2024 PSU WSOC Thread
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
- Start date
Appeared on replay it went off her shoulder / bicep not her head. Maybe thats ok.
the shoulder is definitely OK
the bicep isn't as easy to give an answer to. The area of the arm that can be illegal (i.e., can result in a hand ball) is from the bottom of the arm pit to the end of the fingers. So if the highest part of the ball is hitting the bicep, it may, if other conditions are met, be a hand ball. If the middle of the ball (height wise) hits the bicep, it's in a gray area, as the highest part of the ball is likely above the bottom of the arm pit. In real time (without VAR), you have to make (as a ref) an instant decision as to whether or not all of the ball was below the bottom of the arm pit.
Just hitting the arm does not make it a hand ball. The general rule is in the arm in a natural position, or is in in an unnatural position. An arm in a natural position in most cases does not result in a hand ball call if the ball hits the arm. An arm in an unnatural position (extended out wide) usually results in a hand ball call if the ball hits the arm. There's also some gray area in the general rule, in that if you are running, it's natural to pump your arms, so you have to be careful in assessing what is natural position and what is not, depending on what a player is doing a the time the ball hits the arm. Lastly (a continuation of the natural position rule), if the arm is at a player's side, even if the ball only hits arm, it's legal, and not a hand ball.
So returning to the play in question. Based on the video I posted, it's kind of tough to tell what happened. The camera is behind the player, so it's unclear to me where exactly the ball hit the player. It could have hit the head, it could have hit the shoulder, or it could have hit the arm. It's also unclear if the UNC player's arm was by her side or not. Fortunately, the ref was not in line with the camera, and seemed to have a good view as to whether or not the UNC player had raised her elbow to direct he ball off her arm, or whether the ball went off the UNC player's head.
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