The greatest athletes in the world do not necessarily have the greatest bench presses in the world. The greatest athletes in the world have an ability to produce useable force on their field of play. Usable force is force that propels athletes towards the ball, pushes off a defender or throws the winning touchdown pass.
Usable force is force properly directed in an unstable environment.
The weight room, in general, is a stable environment whereas a field of play is a constantly changing place. Our strength and conditioning staff seeks to change the exercises in the weight room from being totally stable to unstable. As the exercises become increasingly unstable they begin to require increasing amounts of balance. Thus, the athletes have to learn to produce force as well as maintain control. A practical example of this would be to initiate an athletes program with a couple of weeks on a leg press and moving them to the squat.