Keep Grinding, Keep Getting Better!

The bench press is a great exercise to build overall upper-body strength. It hits the pecs, the delts, the traps, the triceps, the lats, and a bunch of other muscles which is why it's so good at developing the upper body. With taht being said, it is a very technical movement that isn't necessarily a natural movement. It can leave your shoulders exposed and prone for injury if not done with good technique. So it's best to practice this movement, find your grove, and build that mind-muscle connection to develop your chest.

Grip width

this is a personal preference. Generally, the rule of thumb is to put your hands straight up from your side to directly out in from of you and move them out a tiny bit. That should be your grip width. Now the further you go the more you will work your delts and pecs and the closer you go it will work your triceps out more. Play around until you find the optimal position for your body structure that lets you stay in the best positions.

Bar path

you want the bar path to have a slight j movement to it. You start at the top, you go down and the bar goes slightly out from the starting position until you touch your chest, from which the bar comes back up and moves slightly closer to your head until the final position. You really need to do whatever you need to do to keep your forearms vertical through the whole movement.

Wrist position - stacked

The wrist and forearm position is a huge component of the bench press. You want the bar stacked over your wrists as best you can, without it shifting too far forward or backward. Further, you want your forearms to be in as verticle a position as possible throughout the whole movement. For beginners, a big mistake is that when they bring the bar down to their chest, their forearms lean backward, and the weight shifts to the back of their wrists. This is no good. You need to articulate and rotate your arms every so slightly so that when the bar comes down, your forearms stay as vertical as possible. This is hard to explain via text, so let me provide some pictures and possibly a video to explain.

Tight core

having a tight core is essential to the lift. You must squeeze everything from your hands to your lats, through your abs, to the glues, and ultimately press your feet into the floor. Keep that rigidness through the whole lift. It's not easy to do at first because it's a lot to concentrate on at once. But keep at it and over time it will come naturally and you won't need to think about squeezing your butt as hard as you can while benching.

Head

KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN! No need to pick it up whilst benching. Just unnecessary movement. Some people like to do it because they feel they get a better stretch. 

Things to concentrate on while benching.

Try to pull the bar apart throughout the entire bench. While doing that also try to twist the bar apart. This will help to engage your lats and traps and bring extra stability to the movement.

Ultimately you transfer energy from the floor through the bar, which is why it's important to keep tension and press through your feet and squeeze your glutes even though it is a predominantly upper-body exercise.

Another thought that might help is to think of not pushing the bar up but to think of pushing the bar "away" from you. Kinda like you're stuck on the ground and need to push something heavy off of you. Same thing, a little bit different, but it helps some people.