impressive, but are mechanically difficult to execute. It’s like trick shotting in call of duty, fortnite or any other shooter game.

Or in sports terms, the harlem globetrotters.

Beginner

In this phase of your journey you should be focusing on the basics. Every shot in this level should be easily done in competitive (later on), as they are simple and easy to learn.

Some shots/mechanics in this level should be:

Ceiling shots, air dribbles, mustys, resets, double resets, mustys off the wall, breezis, ceiling mustys, stall resets, simple sidewall reads or anything else you might see in pro level gameplay.

As you can see, these are all basic mechanics. Before reaching the next level, you have to be able to consistently pull these off. Without these fundamentals it will be harder to perform advanced shots later on. Think of it like a pyramid, you have to have a strong base and a wide variety of mechanics to be able to hold up the top, else it will all come falling down.

This is the most basic level and should only take a few hundred hours. Bronzes and grand champions alike, everyone starts somewhere. Just because you’re a higher rank doesn’t mean you can start off and learn harder shots than usual.

By the end of “level 1”, you should be trying to learn triple resets and ceiling to musty sidewall reads, and shots of similar difficulty.

Team freestyling.

If you want to indulge in team freestyling, I would also recommend starting out with basic shots, (ie. team pinches, basic passing plays in the air.) Find some friends who also enjoy freestyling and try to hit some cool shots. For me, team freestyling can be much more creative and fun than solo. And remember, you’re only a beginner. Try to have fun with it. :)

The beginner level is where you see if freestyling is for you. If you don’t like it, there’s nothing holding you back from stopping.

Intermediate

This is where things step up. The beginner level is much more basic than the intermediate level. In this stage, you learn what styles are and begin to develop your own/branch off of the usual shots you go for. This is probably the biggest level as it takes the most time to go through. It can take hundreds or even thousands of hours.

It took me around a thousand hours (more or less) and a few years to go through it fully, playing around 3-4 hours a day consistently during quarantine. As I will mention later, take breaks as it can improve your mentality.

Some shots/mechanics at this level should be:

Triple resets off the ceiling, corner reads, psychos, quad resets, “creative” resets (murie resets, front flip resets, henko front resets*, basic heli resets), slingshot flicks, reset musty to backboard, double mustys, triple mustys, lesscopes*, haon dashes, turtle shots (turtle air dribble, turtle musty sidewall, turtle musty double tap, turtle to resets).

You should also attempt to hit more advanced shots, for example backboard resets, murie pops, “over” resets (see evample impossible shot challenge).

*henko resets are front flip reset cancels where you air roll and spin.
*lesscopes are ground to ceiling shots, typically

As previously mentioned, in this level you begin to develop style. “Style” is what type of shots you like to do.

Do you like resets? Do you like reads? Do you like team plays? This is the level in which you can choose, but don’t worry, you can always change later. A lot of the best players can do multiple styles. Moya, for example, is one of (if not) the best players. He can do multiple styles, like no flipping, wall and solo. He tinkers with every type of shot.

Styles.

There are an abundance of styles in rocket league. Here are a few of them.

Noflipping:

Noflipping is a very refined style. It consists of no flips and all sorts of reads in a 2s setting (usually.)

Wall:

Wall is all about spins and backboard resets. In my opinion, it’s the most creative style.

Solo (Creative):

This style consists of long shots, with a lot of mustys, resets and a variety of recoveries.

Dashing:

Dashers utilize the many dashes (ex. haon dash, backwards dash, 360 dash) and flicks in the game to hit clean and precise shots. They also incorporate reads into the shots as well. It is a subdivision of noflipping. You may see dashing and noflipping in the same montage.

Three things to know before you move on to the next level:

1. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
2. Be consistent.
3. Have fun with it.

Advanced

At this level you may start to join teams and meet a lot of new people, along with getting recognized. You should have a wide variety of mechanics and knowledge of the game, along with being very comfortable with movement and the physics. “Advanced” also the final stage in this guide.

By this time, you shouldn’t really need this guide, but hey, reading never hurt anyone.

Some shots/mechanics in this level should be:
Beautiful mustys, maktufs, jakzes, creative resets (a variety of chained resets, typically flips), reset to corner read, refined corner reads, chained heli resets, murie pops…

At this point, you should have chosen your style(s) and be consistent with their shots.

A good idea if you’re feeling burnt out is to quit for a week or so. Play different games or don’t play at all. Spending time working out has been seen to help with your mentality (see wayton pilkin video). This, among other things, can help you play better.

Applying for teams

How to join them:

Discord is usually the way to go. The team will have a #player-rc channel in their discord where you can send your application video, or, if it doesn’t, the team is either invite only or you can dm (direct message) their lead.

A lead is a player, appointed by the team owner, who manages the player roster. The lead reviews and either accepts or declines applications.

The application itself:

There are a few things leads look out for when applying to a team.

Youtube video application

Applying with a high quality video lets the lead know that you can send in high quality clips. This matters if you were to send in clips for a montage.

Music

Syncing music to the application video makes it more professional.

Clips

Creativity, uniqueness and skill matter. Add your best clips to the application so the leads know your skill level.

You

You, the player, matter to them. Don’t be toxic or unlikable when you apply, as they will be less likely to let you in. Leave a good impression even if you get declined as well. If you apply later then they will be more likely to accept your application.

And thats it.

Feel free to dm me on discord at starrwasmyst for any inquiries.

My discord[discord.gg]

My Youtube



About Starr:
Starr (starrwasmyst) is a rocket league freestyler. He has been playing since 2017, and has amassed over 2800 hours. He likes all sorts of games and enjoys talking to people. He’s tried every style and has a wide knowledge about rocket league.


If there’s anything you think should be added or if you disagree with anything I said, feel free to dm me.

[Cute silly cat]

After reading this tutorial, my car started freestyling on its own. It has now run away and begun a rap career. Cheers!

[marietta]

i’m not, that’s why i put the “if there’s anything you think should be added or if you disagree with anything i said, feel free to dm me”

if you think there’s something that should be changed, as mentioned, let me know and i’ll change it

[gustavin]

blud thinks he good enough to make a freestyling tutorial 💀💀☠

[two shoes]

this made me better than everyone ever

[vohmy]

cheers mate

[marietta]

<3

[sykokilla]

Thanks! This guide helped me so much in progressing!! :>

[F/A-18E Super Hornet]

Can you condense it into 1 sentence?

[your dad's dream man]

sucks

[rise]

nice freestyle shot!