EDIT: The info about the Sprint in this article is outdated, the optimal way to use sprint right now is to use just a bit of it, then wait a bit for the refill of the bar and use a bit again. You should only use the whole sprint at once when you are in an urgent need, otherwise never use the whole sprint at all.

Your speed in the soccer mode without the sprint is 3.0. When you are standing still and you press the forward key, your speed is increasing from 0.0 to 3.0 quite fast, but not instantly.

The acceleration is equal to 20 units per second. Ball 3D physics is working 60 frames per second (new frame every 16ms), so it will take 9 frames or 144ms (9 * 16ms = 144ms) to go from the speed 0.0 to 3.0.

When you release the forward button, your speed decelerates 60 units per second. So deceleration is 3 times faster than acceleration and takes only 48ms (3 frames).

When you move diagonally, your speed is also 3.0.

When you turn the direction while pressing forward, your speed is 3.0 all the time.

Your horizontal (x and z axis) speed in the air is the same as on the ground.

Changing direction

If you want to change your direction, the most optimal way to do so, is to keep pressing the forward button and only rotate your mouse as fast as possible.

If you will release the forward button and press the left or right button while rotating your mouse, then the forward button again, you will lose speed for a few frames.

That's the first problem. The second problem is that turning around by switching the movement keys and slowly rotating your mouse, doesn't put you on the right direction as fast as possible. You are moving by a longer path this way. So not only you have lose your speed for a few frames but also you have rotated itself by not the fastest possible path.

The solution is as I mentioned. Keep pressing the forward button and rotate your mouse as fast as possible into the desired direction.

Your desired direction should be not where the ball is right now, but you should predict where the ball will be when you reach it and go into that direction. If the ball is moving and you are going where it is now and then correct your direction as it moves (to always have it on the center) you are again not moving by the fastest possible path.

From left to right

When you are in defence and you need to rapidly change directions from left to right, it is much better to keep pressing the forward button and change the direction by turning with your mouse, rather than releasing left and pressing right. You should move like a snake, always pressing the forward button and maneuvering with your mouse.

If you will keep switching directions by pressing left to right to left, you will lose a lot of speed in the process as you will always need to accelerate from 0.0 to 3.0 after every switch.

If you are an old school Ball 3D player, you probably play without the Sprint, because you are not willing to learn this new game changing feature. I would encourage you to try, read this guide to the end to find how sprint changes Ball 3D for the better.

When you play without sprint, your speed in the soccer mode is 3.0, but it decreases when you are close to the ball to as low as 2.56.

What you should do when you are close to the ball is to jump. By jumping you decrease your slowdown by around 35% on average. If you are chasing a player who has the ball, you should jump when you will be close enough to him and to the ball he has.

Looks like even the experienced players don't know about this and are not doing this, you should.

You have to press a button to use Sprint. By default it is the Right Mouse Button. While you are pressing this button, the sprint is decreasing and you are moving faster. When you release the button, the sprint bar will start to regenerate and you will be moving at a normal speed.

The speed of the sprint depends on the mode, here we will focus on the soccer mode.

In the soccer mode, Sprint increases your speed from 3.0 to 4.0. The acceleration is 20 units per second and the deceleration is 60, similarly to what we have described in the previous section.

The consequence of this is that you move faster when you keep pressing the speed button, clicking it and releasing over and over would be a mistake that would cost you speed.

Sprint only works when you press forward. It doesn't work when you press the back button.

Sprint also works when you move forward diagonally, but most of it is used on the forward direction and only a bit on the side direction (forward speed will increase from 2.1 to 3.2 and side speed from 2.1 to 2.4).

The Sprint duration depends on the stadium:

Small, Classic, Battle Royale, Volleyball, Hockey, Basketball, Old School Stadiums: 1.5 seconds (regeneration: 6 seconds)
Good: 2 seconds (regeneration: 8 seconds)
Big, Real: 2.5 seconds (regeneration: 10 seconds)
Huge: 4 seconds (regeneration: 16 seconds)
Racing: 3.0 seconds (regeneration: 12 seconds)

The Sprint regeneration is always 4 times longer than the use of the Sprint. So if you have used 1.5 seconds of Sprint on Classic, it will take 6 seconds to fully regenerate.

To be as fast as possible at the start of the match, you should press the forward button already on the warmup countdown before the first whistle. Not only that, but you should also face straight forward into the direction of your opponent's goal.

When you do this, you start moving as fast as possible and you don't have to accelerate from 0.0 to 3.0 as Ball 3D doesn't reset your speed at the start of the game, so you have the speed from the warmup.

The ball is at the center and players from both teams are going to reach it.

If you play the non-sprint mode you should jump when you will be close to the ball, to decrease your slowdown (as described in one of the the previous sections). I then recommend you to curve the ball into the side direction where a player from your team should go to get it.

If you play with Sprint, you should start using it 1 second before the first whistle and keep pressing it. This way you will start from the maximum speed after the start of the match and also you will be able to use the whole sprint before you reach the ball. Remember to release the sprint button as soon as it will go to 0. Your sprint will regenerate a bit and you will be able to use a bit more before reaching the ball at the center (it depends on the stadium).

No matter if you play with sprint or not, a player from your team should push you a bit forward by going into you while you go to the center. It will give you some more advantage.

Every second you do not use the sprint, it's wasted. It's because the sprint reloads only when you use some part of it.

So do not try to save the sprint if you think that using it now would help you and your team. It's because the sprint will start reloading as soon as you use it and you will probably be able to use the reloaded part again in the same action.

In such situation you may decide to use some part of it and save part just in case. You will still be able to not waste the sprint as it will be reloading.

