Blue Lock and the Bulgarian Method of Weightlifting
Or more specifically, comparing the Bulgarian Method and wildcard
You could compare wildcard with just about any intense athletic program, but the fame, injury rate, and time domain of the Bulgarian method makes it stand out to me. While called a method, the Bulgarian Method is truly a snapshot of weightlifting history. There is a program, training regimen, whatever, to call a method, but the context of it is crucial.
So what is/ was the Bulgarian Method of weightlifting?
The Bulgarian Method is credited to Ivan Abadjiev, aka “the butcher”, who coached weightlifting from the late 1960s to 2000 (with a gap at one point), with the 80s being especially famous. They were not in a good place financially and there were tensions with the Soviet Union. Individuals (men - women’s weightlifting didn’t join the Olympics until 2000) would go away from home to live and train in hopes of both funding and success.
Abadjiev maintained an intense and focused culture with his program. If someone couldn't keep up, got injured, etc. they would easily be replaced (youth were actually scouted in school). Athletes who could survive the training were internationally the cream of the crop. Bulgaria became an absolute powerhouse in this era of weightlifting, going from not being particularly notable to claiming world championship titles, Olympic medals, and world records alike. (Nowadays they still have incredible athletes, such as Karlos Nasar, but it's not absolute dominance anymore.)
The actual training, the “method” of the Bulgarian method is very simple: max out the lifts you compete with and nothing else. In weightlifting those are the snatch and clean and jerk. The only other lift performed in the Bulgarian method is the squat. These three movements would be maxed out 2-3 times daily 6-7 days per week. And they didn't just max out, but would spend time accumulating attempts at (or above) their max - I’ve heard seven reps once a max is reached float around, but don’t know if that’s true. This makes for long days with no variation at high intensity. It was highly competitive, mentally taxing, and brought about a LOT of injuries.
It is also important to keep in mind there was rampant drug use. Looking at that and bllk is its own can of worms.
To this day the Bulgarian method is incredibly famous in the weightlifting world. Adaptations of this method are successfully utilized by some athletes, but the high risk of the original, historical context, and distinct culture leave it unreplicated. The glorification of trying max attempts over and over and over was also popularized by the Bulgarian Method (and revived a bit more with some SoCal weightlifting things but yeah) which is still seen today.
Just seeing what the Bulgarian method was/ is, I hope you're starting to see why I think about it next to Blue Lock. Much of what I go into here can be seen in all of blue lock, but I think hits more intimately when specifically looking at wildcard, so that will be my focus.
Both Blue Lock, and the Bulgarian method were designed at least partially in response to external factors. The rise of the Bulgarian Method was in response to Soviet dominance and goes against the popular Soviet system (tldr more work at lighter weights). Blue Lock was formed in response to Japan’s men’s team performing poorly at the world cup and Ego devising a method going against what most of the Japanese coaches were doing. Look at Wildcard specifically, and you see a more extreme method in response to Noel Noa specifically.
The Bulgarian method weeds people out both through mental wear and tear and physical injuries. It is a difficult - I could even say extreme - method of training. WC had intense programming that likely weeded its contenders out in the same ways. Kunigami was pretty explicit about injuries and the mental aspect is very obvious. This is the biggest thing that makes me link WC specifically to the Bulgarian method over bllk as a whole. To my understanding the Bulgarian method was not on the same level as WC, but I really have no way of knowing.
WC gave results. Fast. Kunigami has changed a lot and is in the best physical shape we have seen. The Bulgarian method is known for its results: numerous international champions and world records. Abadjiev coached a dozen Olympic champions and over 50 world champions.
There was some form of do or die mentality instilled in both wildcard and the Bulgarian method. Both situations involved athletes having so much to gain, but also SO much to lose. It was a way of life both in and out of training.
Getting a bit more into conspiracy territory: If Ego can build an extreme method to get extreme results, that will draw a ton of attention. And in turn money. The JFU may be more in on WC than tends to be assumed. Ego's personal vendetta and things may not be shared, but a general proposal to the JFU may pique enough interest for additional underground funding. Blue Lock alone is attention grabbing, but a super intense method from its depths showing results that directly correlate to the best striker only brings more. The day they spin WC to the public will be a very interesting day.
Is the Bulgarian method something our authors would know about and take some inspiration from? I genuinely don't know - weightlifting is a bit of a niche sport after all - but there are some similarities stacking up. And I find it fun to use these similarities as a model to extrapolate more possible details of WC we are yet to learn (I hope we do learn eventually). With Blue Lock being methodical and involving optimizing your strengths, having WC being much simpler, but more intense and involving optimizing the strengths of top athletes would be a very interesting angle. Could the Bulgarian method itself simply be adapted to soccer/ football, a very different sport, and made more extreme with Blue Lock’s hyper modern technology? If you have thoughts on any of this I would LOVE to hear it!!!
