The One Skill You Can't Improve Even If You Tried 

Wayton: The one skill you can’t improve even if you tried is… Me: Scoring open nets

There is this thing called deliberate practice that musicians use a lot. you play your piece slow, like 50% speed and you play it at a very high degree of focus on and efficiency in movement of your hands. You would practice until its fully engrained in your brain, and only then do you turn up the metronome. this seems like the same concept. its certainly a good way to learn mechanics but i doubt it would have any effect on game sense and positioning, but i certainly will help with consistency.

Speed is improved with accuracy, just like a musical instrument. You practice as slow as you need to to play the music without a mistake. You do this enough, the finger positioning and timing becomes muscle memory. Then you can 0lay it faster. You practice as slow as you need to to get the perfect touch every time. Then you can do it without thinking, which equals faster.

I'd love to see this on a larger scale with a control group aswell. for example maybe find 10 GC1's and have them all do exactly 10 minutes warmup followed by 10 ranked games for a few weeks (maybe 15 days across a month, as it may be hard to find people who can 100% commit a few hours every single day to RL) and then have 5 do 100% speed warmups and the other 5 at a reduced speed. Also I'm curious, is there actual metrics for the "player speed" ? or are we just talking about the noticeable feeling that higher ranked players are faster, as I feel this video only showed that you personally felt faster after slowing the game down and that you played well, which doesn't actually answer whether you were in fact playing faster.

lesson is "its not size the that matters, its how you use it"

I’ve always been one of the slower players in my friend group and I always find that I’m never fast enough to get a good touch on a fast aerial challenge so I really appreciate this vid and I will be trying the slo-mo warmup routine👍

Do the slow speed training, set it up in a 5 minute match, save the replay. Watch the replay, player view, on you, 200% speed. Just follow the game as best you can at high speed. Replay the game until you're able to follow without getting a headache. This trains your brain to operate at high speeds, when you go into a normal match, it will feel like everything is in slow motion. You will feel slow, but your reactions will be faster and more precise.

I've always thought slow speed was the most overlooked tool RU-vidrs rarely talk about. It helped me learn air dribbles, ground to air, air roll right, ceiling shots, and most recently even flip resets. It's not so great for helping me use it in-game though, but for actually learning a mech it's been wonderful.

Love the video Wayton, always my number 1 to find things to try and help improve my game for no price, but 10-20 minutes

Holy! That was epic. Definitely going to try it out myself. Love your research-based approach to Rocket League.

Finally a new vid. I was waiting for so long...

Thank you Wayton, this will make me so much better!

i personally haven't seen anyone else mention this but i have tried warming up on faster speeds such as 1.3x-1.4x speed and while it makes your car control feel awful i feel as though once i get used to it and go back to normal speed i feel like i have the control of playing in slow mo and the extra time to think. it is a weird thing but it makes you feel like you play slow but you are actually playing fast.

I want to thank you so much for this video. I’ve been stuck in Champion 2 since season 10 and I know that’s not a long time since it is only Season 11 when writing this but to me it felt like a long time. I felt faster than my opponents in some games but completely out classed in others and I was getting kinda tilted as I would get to Division 4 consistently but never won more than 1 game in it until I deranked back to Division 2. Then I found this video and tried the slow mo at 80% game speed for 20 minutes and going back to free play for 5 minutes after every game. Then today, the day I watched the video I had a few back and fourth games losing some and winning some until I had an 8 game win streak to finally break into Champion 3 for the first time after starting the day in Division 2 and I feel so much faster and consistent now, so thank you Wayton, thank you so much.

This is interesting because it reminds me of how I used to learn songs on musical instruments. I realized one day that after I had mastered a song, I could play it much faster than normal speed without it really being difficult. So I started to learn songs at half speed until I felt like I had mastered them, then moving up to full speed was totally easy. I might have to give this technique a try

This helped me greatly. I have always been the slow in every game I play but I can bite back. Time to watch all the other videos you made.

Great video, you definitely changed my view of slow-mo as a tool to improve.

Really well done. The Slo Mo Guys speed up and slow down sound effects were a nice touch.

Love your videos!!

Something I also do with freeplay is lower my FPS from 170 to 60, play for about 10-15 minutes, and then change the FPS back up to 170. Makes me feel a lot quicker and more consistent.

I actually tried this out myself and it worked like a charm I was dominating my ranked games and destroying ppl. Thanks so much for this huge tip. It's definitely gonna be a game changer

Daium, gotta try this myself, nice video!

