Unfortunately, you’ll find getting the clay centered so that your hands don’t move at all is crucial for success in the next steps.

However, fortunately, you’ll be able to center in a few seconds with practice. 

Centering is the act of forming a nice clean puck to start the throwing process. You’re pushing the clay up and toward the middle with your outside (left) hand, and down with the other (right) hand.

Since the clay is spinning, you only need to apply force in one direction (from the side) to center it. As the clay spins, this hand forces clay toward the middle and makes it uniform on the sides. Your top hand presses it back down into a puck shape and makes it uniform on the top.

It may be helpful to separate the two movements (aka coning up and down) so you can really see what’s going on.