If this video is supposed to show best practice then I feel it's a fair way off the mark. The belay device is not oriented as per manufacturers reccomendation, And there are lengthy periods of time where the belayer holds the brake rope high above the belay device, reducing the effectiveness of the plate.

Also the video makes no differentiation between top roping and leading. If the video is intended as an instructional one, surely that is quite important.

I'm sure that the belayer in the video is perfectly competant and would hold a fall, however as an instructional video I would rate this one rather poorly!

This film is a poor demonstration of 'good practice'. Echoing the previous post, the belay plate is not orientated the correct way.

As per other posts, specifically.. belay plate is wrong way round on harness (its the right way round at the end of the video after the belay bag demonstration, so not even consistant!), he lets go of the rope at 7 secs, 14 secs in he holds the rope above the plate in the unlocked position for 6 secs, doesn't 'spot' the climber before the first clip, also after demonstarting why the belay plate has grooves the rope is running accross the side of the plate most of the time and he changes lower off technique from shuffle to hand-over-hand halfway through the lower off. In general there are enough mistakes in this to fail a belay test at most walls. The BMC have known about the issues in this video for a long time - I am amazed its still on the BMC site.

After a issue at our wall I was pleased to find a video by The BMC to show belaying and thought that I would be able to email them the link to back up our decision BUT this just makes it look like they were correct by belaying incorrectly!

Agree with all comments. If the belayer was belaying in the way i was taught, then the lead climber is always safe from belaying errors. I see no need to hold the belay device in the open position for more than a fraction of a second. If you teach this method climbers will always be safe even when a belayers attention has drift. And lets be honest that will happen often in real world conditions. Besides once you are out of sight the belayer can no longer see you, so best he knows to always be locked off.