Do not use the sprint just to use it, if you don't see that it will help you in any way. But most of the time going a bit faster to the center or to the ball will have some benefits.

When you cover
Sprint can be really useful in defense when you cover your opponent and he was able to go away from you. You should then turn around and use sprint to chase him.

Same when the opponent was able to go on you. Then he can shoot the volley and you will not be able to do much when you are below him. You should use sprint to change the situation around.

Cheat your opponent
When your opponent has the ball and you are a bit far from him, he can feel safe. But as soon as he will notice that you are going into his direction, he will try to pass the ball. If he will notice that you are going with sprint, then he will pass faster.

Wouldn't it be nice if you would make him think that you are not going into him with sprint but normally?

It's kind of possible. When you will go normally and jump before you start using sprint and press the sprint button when you are in the air, it will be less noticeable.

Switch Kick
Shift + Q/E + Left Mouse Button (Vertical Kick + Left/Right Curve + Kick)

Use this trick to rapidly change your direction. It works best when you mix it with sprint. So use it one time to change your direction and then use sprint to move as fast as you can into that direction.

You can pretend that you are going to the side but then go to the center with this move. It may open you a hole for a shot in the center as the defender may go a bit to the side.

Pass into a hole
When your team is attacking, you should try to mislead the defenders as much as you can. Preferably to create some hole (maybe in the middle). Then your goalkeeper can use it to pass the ball into that hole to you.

Skilful goalkeepers can use the Kick Cancel to cancel the kick if the situation changed before they finished loading the kick bar. It's not an easy skill though.

When it comes to passing, you should use walls. Wall passes are a very strong weapon in Ball 3D. Use both side and front walls to pass to your teammates. You can also mix the wall passes with curving.

You can also pretend that you are trying to shoot from a distance but in reality you want to just wall pass the ball to your teammate using the wall above of the goal or on the side of the goal.

Stronger kick
When you use sprint and move with the ball, the speed of the ball increases by 1 unit. So if you will now kick it, your shot will be 1 unit stronger. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it is helpful.

It can also help you to make your passes faster, especially the low passes.

Chasing
When you are chasing your opponent, using sprint in the right moment may be helpful. If you will be able to kick the ball from him, you should probably do this with curving or maybe even with the vertical kick.

But not always you will be able to chase him to a point to kick the ball from him. If it's not possible you can try to push him a bit to the side. Or at the very least you should try to jump when you are behind him. It may sometimes distract him or you may be able to cover some part of his screen with your puck (depending on his fov).

Goalkeepers
GKs should use Sprint to intersect the balls and to go close the the striker in order to block his shot. Goalkeepers should be more active in the sprint mode than in the non-sprint mode.

To Bus or not to Bus?
In the non sprint mode in a 3v3 Classic match, almost all the time it is not worth to attack the goalkeeper of the opposite team. You will probably not be able to block his pass. If the team who don't have the ball would like to keep attacking they need to do this all the time. Everyone (including GK) needs to cover someone and be close to him to block and prevent shots from a distance. But as soon as the team has time to create a normal action, attacking their GK makes close to zero sense.

But in the sprint mode, attacking can work. You need to do this in the right time. To find this time you need to try this in the real matches to see what works.

You may also trick the attacking goalkeeper. Pretend that you are going to him in a way that you are blocking his potential shot but also not covering his friend. He will probably try to pass the ball to that friend. Before he finishes loading the kick bar you should change your mind and try to intersect his pass (using sprint). To perform this you need to train, as it may be a bit risky.

It would be also nice if your GK would know that you may do such move and be prepared in case that this will fail.

There is more
Speed can be used in much more ways. You have to find the interesting and useful ways to use it by playing. It adds a lot of variety into the gameplay. It creates new tactical possibilities. The game is more dynamic, less stiff and less predictable. More interesting to play and watch.

Most of these tips are for both defenders and goalkeepers.

If you are defending and trying to block the possible shoot from the attacking players, you should load your kick all the time, 3 times per second. Just keep loading your kick bar 3 times per second.

You should also try to predict how is the player going to kick the ball and stay in this direction.

Jump a lot too as most of the time the kick will not be low. It also makes sense to jump and behave like the kick would not be low, because then your goalkeeper will know that you are covering the high shoots. Not only that but also the low shots are a bit easier to defend for GK if he is not jumping but waiting for the shot. He will then not have to jump if it will be a low shot.

What I have described above is probably well known by most experienced players in Ball 3D. I have created this section, because there is something more that I think almost no one is using. Read below.

When you are blocking, you should use curve kicks to block. In Ball 3D if someone kicks the ball and then you kick it, the power of your kick will be added to the current velocity of the ball. So if the kick will be very strong and you will kick it a bit to the side, then it will most likely still go quite forward into your goal.

Curving works in a different way. You curve is not added to the current ball curve, but it overwritten it. So if your opponent has kicked the curved ball into the goal, you can overwritten his curving power with your own easily. This will mess with the trajectory of the ball much more than just normal straight kicking.

To use this, first try to position yourself in a way so the potential kick will hit you on one of the side of your avatar (preferably the one closest to the side of the goal). This alone will increase the chances that your kick will put the ball to the side of the goal.

You can be pretty sure that after your block-kick the ball will be still going into the direction of your goal but a bit to the side (maybe enough to not hit the target).

If you will block-kicking with the curve directed into the same side you are trying to kick the ball, the trajectory of it will go much more into this side and the chance of your block kicking will increase.

In general it helps a lot to use the curve kicking while blocking, because you can decide where the ball will go when your block succeeds.