Use a full 3-second pause on the chest. It'll make you feel like a weakling, but it'll lead to great improvements in the bottom portion of the bench press. The pause will also take away any stretch reflex.
For lack of a better term, the pause requires you to "muscle" the weight up as opposed to relying on the stretch reflex to get you to about halfway up. The paused bench press also greatly helps build technique and control of the bar.
In Part One of my "no curls" arm specialization training series, I talked about the absurdity of most arm specialization routines. I proposed that most trainees do more than enough biceps curls and triceps press downs and don't really need more of either of them.
Not too many years ago, the idea of an endurance athlete like a cyclist, triathlete, or runner hitting the weights was almost unheard of. Why, everyone knows that weight training will make you big, bulky, and slow, right? Well, believe it or not, endurance athletes are lifting weights to improve performance.