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Fending off above armpits

Mipper said:
My view is that hand offs are fine in the game, they do encourage good tackle technique, and I recall well from my playing days that receiving a hand off was an embarrassment.

I would also add that in my experience a hand off to the chest was far more effective, and that most hand offs to the face are out of malice, thus using excessive force and sanctionable.
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IMO, hand-offs/fends/stiff arms are fine, it's a matter of teaching players to use them to push and not strike/punch (and penalizing those who do the latter).

In my area, in youth rugby (U19 and lower), fends to the face are banned, as are squeeze ball and gator/croc rolls. The fends are by far the most common issue due to football converts. In the other code, players are taught to either aim for the helmet side/top, chest, or shoulder; for the latter two, they are taught to use force (I've heard it described as akin to a punch).
 
it’s probably a language thing but “stiff arms” as I know them, are certainly not acceptable.
 
Volun-selected said:
That the clothes-line tackle. Arm locked out out sideways at neck/throat height as the ball carrier runs past?
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Depends who is using it, doesn't it?

I was merely trying to clarify a possible UK/US difference in word usage. In RFU-land a hand-off (defined by WR as "Hand-off: A permitted action, taken by a ball-carrier to fend off an opponent, using the palm of the hand"), never a 'fend-off', must be used "without excessive force" (Law 9.24) and is therefore expected to be delivered by a 'straight' (perhaps 'extended' may be a better word) arm i.e. without the additional force engendered by straightening the arm onto the target area (as in a boxing punch). The US word for a straight/extended arm may be a stiff arm.
 
is that quite right right though? running into someone with arm straight out, elbow locked is going to be a lot more forceful than if the elbow is 'soft'
 
crossref said:
is that quite right right though? running into someone with arm straight out, elbow locked is going to be a lot more forceful than if the elbow is 'soft'
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This is my interpretation of a "stiff arm" and is not safe for the person doing it or the one on the receiving end.
 
It’s simply US phrasing. In American football and otherwise in the American vernacular, the action defined by World Rugby as a “hand-off” is known as a “stiff arm”, with or without the hyphen.
Uses are essentially identical, to my understanding.
Noun: “That was a great stiff arm!”
Verb: “He stiff armed the defender.”
 
In my experience, it’s simply the American terminology for what is called a “hand-off” in other English-speaking countries. The arm generally starts out somewhat bent with and the ball carrier attempts to push the defender away with the palm/hand as they approach for a tackle. The term does not indicate that the arm starts out fully extended, elbow locked, etc. I can’t say that it never happens in American football but I don’t consider it any more commonplace than in rugby.
 
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