Took mu mavic out for the first time yesturday and I did two test flights. One of the reasons I got the mavic is that it claimed 2 things. One that it would return to home base exactly from where it took off. I have a landing pad for it and it still does not return even close to where i took off. second I saw in the advertisement that you could grab it with your hand when I try this it just takes off higher. Any suggestions?

Presuming you have turned on precision landing in the app ?
Then when you take off, you go straight up to about 10mtrs and hover for a few seconds as the Mavic needs to take some photos of the landing area in order to work.
You can turn off the downward sensors when you are ready to hand catch.

2 suggestions.....first, when you take off initially, let it hover directly over the landing pad for 5-10 seconds to establish a good position on the location. Also, would be curious to know what you GPS signal strength was and how many satellites that we locked on. Second,I don't think DJI has an official advertisement out promoting a hand launch or retrieval of the Mavic.....but to answer your question why it ascended when you tried was because you had the VPS enabled and it saw your hand in close proximity so it tried to avoid a collision and ascended automatically. If you have your heart set on doing this, (Highly discouraged) than you could then off the VPS and it would not respond to your hand underneath of it....

It's not recommended to catch hand Mavic , but what is happening when you try to catch is you are blocking Vps sensors causing Mavic to rise, you can hand catch but not under sensors, you need to try towards the front of the aircraft.

Make sure to count your fingers when your done,  lol

In the manual it states the precision landing requirements, if you adhere to those then it will land form where it took off from.
And it's not recommended to hand catch, and by taking off higher when you put your hand underneath it's doing exactly what it's supposed to do.
If you don't want that to happen they you need to turn off the downward sensors.

sigh.... thoroughly read the manual and do a little research and learn how vision positioning works. My Mavic has operated Exactly how its supposed to nothing abnormal not a single thing. This drone is very complicated and you really really have to understand and respect  how the systems work. If you dont your in a world of hurtin. And why would you want to land in your hand? That is very very dangerous I dont care how good the flight control system is on any exposed blade multirotor this is very dangerous. Go buy one of those weird folding cage-thingie-drones if you want to try to catch something.  

Thank you all, I a going to go back and read more. All comments were great and love the feedback. I could have sworn I saw a advertisement of someone catching and taking off from the hand. Only reason I was wondering is cause I will be taking pictures off a boat and sometimes I may need to catch it. But back to the manuals I go.. I am really hoping to get the landing part done right cause it was one of the main reason I got it. I have the P4 and it never lands right where I took off from. Reason is I fly from the back yard and its not very big plus I need it to land on a table that it took off from cause my dogs WONT leave it alone and one of my dags is a rottie and my service dog. If she is not where I am she goes nuts like nearly breaking the glass door. Most of the time I can get her to sit and just watch but sometimes she just has to go for it.. I dont like to leash or lock my service dog up unless we are out in public then I do. If I leave the house without her to go fly she cries the whole time im gone. Sorry long story but I am going back to reading and learning more, cant take it out right now anyways its been raining and almost to cold for me to fly.

Get some practice and learn to fly properly. RTH with precision landing is a great feature but it's not substitute for piloting skills. Even in ATTI mode with VPS off, the Mavic is incredibly stable and very easy to pilot. Use RTH for emergencies only. Like if you loose VLOS (which isn't hard to do).

As for hand catching on a boat, turn VPS off. VPS doesn't like water that much anyway and results in odd behavior. Secondly, just think about what you're suggesting for a moment and take into account the effects of the waves on the boat.