Softball Training - Don't Abuse the Bench Press
I was at the gym today doing interval training on the treadmill (very effective method) and I saw two guys doing the famous "Bench Press".
The bench press is considered by many as one of the two king exercises in weight training with the squat.
While the bench press is an excellent upper body strength builder that uses many muscles, it is often abused and overused.
Men especially tend to fall in love with this exercise.
A few reasons to explain this:
1.Most men working out want to develop a stronger and bigger chest and this exercise is often seen as the best one to achieve that goal.
2.The bench press is considered the king of upper body exercises and excelling at it is perceived to be an evidence of your strength and power (i.e. being a man).
3. Bench pressing is the only upper body lifts in power lifting competition.
4. A typical question in gym environments is: "how much can you bench?" which pushes men to work extremely hard to improve their bench press.
All of these factors have contributed in making the bench press abused and overused.
It is an excellent exercise to build upper body strength but it also has its limitations.
An overuse of the bench press can set you up for injuries.
In particular, the bench press tends to put a lot of stress on the shoulder joint and very often, we hear stories of athletes who've gotten bad shoulder injuries by excessively using the bench press.
You know like me that once you get a shoulder injury, it takes months before it goes away!
While the bench press can be considered a functional strength exercise (an exercise that builds strength that you can use on the field), it is one of the least functional exercise because you are lying down on a bench in a fairly stable position using a bar.
The best time to use the bench press is when you do low-repetition sets (1-8 repetitions) with a heavy load.
When doing more repetitions per set (8 repetitions or more), you should choose alternative exercises that challenge the stability of your body a little more such as DB Presses (incline, flat, decline, on a stability ball, etc.) and a variety of push-ups (feet up, 1 leg, weight on your back, etc.) or standing cable presses.
I would not put too much emphasis on flies as they are an isolation exercise and for god's sake - stay away from chest press and pec deck machines! These are the worst for athletes!
Conclusion - the Bench Press is abused and overused because of the reason mentionned above. Yet, in my opinion, it remains a "fairly" functional exercise, especially for maximum strength phases (heavy load, low reps).
It has its place in a softball-specific program but shouldn't be used extensively either because it has been shown to lead to shoulder injuries.
As always, the key is moderation.
Who loves ya? 
Marc
"Your Softball Strength Coach"
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Comments on Softball Training - Don't Abuse the Bench Press »
A couple of years ago I was talking to my son's HS wrestling coach about the bench press. Understand that this is a guy who was a state champion in Illinois, which is no small feat. He is also very into weight lifting and conditioning.
I told him that I was never very good at the bench press despite being able to curl with anyone. He said he'd never been very good at it either. But it never concerned him, because he said if a wrestler is on his back trying to lift something he's in trouble anyway!
So even for a wrestling coach, the bench press was overrated. I agree with you — do the bulk of your lifting, your warmups, and your skills drills the way you plan to play the game. Mix in the rest just for balance.