I agree - a lively eel is a good eel; you don't need to bang them if you get them in the water immediately after hooking and keep them moving for a couple casts. They only ball when you stand there with them dangling or if you let them do their own thing on a slack line.
The sand trick works good except for one minor cosmetic problem :-); after you grasp a sand covered eel the slime and sand form a sort of eel-slime cement on your gripping hand that is not easy to get off with a simple rinse.