The betatron squeeze is a critical operational phase for the LHC because it is carried out at top energy, with the maximum stored energy and with reduced aperture mar- gins in the superconduting triplets. A stable operation with minimum beam losses must be achieved in order to ensure a safe and efficient operation. The operational experience at the LHC showed that this is possible. The operation in 2010 is reviewed. In particular, orbit, tune and chromatic- ity measurements are investigated and correlated to beam losses. Different optimizations are then proposed towards a more efficient and robust operation. The improvements obtained for the operation in 2011 are presented.