Backyard mentor competition

Wood Fire Steel said:

I was watching YouTube videos and came across a series where Harry Soo isis a mentor at a backyard competition. He would go text to tent giving advise. At judging the judges would judge in front of the teams and give them feedback on their product. They could do 4 meats or one meat 4 times. I think this is a great idea for newer teams. Does anyone know of a contest like this in the Georgia/ southeast?

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I have seen a few Backyard only contests but I have never seen a mentoring contest in the southeast.

The MN BBQ Society organized a Pro/Backyard mentorship at the MN in May contest this year. Those interested signed up to mentor a backyard team. We scheduled an hour or so of Q&A with the backyard team. I believe most found it a very enjoyable experience. My team assigned was very respectful with the questions and posed a lot of great questions. I didn't give away the farm, but know I felt good about giving out a lot of cooking tips and products I use.

Has created another friendship and we have kept in touch as they continue their backyard journey and prepare to come on over.

There was a comp in North Georgia a few years back that I never competed in but heard it was geared around backyard teams and new judges to kind of learn of of each other. Sounded like a great idea but I haven't seen any sign of it in 3-4 years.

you may have just missed out on a great opportunity. William "Bubba" Lattimer was offering to sponsor and mentor a Backyard team at the Piggin in the park that is going on this weekend in Jasper. http://www.piggininthepark.com/home.html

If you ask enough people there are plenty of pro teams that are willing to help people get started.

I had the honor of judging in one of Harry's backyarders. His first one, in fact. Very enjoyable and highly informative. Differing from a normal backyarder, each team has an turn-in time assigned to them and only them. There are multiple tables of judges, with each table located separately from other tables. When it a team's time, they go before their assign table of judges. Their turn-in box is presented to the judges, whom assess the turn-in's attributes and vocally convey that information to the team directly. Teams can ask questions of the judges. Makes for a great, highly productive one on one between judges and teams. And OH... the judges I sat with were very seasoned, as they included long time judges AND long time comp pitmasters ! I would not hesitate to judge one again !