Being able to center well is vital for
learning to throw on the wheel. It's the first step in the process of
throwing a pot. If done improperly, it makes the entire process of throwing
pots more difficult. At the start, when you're learning to throw, centering
can feel really difficult. But after you've thrown a hundred, a thousand, and
ten thousand pots, it really does become second nature.
More often than not, the reason you might
have difficulty centering a lump will be due to the fact that the clay is too
firm or far too soft for it to even be centered in the first place. My final
bit of advice would be not to get too hung up on getting it perfect straight
away. Center the clay roughly, pull up the walls roughly, and try and get
some finished pieces off. Seeing the process through to the end and making
some pots, even if they're wobbly and chunky and a bit heavy, it's those
first pots that plant the seed and draw people into this craft. Everything
after that is just a matter of practice, and soon you'll forget that you ever
even struggled with centering.