What is the best strategy for eating hot dogs competitively?

What is the best strategy for eating hot dogs competitively?

Ian "The Invader" Hickman (Competitive Eater) gives expert video advice on: What do you eat when you're competing?; What's the best food for an eating competition?; What foods can be used in competitive eating? and more...

If you're going to sit down and do hot dogs competitively you need to make sure you know what the rules are involved. In most sanctioned contests there's one of two ways you can do it. You can either eat it any way you want to, any style, that's commonly used by the IFOCE. If it's an independent contest, usually sanctioned by the AICE, then you have to go by picnic style rules. Now with the IFOCE it's basically any way you can get it down. That is dunking the hotdog and bun in water or, I think they call it solemnizing, Japanizing, that's where they separate the hotdog from the bun, dip the bun in water. Obviously the bun is going to be softer and easier to eat so you just swallow that and then you just start working on the hot dog. In the ASCE you have to adhere by picnic style rules. That's where you have to eat it like you would at mom and dad's, or your grandma's house. Grandma doesn't want to see you dipping that hot dog and bun in water and eating it, I mean who the hell does that. It all depends on what the rules are with your contest.