Very interesting concept. Lately I've been playing a lot better because I am being a lot more controlled, and everything I do has a reason behind it, which leads me to outplay my opponents. Doing this does make me seem faster but I think speed here is only the effect of the higher level of control, not the cause. I found others' comparisons with musical instruments very adequate, because starting slow helps you reeeally get the muscle memory and the basics down to the point where you can apply them more effectively and with more nuances later, which in-game makes you look faster as you're always on step ahead.

Happy for your success!) I guess I should try too

There's actually a concept in learning that says for most skills you're trying to learn, you want to hit about a 15% error rate while you're learning. The times where you mess up are actually what sparks growth. Now I am into aim training and one of the easiest ways to alter your error rate when trying to aim is to adjust the speed of the targets up or down to try and get into that zone of 15%-ish error rate. Rocket League is mechanically very difficult. By playing at a slower speed, its possible that your error rate was altered to be in this Goldilocks zone where the brain learns fastest and lead to improvement at a faster level than would otherwise be achieved with a higher rate of errors. I'd be interested to see if there's a correlation between rank and optimal training speed. I think its possible that the lower ranked you are, the slower the game speed you need to hit that error threshold and its why very high level players don't see much benefit from it. They're already so good at the game that 100% speed is likely above the threshold. You see this in aim training too where the best aimers end up playing training scenarios that are way, way harder than any in game situation ever could be. So I also wonder if very high level players might tip into actually finding that they improve faster mechanically on a higher speed that actually challenges them and causes errors. Great video! A lot to think about and very interesting stuff.

In the speedcubing community, a great way to practice is to go slow and consistent. Don’t try to turn the cube so fast that you’re barely even able to follow what you’re doing, and make steady turns. This helps with a thing called “look-ahead” which is just seeing what you’re gonna do next while you’re doing one thing. It’s past ally the same as what you did with playing in slow mo

Thank you for this information, I will be using this. When I play fast, and I'm thinking fast I outpace GC's i have faced like last night. I'm C3 and I do good against GC's in cas, but when I switched to ranked I'm slow and passive because I am nervous. If I can keep that confidence I have in cas, and bring it into ranked I believe I will get GC soon.

Another epic upload from my favorite rocket league RU-vidr

“My record actually only ended up being 4-3…” “that number doesn’t do justice to how great I was actually performing” Story of my life man

Thank you Wayton

i would of also tried the faster training, in my mind i would assume that if you are used to the fast pace you would feel like you had way more time to think about your play and control your car accordingly . If you want more mechanical plays i think faster might be better cause your brain will be able to process each play with "more time" but that would have to be experimented on. I have actually tried this tactic on other games that require speed and it helps a lot, also don't know if its true but the reason why you play 'better' after a slow training session is because you just feel like your playing faster even though its probably the same speed. This feeling makes you want to react quicker and then allows you apply to your game.

Wayton never misses with his videos. Another banger

Since as long as I can remember (started playing in 2015, don't remember when the slo mo feature was added) my warmup match has been a 1v2 (Unfair) bot match, followed by a 1v3 and then a few 1v4s. I'm not good by any means, but it helps me know where I need to be. THAT is speed. Not necessarily being the fastest to get around, but being the most efficient in getting where the ball will be.

i remmember one study on average gamers whose sensitivity was upped from their usual, and that resulted in increased accuracy. reason was something along the lines 'your brain has to adopt and thus it is working harder and you are thus more concetrated'. someone can probably link a video about that, as i watched it long ago.

Man i love the videos

I find it good that you are saying it was my bad in this game or somthing like that so you dont blame your team8

im in champ 1 and i’ve been trying to figure out how to use the slo mo feature to improve. i even would start solo private matches with the slo mo mutator turned on before they added slo mo to free play. this vid is gonna help me improve so much

Thanks for the info I really need to improve my game

I think focus is a big part of why this can be successful and also understanding how a mechanic works. I know understanding what I need to do is a big part of being successful in my mechanics.

So back when i peaked in 3s at 1880 mmr, i did this method. I was a 1500-1600 player but warming up this way soared me up the rank ladder. Here is one thing to note tho: dont do this every single day. Eventually the placebo will wear off and can make things worse for your play (slump). Try maybe 1-2 weeks on and then dont do it for a similar amount of time to reset.

Thanks so much I am going to try this 😊❤

I was just thinking recently, in tandem with these exercises, there could be some correlation with the placebo of using a "heavier" looking car during the slower practice runs while using a "lighter" car in game, be it size of details, it could amplify the effects of the slow mode in training packs without actually reducing the speed to an unmanagable/enjoyable level.

