The handball or handpass is a ball-passing skill in the sport of Australian rules football. As throwing the ball is not allowed in Australian football, passing to a fellow player are executed either by kicking, or by a controlled "punch" with one hand holding the ball while the other knocks it into flight (typically in a fashion similar to an uppercut or an underhand volleyball serve). Handballing is the primary means of disposing the ball quickly and over short distances in Australian football.
Handball revolutionized the game in the 1980s, moving it from the classic kick-and-mark style of play (which runs the risk of the pass being contested and intercepted by opposing players) to a fast run-and-carry style that emphasizes maintaining possession and rapid ball movements down the field, which has typified the game since. The most prolific handballers in the history of the Australian Football League: Lachie Neale, Greg Williams, Scott Pendlebury, Josh Kennedy and Adam Treloar have averaged more than 13 handballs a game.
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Skill
Handball is the most frequently used alternative to kicking for moving the football among players. In order to be a legal method to dispose of the ball, the player holds the ball with one hand and punches the ball away with the clenched fist of the other hand. A player typically punches with his dominant hand, thus holding the ball with the left hand and punching with the right hand is considered a right-handed handball.
When a player receives a handpass from another player, play continues. This is unlike the kick, where if a player catches the ball on the full from a kick (a mark), he is entitled to take his next kick unimpeded. Failure to execute a handball correctly is deemed a throw or illegal disposal and results in a free kick to the nearest opposition player. Moving the hand that holds the ball excessively in the direction of the handpass, using an open hand instead of a clenched fist to tap the ball away, punching the ball out of mid-air after having thrown or otherwise lost it from the carrying hand, or handing the ball directly to a teammate will all attract a free kick for illegal disposal.
History
The rule defines it similarly to the open hand tap/handpass in Gaelic football but differentiates the hand skills from other codes of football. Unlike Gaelic football, punching the oval ball was more frequently used as it was the most effective technique to move the heavier ball larger distances.
One of the sport's founding rules in 1859 was “the ball, while in play, may under no circumstances be thrown” i.e. in the manner of rugby football. Player ingenuity led to punching the ball (handpass) to a teammate.
Although the rules allowed for the handball, for most Australian football leagues the handball was largely a secondary skill to the kick and used as a last resort when a player had no time to kick. Strategically, Australian football was viewed as a territorial sport, where the prime aim was not so much possession, but to cover as much distance through the air as possible. As the holding hand could not move, this was best achieved by means of kicking the ball as far as possible.
The principally used handpass was top-spin in nature. This was used with the belief that the ball could be contained more locally and executed more quickly off the hands when the ball was held in preparation for kicking, as smaller handpasses were originally used mainly when in trouble. The other thought was that, as in tennis, a top-spun ball was more easily directed, dipped faster and possessed more stability in the air.
One notable variant of the handpass which began to develop was known as the flick pass, in which a player used his open hand instead of his fist to propel the ball. The legality of the flick pass has varied throughout the history of the game: it began to gain prominence in the early 1920s, before the Australian National Football Council (ANFC) voted to abolish it before the 1925 season, making the handpass with a clenched fist (sometimes termed a punch pass to distinguish it from the flick pass) the only legal form of handpass. This was not widely popular, as the style of punch pass used at the time a much more cumbersome disposal than a flick pass, and it resulted in the game being played at a slower pace. The flick pass was re-instated before the 1934 season. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, it re-emerged as a common technique to achieve centre square clearances from scrimmages, particularly at VFL club Fitzroy. Of the 88 handballs executed during the 1961 VFL Grand Final, 18 were flick passes. The flick pass was abolished permanently in 1966.
Handball competitions
Handball competitions are often used to test the accuracy of handpasses. A handball competition typically uses a board or vertically hung material with a target consisting of multiple coloured concentric bands worth different points. The centre is usually cut out to let the ball through and is worth maximum points (typically ten).
Handball competitions often occur at local clubs, Auskick clinics and on television, most notably on the shows World of Sport and The Sunday Footy Show (both hosted by Lou Richards). Such competitions take place between Australian Football League players known for their handpassing skills, and often utilise moving targets.