Get control of the ball first

Watch as the goalkeeper distributes the ball up court. The black-shirted defender tried to pop the ball back too quickly, and that error leads directly to a goal by the other team.

Instead, the defender should have run through the ball. He would have touched the ball before the offender. It would have hit about in his tummy. It would have been redirected toward the far wall, which the defender must have thought couldn't possibly be right, but to have the ball ANYWHERE is always correct.

Get the ball first, and then think what you can do with it.