[Eastshire]

Originally Posted by bainsey

Here's the problem: We don't always use the aid that way.

Imagine a player has his arms outstretched or over his head, and the ball accidently blasts into them. We view that as handling, even though it was clearly ball-to-hand/arm. Since that player "made himself bigger" through the unnatural position, the fact that the ball/arm contact wasn't deliberate is irrelevant. There are many times we whistle handling when deliberate contact isn't the case.

What is the player doing when she stretches her arms over her head? She's trying to take away a passing/shooting lane. That's deliberate play with the arms and if she makes contact it's handling.

What was the player doing when she fell? She was trying to not hit face first into the ground. That's not deliberate and isn't handling.

With that, I can agree. Perhaps my definition of natural position is too narrow. I see natural position, simply put, as arms/hands at one's side. I haven't found any documentation that states otherwise. If you know of any, I'd love to see it.

There's no documentation that I know of. It's all in the opinion of the referee. We are, however, specifically reminded that the natural position of women's arms is significantly different than men's due to the different center of gravity and we should expect them to naturally play with their arms higher, particularly when jumping.

I think the rule of thumb is to think of what a player would be doing if she was not trying to handle the ball.

Also, remember the study that said if we never called handling we'd be right 78% of the time.