Very good experiment and vid

You're on the right path, as are many of the comments I see below. There's an art to learning how to implement both under-speed and over-speed practice (yes, that's useful too, at the right time and in the right way) to improve your rate of learning, refine and solidify your muscle memory, and increase your observation/processing speed in game, but done properly, it's hugely effective. The only top player I see who seems to have a decent grasp of how to do it is Zen, and even he has only really scratched the surface. If pros were practicing correctly for at least an hour or two a day, the skill ceiling would be getting pushed much higher much more quickly than it is now.

I will try this out appreciate it

As his tactics works, you see the happiness in his face.

I found that I had a better intuition on reading the balls flight path after doing a half hour warm up in a custom boomer mode, small ball to present an accuracy trainer, high speed ball physics to make me think faster than I’m used to, and slightly higher gravity to train chips and double touches a little easier, after doing this for a week I went from gold 2 in ones to plat 2,

finally a new vid

I thought I was way behind on this concept. They recently added slow mo into training for console, I use it before every session and feel super speedy in my first couple games. I have the same reaction everytime too, and my confidence is thru the roof. Glad im actually ahead of the curve

i couldn't learn directional airroll until i grinded ring maps with slow motion then gradually increasing the speed

yea I've done slo-mo and when i go back to normal speed it feels weird and it feels like my car is going way faster than it actually is and I mess up sometimes because of it but doing that can help you play faster if you use it the right way because in can do more harm then good if you do use it the wrong way and much love wayton keep up the good work

Climbed from d3 to c1 div 4 after trying this. I think thats that worked for me. Thank you!

I've currently only watched about 3 minutes in. But a good thing I learned is speed is not the focus there, it's pace. you want to be fast a lot and when you can but you want to have the dicipline to slow down when you can, if you zoom zoom across the map holding boost you become very predictable. it's a deadly combination when you can control the pace of the game.

this is kind of where I'm at now. im able to play way faster than ever but my mechanics and game sense hasn't quite caught up while playing at that speed. definitely something to keep working on

Finally, another video

Love ur vids

In fighting you need an internal dialogue, same applies with effectively doing anything in life that requires mental rigidity. Try to calculate what the shot will do and how the opponents/teammates will react. In chess youre trying to be 3 steps ahead

This is the same principle which makes sensitivity randomizers a beneficial tool for training in FPS games. The forced active engagement of your brain tends to force a "higher level of play" for a period of time in which the active engagement continues, and there's a sweetspot where you can mix comfort with the level of change required to maintain engagement where you can perform possibly even within 90+% of your normal peak play. The "active mental engagement" is also how you rewire your brain to improve baseline mechanical play, as at some point you will eventually slip back into autopilot even with a sensitivity randomizer present unless you significantly adjust the randomization behavior. It took me 2-3 weeks, for example.

finaly you back to youtube :)

One thing that's missed here is the effect this has on mechanically inclined players. There's diminishing returns if you're already mechanical but I think this is probably the best tool for players that struggle with car control

really good editing

In motorsports we refer to this as "Slow is fast" to preach doing things correctly is more important than doing them quickly, the speed will come as you consistently execute accurately. Kinda like measure twice, cut once.

Subconscious decision making is so key in this game

This makes sense, when you start learning an instrument you also have to start so slow you almost get bored, you have to be 100% comfortable to play accurate. With time you get faster automatically since muscle memory becomes more fluent and you have to concentrate less besides some hard sections. Now that I think about it. Trying to learn mechanics in RL with 100% speed is kinda inefficient, because you mess up way more until you get better and even then you might develope bad habits that won't come up when playing so slow you get it 100% down. You also would need to slowly ramp up the speed so you won't get overwhelmed jumping to 100% speed again.

Finally u uploaded

I Love your Vids ❤❤❤

i remember i did this once purely messing around in freeplay with the TAS plugin on and when i did it for like an hour straight and my friend hopped on for 2's, i've never felt more fresh and at my best peak, its just weird for the brain itself.

ive been doing this technique since the release of this video, i went from 1304 (C3 div 2) to 1485 (GC 1 div 2)

There is a saying in german martial arts that translated goes like "being slow is precise and being precise is fast". Which basically plays into this whole idea. You train slow, so you perfect the movements and when the movement is better you can do it faster. So it sounds like this way is perfect to train mechanics

Someone: does anything slightly exciting Wayton: LETS GO, DUDE!

