First, allow me to make a few things clear. I am a 17 year old kid with some decent lifts and reasonable strength. What I say here is purely what I have been told by a former Bulgarian weightlifter who migrated to Australia. If you watch the Ironmind video on the Bulgarians, you will see at the beggining the little guy who fails a snatch, that’s him. I am by no means an expert, but I found it very interesting, and at odds with the usual idea of what Bulgarian trainings is.
A quick google search will tell most people that Bulgarian training at the elite levels compromises of snatch, clean and jerk, and front squats, this is entirely true and accurate. However the main misconception occurs because the only things people see are articles of the methods used by the elite lifters. The problems stems from people having no idea how these lifters got there in the first place.
From my talks with said Bulgarian, the were was an enormous amount of build up programs used before they entered the national program. At age 11 he was made to do things such as hold a bar in a clean starting position for 10 minutes, carry rocks around, run nto other kids etc, most of the training through the teen years had an enormous amount of variety for all the lifts. Work from the hang, from the waist, from below the kness, all styles of squatss etc. Each lifter in the regional training programs was given specific programs with alot of variety. People who have read Simmon’s articles on Oly lifting will be surprised to find that the squats and pulls were often the driving factors as he himsself advocates. Weaknesses were heavily targeted with specific work. All this development means by the end of their regional training alot of the lifters arrive at the national training hall as extremely well rounded lifters with little imbalances and weaknesses.
By the time they actually get to the national training hall under Abidjev (however the fuck you spell it) they are extremely capable units who can suffice entirely on a program of snatch, clean and jerk, and front squats with a few extras thrown in around the place.
Further more, the programs you find on the internet only show the regular programming schedule. Work such as hang cleans etc were done in BETWEEN the numerous sessions because the Bulgarians regarded this as light work in between to bring up any problems.
Again, this is all second hand information from a guy who was there, for all I know he could be telling me different to what happened, but I highly doubt it. The internet has strongly obscured perrception of Bulgarian training. The true principle is that the lifter is so well prepared, so musculalry balanced from several years of excersises ranging from the lifts to throwing rocks that they are at a level of physical readiness where by they just need to snathc, CJ and front squat.
If a sprinter has an equally sound start, acceleration and top speed due to his over all physical balance and control… why bother working on the start undividually, the full run should just be practiced. Sure at times the start may need to be worked on exlusiviely etc. Similar principle.
I am by no means trying to spark a debate, I do stress this is second hand information from a reliable source and I am merely conveying it. I have neither the expertise, experience or strength to qualify this as my opinion. I hope it does provoke some thought.
Thanks
Fuzzy.
and roll with what you got.