one method that works well with small agressive snakes is to make a flat hand, come from above, and lower the flat hand slowly over the head of the snake. because they keep their head horizontal and dont tilt it sideways, its clode to impossible to bite that way. When your hand is gently covering the head, you take her halfway down the body, and one you are holding her and she is in crawling mode chances of a bite drop significantly. Then you can hold her until she calms down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgCP6S5q554 unfortunately its in german, and he shows it with a baby retic because they are more agressive, but you can see it very well. after 0:45 in the video he shows how to do it correctly, after 2:45 he shows how not to do it and the mistake nervous people that are a bit scared of the snake tend to make, and gets tagged twice. Then he shows how to do it correctly a second time. Basically you use a flat hand at the right angle as a shield, and if she tries to strike she just bumps her nose against your flat hand and noone gets hurt.
EDIT: in response to the other post, im one of the guys that believes that you cannot get a ball python to really be more tame without handling it. Tame snakes are, in my mind, snakes that were handled correctly and often enough when they were young. a week of rest, making the enclosure so that the snake feels more secure, that can all help and assists in the process, but only handling the snake correctly and often enough seals the deal. Thats the core of it and everything else combined cannot be a substitute for it.
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