I always have to barbell bench solo cos I don't have a spotter anymore I know my limits though, so it's pretty safe, but stunted progress massively cos I can't really push it. Always bench without clips too, so if it comes to it I can just roll to the side and shake the weights off. Never really liked Smith, but used it a lot initially. It just feels so unnatural now though (unless you use one of those fancy 3D ones), the bar ends up so high on my chest with a lot of elbow flare.