Running bounce

A running bounce, or simply bounce, is a skill in the sport of Australian rules football (necessitated by the Laws of the Game) when a player, while running, bounces the ball on the ground and back in their hands.

Regarded as "the first distinctively Victorian rule" in the code of Victorian rules football (now Australian rules football), the running bounce was first trialed in 1865 and formalised on 8 May 1866 by a committee of Victorian club delegates chaired by H. C. A. Harrison as a way to slow down the player in possession of the ball and to create more opportunities for a turn over, thus helping to increase the number of disposals and encourage more dynamic team play. Harrison himself was one of the fastest runners in the game, known for his ability to evade opponents while running the length of the field ball-in-hand. Arthur Conan Doyle considered it "very sporting of [Harrison], ... to introduce the bouncing rule, which robbed him of his advantage." The original 1866 rule stipulated that "no player shall run with the ball unless he strikes it against the ground every five of six yards". The rule was well-received by players and spectators alike, and considered attractive to watch.

Football is played with an ellipsoidal (oval-shaped) ball, rather than a spherical one, so the technique for bouncing one back to oneself while running requires practice. To execute a running bounce, a player should:

Executed properly by a player running at a normal pace, the ball should bounce directly back into their waiting hands.

Players need to readjust the distance of their bounces when running at different paces. When running faster, the ball must be bounced further in front of the player, and when running slower, the ball must be bounced closer. At very slow or stationary paces, this correction is more difficult, because it is difficult to correctly angle the ball for the return bounce at such a short distance.

Australian children (in Australian rules football states) generally learn how to execute running bounces over a few years while they play at school and in junior levels, so to top-level players, the running bounce is a natural skill.

Nevertheless, bouncing an oval-shaped ball is still a volatile skill. Even top level players will occasionally lose the ball while bouncing it, by accidentally bouncing the ball on its point, only to see it quickly skid away from him or her.

The rules of football state that a player running on the field with the ball must take a running bounce at least once every fifteen metres. If they run too far without taking a running bounce, the umpire pays a free kick for running too far to the opposition at the position where the player oversteps his limit. The umpire signals "running too far" by rolling their clenched fists around each other – similar to false starts in American football or traveling in basketball.

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Wikipedia