I finally solved my diamond problem. Here's how
Had to work on a few different things. I've got a lot of hours so some bad habits had to be broken:
Small pads: this one's huge. I would often grab a big boost and narrowly conceded but realistically as a player who doesn't go to the air often as I don't have the mechs, 12 boost to get to supersonic and another 12 to make a save/get more power on a shot or pass or speed up the play is enough. Picking up smalls pads as often as possible and thinking ahead with regards to boost really helped me.
Back post rotations. I solo queue, my goal is to make it as obvious to my teammates as possible what I'm doing. I try to never challenge in corners or times when there is no threat on net. In fact, forget about the corners almost entirely. Consider them practically no go zones except in very limited circumstances where it's unavoidable but you should always be rotating using small pads, either the straight line up the middle or the small arch on the opposite side of the ball.
Read your teammates. They're in the same rank as you. Something got them there. Figure out what it is and how they play. Adapt accordingly. Even if you're better than them at shooting. If they're a ball chaser then let them chase. You only need to win the game by one goal. This took me a long time to do as I feel like my ego was making my thinking be more like "am I better or worse than my teammate" and then I'd play accordingly but actually everyone has strengths and weaknesses. The quicker you can identify everyone's on the field the easy the match will be.
Turn off chat. Yip. Do that.
Being aware of my own abilities. I've never hit a cross map air dribble. In fact I've probably hit maybe 10 air dribbles in the last year. So why was I still trying to go for them. I have realised my strengths are patience and positioning. If I notice my teammate has poor positioning then I'll make sure I'm almost always the one covering net.
Patience. Sometimes they're going to hit the ball first. I had to accept that and go to where the ball will be. Rather than trying to get a 50 that frankly I'm probably not good enough to control. A Lot of games were won from us counterattacking after one of them fucks up and leaves the other in a 2v1
Soft touches. Learning how to make soft touches, and not just banging the ball. This is a big one. You have much more time then you realise! It's crazy.
Relax. Let go of acceleration. Just see what's happening. I found a lot of the time i was just driving because I felt like I had to be moving. The break button when turning to make really tight turns when needed and letting go of acceleration more means I'm keeping up with the play better. Seems counter intuitive but trust me.
I haven't used freeplay or any training packs. I've just really tried to get these things down over the last couple days. Basically focusing on one at a time over a few games (or a few days) until it felt like I could say it was a new habit.
I also found talk out loud to myself helped. Sort of commentating on what was happening. Almost like I was streaming. "I'm not going to go because I can see my teammate is in front of me and I need to cover net". That kind of thing
Pacing: play at the speed of the game. Not faster and not slower. Each game has a different pace. If you're not mechanical then you're probably not the one setting the pace of the game. If you're arriving too early to net and giving them too much space then you're likely playing too past and if you're arriving too late to the plays then you're likely arriving too early.
Recoveries. Tap jump to wave dash of walls. Also I need to play around with this more but if you hold power slide and very lightly tap jump on the curve of the wall as you come off then I think you very to supersonic very fast. It might be what a zap dash is but idk. Always try to land on the walls with your nose pointing down to recover quicker.
Sorry I can't be more useful but they're the things I worked on
Had to work on a few different things. I've got a lot of hours so some bad habits had to be broken:
Small pads: this one's huge. I would often grab a big boost and narrowly conceded but realistically as a player who doesn't go to the air often as I don't have the mechs, 12 boost to get to supersonic and another 12 to make a save/get more power on a shot or pass or speed up the play is enough. Picking up smalls pads as often as possible and thinking ahead with regards to boost really helped me.
Back post rotations. I solo queue, my goal is to make it as obvious to my teammates as possible what I'm doing. I try to never challenge in corners or times when there is no threat on net. In fact, forget about the corners almost entirely. Consider them practically no go zones except in very limited circumstances where it's unavoidable but you should always be rotating using small pads, either the straight line up the middle or the small arch on the opposite side of the ball.
Read your teammates. They're in the same rank as you. Something got them there. Figure out what it is and how they play. Adapt accordingly. Even if you're better than them at shooting. If they're a ball chaser then let them chase. You only need to win the game by one goal. This took me a long time to do as I feel like my ego was making my thinking be more like "am I better or worse than my teammate" and then I'd play accordingly but actually everyone has strengths and weaknesses. The quicker you can identify everyone's on the field the easy the match will be.
Turn off chat. Yip. Do that.
Being aware of my own abilities. I've never hit a cross map air dribble. In fact I've probably hit maybe 10 air dribbles in the last year. So why was I still trying to go for them. I have realised my strengths are patience and positioning. If I notice my teammate has poor positioning then I'll make sure I'm almost always the one covering net.
Patience. Sometimes they're going to hit the ball first. I had to accept that and go to where the ball will be. Rather than trying to get a 50 that frankly I'm probably not good enough to control. A Lot of games were won from us counterattacking after one of them fucks up and leaves the other in a 2v1
Soft touches. Learning how to make soft touches, and not just banging the ball. This is a big one. You have much more time then you realise! It's crazy.
Relax. Let go of acceleration. Just see what's happening. I found a lot of the time i was just driving because I felt like I had to be moving. The break button when turning to make really tight turns when needed and letting go of acceleration more means I'm keeping up with the play better. Seems counter intuitive but trust me.
I haven't used freeplay or any training packs. I've just really tried to get these things down over the last couple days. Basically focusing on one at a time over a few games (or a few days) until it felt like I could say it was a new habit.
I also found talk out loud to myself helped. Sort of commentating on what was happening. Almost like I was streaming. "I'm not going to go because I can see my teammate is in front of me and I need to cover net". That kind of thing
Pacing: play at the speed of the game. Not faster and not slower. Each game has a different pace. If you're not mechanical then you're probably not the one setting the pace of the game. If you're arriving too early to net and giving them too much space then you're likely playing too past and if you're arriving too late to the plays then you're likely arriving too early.
Recoveries. Tap jump to wave dash of walls. Also I need to play around with this more but if you hold power slide and very lightly tap jump on the curve of the wall as you come off then I think you very to supersonic very fast. It might be what a zap dash is but idk. Always try to land on the walls with your nose pointing down to recover quicker.
Sorry I can't be more useful but they're the things I worked on