In soccer (Association football), it is usually a foul to deliberately handle the ball, that is, to control or touch the ball with any part of the hand or arm. Ball-to-hand is a determination by the Referee that the ball's contact with a player's hand or arm was not deliberate because the ball moved to the player's naturally-positioned arm, as opposed to the hand or arm moving to contact the ball, or is otherwise incidental to normal play and should not constitute a foul.
It is worth noting that many players (and coaches!) often call on the referee to stop play for a handling offence in ball-to-hand situations. This annoys referees, because it is not the proper interpretation of the Laws of the Game. However, this happens a lot, probably because so many people incorrectly call the infraction "hand-ball", which leads to confusion about what constitutes commission of the foul.
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