It''s funny how we have the same first name.

To the question,

Your teacher is correct.

This is because in this small moment of time when the ball touches the hand, the hand moves with the ball, thus the momentum becomes greater (due to a greater mass) but the force on the ball remains the same as the hand hasn''t applied any force on the ball.

An example might help here.

Suppose someone shoots a bullet at Rajnikanth, blatantly Rajnikant doesn''t die. But what he does is, he brings his hand in front where the bullet is coming, and starts running at the speed of the bullet. Obviously, Rajnikanth will feel the bullet but as long as you are moving with the bullet at the exact same speed, the force will not be transferred, thus teacher is right.

You should know that you are ufcourse right and your teacher sucks. As the given case follows the character of a force being applied. As the ball slows and thus force is applied but not enough to stop the ball but force acts and retard the ball.