Looking for any and all advice on equipped benching!

First session in a shirt last night of my life, I found a Titan Fury (Tag says NXG+ idk if that matters at all) size 48 which is listed as "Meet Fit" for me for 45 bucks locally and jumped on it. Last night I wedged myself into it (Surprisingly easier than expected, took like 8 minutes) put 315 on and couldn't make it move lol. I got real nervous because I had seen fails where people guide it poorly or something just catastrophically fails and it either dumps down their stomach or dumps toward their face so I re-racked that, decided I should try something much much easier to 'muscle up' in the event of a failure.

Dropped to 225, pulled like hell and got it to touch on the first attempt. Jumped to 275, pulled it with confidence toward that touch point and no problems. 315 no problems. 335 I timed the leg drive and the press poorly (Not used to such a long descent) so it went up fast but real uneven, left side went up way quicker than right. Redid 335, got it much better on the press. 355 no problems. 375 (true raw peaked max at the moment) I got the touch and the press but I ran into the hook on the right and it ****ed me up so I got the left side into the hook and the right side came back down to the safety bars. Still, the video on review showed incredible speed on the press and it felt amazing.

Considering the whole internet says touching your chest will take a long time and I managed it on day 1 I'd like to hope this is a good sign for the future... I realized I had already been doing an equipped style form for my raw press anyway since I learned my raw form from Scot Mendelson on a Supertraining video years ago and I always wondered why he said you have to row the bar down lol well now I know why.

Personal anecdotes over now, I would just like any sort of guidance, tips, resources, etc that you guys care to share that can help me out. I've digested a lot of youtube content from Calgary Barbell, Jimmy Kolb, a channel called BigBenchas, and I've read the articles I found on the first few pages of google searches. I love learning new things, or even just learning new ways to think about existing things, so all information is greatly appreciated!

In case it gets questioned: I did not adjust the collar at all, the shirt is closed back, I had the logos on the sleeves centered on my biceps so not twisted inward or outward, and I used a racked bar to work the sleeves up until the seam was in my armpit and the sleeves were just above the elbow without having to fold them back. Shirt is basically untouched, guy I got it from said he got it but then never was able to really work in it so basically fresh out of the packaging and not 'worn in' at all though this did not affect me being able to touch as I mentioned. It was super uncomfortable though lol. I'd like to work in this until I can confidently take the state record at 220 and in the future the 198 record too so I'll take tips that apply to newbies, hobbyists and competitive lifters too; I'm aiming high.

Your best bet is to find a crew that knows shirts benching.
I was lucky to be lifting at lexen with Jason Coker. He is one of the best shifted benchers out there. I mean I saw him bench 800 something while passing a kidney stone. He is a different breed forsure
Should be some people around Cincy that know otherwise make the trek up to cbus
But really you got a long ways to go judging by your numbers (no offense)

[QUOTE=Hajikikun;1644604093]First session in a shirt last night of my life, I found a Titan Fury (Tag says NXG+ idk if that matters at all) size 48 which is listed as "Meet Fit" for me for 45 bucks locally and jumped on it. Last night I wedged myself into it (Surprisingly easier than expected, took like 8 minutes) put 315 on and couldn't make it move lol. I got real nervous because I had seen fails where people guide it poorly or something just catastrophically fails and it either dumps down their stomach or dumps toward their face so I re-racked that, decided I should try something much much easier to 'muscle up' in the event of a failure.

Dropped to 225, pulled like hell and got it to touch on the first attempt. Jumped to 275, pulled it with confidence toward that touch point and no problems. 315 no problems. 335 I timed the leg drive and the press poorly (Not used to such a long descent) so it went up fast but real uneven, left side went up way quicker than right. Redid 335, got it much better on the press. 355 no problems. 375 (true raw peaked max at the moment) I got the touch and the press but I ran into the hook on the right and it ****ed me up so I got the left side into the hook and the right side came back down to the safety bars. Still, the video on review showed incredible speed on the press and it felt amazing.

Considering the whole internet says touching your chest will take a long time and I managed it on day 1 I'd like to hope this is a good sign for the future... I realized I had already been doing an equipped style form for my raw press anyway since I learned my raw form from Scot Mendelson on a Supertraining video years ago and I always wondered why he said you have to row the bar down lol well now I know why.

Personal anecdotes over now, I would just like any sort of guidance, tips, resources, etc that you guys care to share that can help me out. I've digested a lot of youtube content from Calgary Barbell, Jimmy Kolb, a channel called BigBenchas, and I've read the articles I found on the first few pages of google searches. I love learning new things, or even just learning new ways to think about existing things, so all information is greatly appreciated!

In case it gets questioned: I did not adjust the collar at all, the shirt is closed back, I had the logos on the sleeves centered on my biceps so not twisted inward or outward, and I used a racked bar to work the sleeves up until the seam was in my armpit and the sleeves were just above the elbow without having to fold them back. Shirt is basically untouched, guy I got it from said he got it but then never was able to really work in it so basically fresh out of the packaging and not 'worn in' at all though this did not affect me being able to touch as I mentioned. It was super uncomfortable though lol. I'd like to work in this until I can confidently take the state record at 220 and in the future the 198 record too so I'll take tips that apply to newbies, hobbyists and competitive lifters too; I'm aiming high.[/QUOTE]
You need to find a crew. Srs.

I think the state record for 198 in Ohio is 900lb by the way.

[QUOTE=smokinHawk;1644671133]I think the state record for 198 in Ohio is 900lb by the way.[/QUOTE]

Oh I haven;t updated that in like 8 years lol I do not live in Ohio. State record here is 446, I'm nowhere near the powerlifting capitol of the country anymore!

[QUOTE=Talason;1644634183]You need to find a crew. Srs.[/QUOTE]

Unfortunately in my area and the ~50 miles out any direction there are no hardcore gyms, and I've scrolled back as far as I can on social media feeds for the ones that I have found nearby and never seen a single post of an equipped bench. I'd love to have a team to work with but I'm screwed over by location, even checked some Fbook groups for powerlifters in the state and no response yet to my post :(

Overall I think I'm in a pretty bad location for wanting to chase this, but I'm certainly not letting it stop me. I feel like I'm about 15 years too late to try and get into it too lol.

Even if you can't find a crew that knows equipped benching, you will need a crew to do this. At minimum to train in a bench shirt you will need 2 good and reliable training partners. However an ideal bench crew is 5-7 lifters. You can be the only equipped guy, but you will have to learn and teach your training partners how to put your shirt on and set it, how to hand off and spot, and how a bench shirt works. It would help if you could share your approximate location, there are more powerlifting gyms out there than you realize and it would be worth travelling 2 or 3 hours once a month to learn. I guarantee if you came to train in my gym one time you would learn more about equipped benching then you could pick up in years of reading and asking questions on the internet.

Every bench shirt is a little different and requires different adjustments/techniques to get the most out of it. You can't learn everything you need to without being around big benchers who know what they're doing.

Just because you can touch a lighter weight doesn’t mean the shirt isn’t good. Find someone that knows about gear if you can. I use a Inzer denim and I can make it to where I can touch 315 in training and I benched 450 at the meet. It’s all in how you manipulate the shirt