I think I got it. I actually came up with something similar. Storing the velocity might have worked as well, but I added a scene component to my character blueprint, attached it to the player’s mesh, and parented it to the root bone. Then in my anim blueprint I get the right vector of the that scene component and store it every 0.2 seconds.
I can then consistently compare the stored variable to the current right vector to get the pivot direction.
I also improved my pivoting boolean by comparing the stored variable to the actors forward vector. (Couldn’t compare to the scene components right vector again because every 0.2 seconds they match)
So far this is working well for 180 degree turns and I am able to trigger pivots for much smaller turns now too. Just need to add/tidy up animations to make sure it flows well.