Video Instruction – Handling
Special thanks to NISOA Hall of Famer, Brian Hall and Esse Baharmast for their continued support of our instructional program.
Instructions
When you select one of the decision choices below, you will unlock the "Get the NISOA decision" button.
While we generally welcome comments on our materials, please do not post your opinion/decision in the comments area. Commenting should be limited to the value of the clip or requests for clarification. Thank you for your cooperation.
NISOA Official Decision
Here are the NISOA considerations for Handling the ball - handball:
- Does the hand move to the ball or the ball to the hand?
- Are the player's hands or arms in a "NATURAL POSITION", or in an "UNNATURAL POSITION"?
- Does the player make an attempt to avoid the ball from touching his hand?
- Does the ball that touches the hand come from a short or long distance?
- Does the player use his hand or arm to deliberately touch or block the ball?
- By handling the ball deliberately, does the player prevent an opponent from gaining possession of the ball?
- Does the player deliberately handle the ball in an attempt to score a goal?Does the player deliberately handle the ball in an attempt to prevent a goal?
- Does the player deliberately handle the ball in an attempt to deny an obvious goal-scoring opportunity?
- Is the ball moving in the direction of the goal?
- Does the player try to deceive the referee by handling the ball?
In this clip, you will see the defender tracking the attacker on a long ball towards his goal.
As the attacker "one times" the ball into the defender's arm, we now have a decision to make. Handling or Not?
It is in the opinion of NISOA that using the following considerations we can come to the right decision:
Does the hand move to the ball or the ball to the hand? You can see that this is ball to hand.
Are the player's hands or arms in a "NATURAL POSITION", or in an "UNNATURAL POSITION"? Natural Position
Does the player make an attempt to avoid the ball from touching his hand? The reaction time is to limited in this case, this was a reaction rather than an action.
Does the ball that touches the hand come from a short or long distance? The ball comes from a short distance.
Does the player use his hand or arm to deliberately touch or block the ball? With all of the considerations above answered we can conclude this was not a deliberate action.
NISOA FINAL ANSWER: No Foul
Decisions: 1169
This is good – show more of these. Referees often call the foul to appease the crowd which largely ignorant to the definition of intentional handling. Also, STOP calling it handball. There is no reference anywhere in the rule to such a term. We are working at the highest levels and professional NISOA referees. Lets, collectively use the correct terminology.
Javier, being professional means that we are also good communicators. Understanding how to communicate something, for example, to a coach is an important part of the experience of each game and acting professionally. Using generally accepted terms such as handball instead of the technically correct handling is an effective way to communicate making sure each person involved understands what is going on and that the explanation of a certain action is communicated. It is always nice to be technical but even better to be thorough.
Ed, I think Javier make a very good point, when we speak to anyone about our decisions we need to use the proper terminology. That’s what the Rules / Laws of the Game tell us to do, handling, not hand ball, plus the other terms that they get wrong, offside, not offsides, penalty area, goal area, not the box, goal line, touchline, not end line, not sideline. Coach’s, trainers, players, can call them anything they want to, we are the one’s to say it right. You are right about having communication with the coach’s they are part of the game, but if we use the proper terminology as a group, eventually they may get it right too.
The current Laws of the Game use the term “handball” no less than 3 times. The NCAA Soccer Rules do still use the term “handling the ball” but the point here is that as an instructor, using commonly understood language is very important.
Let’s not lose sight on the education provided by this segment of the video instruction series.
While terminology is important, there are words/phrases that are now universally accepted in the sport.
We are seeing a trend of more collegiate players coming from international countries.
With that said, we must be able to communicate effectively using all the resources available.
Keep up the good work with videos like this. First they are very clear and camera zoom moves in so that you actually see what is going on. Looking at it first time and the whistle I cringed and said please don’t tell me that was for handling. Referees see ball hit hand in the Penalty area and go to the whistle instead of running the considerations through their head then making a decision. Point blank shot.that hits defender, player running, arms in position you would expect if you were on wide open run and had tried to stop. Additionally this is a situation that a college referee will see in his or her game and this video hopefully will be remembered and will not penalize the game. Thank you Brian and Esse.
Video is an excellent teaching tool!
Keep ‘em coming.