AYYYY wayton uploaded

It's also great for low level players. Learning how to keep the ball on top of your car at a slower speed helps see how a slight adjustment, such as tapping the gas(mhhhm) or braking (oof) helps or hurts you. Helps keep on the balls shadow. Also will help with directional air roll and see what each adjustment does. I like 85% it's slow, but not 50% slow😂

I used slowmo to make some mental break-throughs in aerial control. I bumped from c1 to c3 with just like a few training sessions, cause my mind flipped.

How do you think slow mo fits into the full warmup? Is it good to use it with training packs? Only in free play? Is there such thing as “too much” slow no?

its something i have been implementing, i do about 3 mins of 50% and then move to 90% for another 10mins then while i wait for queue i do normal speed and it been working well for me as well, went on a 12-2 day today.

Learning music uses the same principle. If there's a section that is hard to get, you slow it down and practice it until you get it perfect at that tempo. Then, you repeat the same thing, but a few BPM higher. Repeat this until you reach the written tempo. Otherwise, you'll compensate the part and play it close, but never correct.

I tried training at 75% and once I got in a game it felt like I was way more hyper focused and everything else in the game seemed drastically slower slower which idk if anyone else has that same feeling but I was definitely peaking, gonna keep training like this from now on thx Wayton

U should add a kind of control group to these types of vids. Like 1 week normal warmup and ranked, 1 week with experiment. There’s nothing to compare it to so these results could easily be normal for u. Interesting vid nonetheless!

Waytoney you're awesome Man 😮 I increased 2 divisions in 1 hour after watching your video. Really it's a brain hack 🤯

That method is so cool. I‘ve always the problem that my opponents are faster than me. Perhaps I‘m finally able to rank up to Dia 3 or even Champ

cant wait to see the wayton hitting ssl video in like 2 weeks

Like to see car speed stats along with the games played. Would tell a better story for actual speed/mental improvement.

Hey Wayton, can you make a Video about how to be more consistent in Rocket leugue?

The day I started treating 2s and 3s like 1s, but keeping tm8s in mind.. i sky rocketed. (only talking about the way I challenge when its my turn in rotation) I almost ALWAYS fake challenge atleast once but usually 3 to 4 times in a smaller amount of time. and on the time that i choose to challenge i try to make sure its right when they cant see what im doing. or, when they're out of the play for just a second.

Win rate is a stat that goes up as you go up. But it also works against you as everyone else's win rate at that level is the same, ergo, eventually they cancel out and it plateaus.

DualView gave me the answer, 3 years ago. You, you just gave me the plan. Now it's time to train

This is true with everything in life. Focus first on doing it right and slow. Speed comes naturally. You engrain mistakes when you try to speed up too early, and it ironically slows progress to unlearn those engrained mistakes. The takeaway: Love yourself enough to be patient with yourself.

Its very similar to piano and all that where you start learning slow and if you can do it slow you can learn to do it fast. I teach parkour and for flips and literally anything this is how we teach, do it slow and then you can do it fast good video :D

I think statistics is beautiful and your channel embodies that

I've got something else like that, some kind of brain hack to make the game feel slower. Just analyse one or two replay at 200% speed before going in and I'm like "Am I going supersonic ? That slow!" sometimes Maybe a combination of slow mo freeplay so the brain can understand each move required, and fast replay analysis could be a good trick

so interesting would have to use it hahaha

I would like to see a video about The Falcons,the team is insane i think they are really going to be like Gen.G or Karmine Corp.

This video is amazing, I just don't see how the title matches 😂

wayton would u recommend using slow mo to learn air roll control? and if so what speed would u recommend

As a fairly high level geometry dash player, just getting into rocket league now, I can say that, we use speed hacks, or slow motion, all the time when we practice levels, just so we can understand the layout of the level with the final goal in mind being completing it at full speed, sort of like this, but for rocket league scenarios.

My friend used to do this to us in a private match but he’d turn it down as far as he could to the point that playing matches after just destroyed our ability to play I feel like 75-90% that you were using is so much better

Make this into a large experiment where you ask your fans to do the same as you did. Let everyone play at 90% speed, for example, and see after a week or two of everyone playing 5-10 games of ranked per day (quite the committent, I admit) to see the average result. Would love to see that

Nice video! So should you warm up at 75% or 90%? Or is it preference? 👀

Great video

the speed issue i struggle with is, just being able to climb up to a high aerial off the ground. i might be closer to the ball and i might double jump sooner than the other player but they still beat me to a potential 50 or aerial.