Where to stand and How to belay?

In theory, you should spot your partner before the first clip is done and we can sometimes see this done by very experienced World Cup belayers. In practice, the dilemma is that you end up like 1.5 m from the wall meaning that if he/she falls directly after the clip he/she will land on top of you as you are taking in the slack. Sure there are cases when a good spot is needed and you should pay attention or use another friend, as often the case in World Cups, but normally the first moves are super easy. Another option is of course to pre-clip the first quick draw. Once it is clipped in, you should try to stay close to the wall on the side of the climber and you should remain there until the first two-three drawers are clipped in. Later you can step out half a meter for every clip until you stay 3 - 5 meters from the wall, especially when there are rope drag in the system. Once the person falls you should move inwards in order to make the fall more dynamic. If it is impossible to step out from the wall, you could try to jump up a bit if your partner falls high up in a rope drag situation. The problem is that your instinct will most probably make you sit down instead of jump up during the fall. The simple solution for this is to bend your legs in a critical situation which makes it impossible to sit down and increase the impact of the fall. It most be underlined that, even if the sliding in and jumping up sounds logical and easy, it is very difficult. In order to be a good belayer you need to practice a lot and the best place is of course indoors. You should also try to belay climbers that are both lighter and heavier than yourself including working with different rope drag. The light belayer should almost never stay a long way from the wall and does not need to bend the legs. The risk is instead to get caught into the first quick draw. On the other side, the relatively heavy climber can move a longer away from the wall or bend the legs in order to avoid high impact falls. It takes several years and hundreds of falls to become an experienced climber and there are many special cases especially in trad climbing like feeding out extra slack or even run or jump down. The above advice are general and should be tried out in practice in order to make you and your partner feel safe both climbing as well as belaying. Please also note that most would think that the WC belayer stand too fare from the wall but the reason for this is that he can move forward in order to give out slack during the clip, i.e. only for the expertise.