I have a tremendous weakness for oysters. I love them raw, baked, basically anything but Rockerfeller (too cheesy for me).

I'm trying to get faster at opening them, but I can't seem to get the speed up without dumping the brine or leaving stuff on the top shell.

I saw a video on youtube of some competition oyster shuckers. Man those guys were fast. They were clearly dumping most of the liquor because many of them weren't keeping the shell level.

I can't tell if they had some great technique for cleaning the top shell. I seem to have to carefully swipe around the top shell so I don't leave a bit of the body on the discarded top shell. I wish I could see the results of their shucking to see what condition their oysters were in.

I try really hard to not end up with salisbury oysters or muddy grit driven into the cup. I want clean well detached bodies with a cleanly severed adductor. I'm wondering if the ideal shucked oyster will always take a bunch of time and care.

Are the competition guys turning out really clean oysters or are they a bit gritty and stabbed up? Do judges care about the quality of the shucked oyster?

I find that I generally have to withdraw the tip of the knife after popping the hinge to wipe off a loogie of mud or I end up driving it inside the shell. Is there a fast way to do this without the extra step?