Customer Reviews

Dick Bennett: The "Pack-Line" Pressure Defense (DVD)

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When I started out as a head basketball coach in 1985, my college coach, Jack Trager, pointed me to Dick Bennett for information on pressure man-to-man defense. I purchased Coach Bennett's original tape on his then cutting edge on-the-line, up-the-line approach to playing man-to-man defense. I won a lot of games with that system, which Coach Bennett came to refer to as "push" man-to-man. You were essentially trying to disrupt the opponent's offense and "push" the opponent first to the sideline and then to the baseline where things were really going to start going bad for you.

Then, the rules changed, the three point shot evolved, and Coach Bennett changed schools and found he had much less talent. Thus, the "pack" defense was born. Unlike push, pack does not want to stop you from running your offense. It just isn't going to allow you to penetrate the "pack line." The pack line is an imaginary line about 18 inches inside the high school three point line. You can dribble all you want against this defense, if it is played properly, you aren't going to get any penetration. No penetration, no threes! Great positioning in this defense makes it hard to screen as well.

With the new dribble drive motion being all the rage, expect to see this defense emerge as the answer. DDM teams don't rely on screening so they will struggle against the pack.

Bennett does a good job of showing the entire system and how to teach it. Coach Bennett has never gotten the credit he deserves as an innovator, both on offense and defense.

Kevin Sivils - author of Game Strategy and Tactics for Basketball
Game Strategies and Tactics for Basketball: Bench Coaching for Success