You can move this picture: drag it, press and hold then drag on a touch screen, or use the arrow keys.Printable guide 02.04

The Clay Hole University · Safety and Your Body

Saving Your Back at the WheelPrintable pottery guide

The free lesson, rebuilt as a workbook: why the standard throwing posture hurts, the six setup changes that fix most of it, throwing standing up, and a card to keep by the wheel.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Beginner
  • 17 printable pages
  • 1 video picks
  • 8-question quiz + answer key

Flip through the free sample
  • Instant download
  • Prints on any home printer
  • The full lesson stays free online
The printable, at a glance

What is the printable edition of Saving Your Back at the Wheel?

It is the free lesson of the same name, rebuilt as a workbook. It explains why the standard throwing posture hurts and treats it as a setup problem, not a fitness one, then gives the six setup changes in the order they matter, the option of throwing standing up, the mirror trick, and habits that cost nothing. On paper it adds a setup log, a one-page setup card, a quiz with a full answer key, and a glossary.

Prefer to read it online first? “Saving Your Back at the Wheel” is free to read, and always will be.

  • 17printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 1hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 13glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
Why a printable, for this one

Nothing about it feels like a mistake

You sit at a wheel the way everybody sits at a wheel, you have a good afternoon, and six months later your back is a problem you blame on your age. There is no moment of injury, which is why it is so common.

It is almost entirely a setup problem rather than a fitness one. Move the clay closer to your hands and the reason to round your back disappears.

This guide puts the fix on paper: raise the wheel, set the seat, brace, add a mirror. Then a card for the wheel and a log so the numbers stop living in your head.

Look inside

Real pages, for the ten seconds before you sit down

These are actual pages from the guide, shown here with the sample watermark. The full guide has none.

  • Page 4 of the “Saving Your Back at the Wheel” printable guide: why the standard posture hurts, shown with the sample watermark
    Why the standard posture hurtsThe clay is below your hands, you hold one position, and looking at the pot pulls you down again.
  • Page 5 of the “Saving Your Back at the Wheel” printable guide: the setup that fixes most of it, shown with the sample watermark
    The setup that fixes most of itRaise the wheel, set the seat second, sit back on your sitting bones, get close, brace, and check every time.
  • Page 8 of the “Saving Your Back at the Wheel” printable guide: the setup log, shown with the sample watermark
    The setup logWheel height, seat height and where you felt it, so the numbers are written down.
  • Page 14 of the “Saving Your Back at the Wheel” printable guide: the quiz, shown with the sample watermark
    The quizEight questions, with an answer key that explains the reasoning behind every answer.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Paper beats the screen here

Ten seconds at the start of a session

Studio wheels and stools move. A page beside you is the reminder to check.

  • The setup card

    The six changes in order, the habits, and the rest of the studio, on one page.

  • A setup log

    Write down the heights that worked, so you can set them again in ten seconds at somebody else’s wheel.

  • Geometry, not willpower

    Nobody can hold a posture by willpower for two hours. Change the furniture so the good position is the easy one.

  • Honest about when to see someone

    If it lasts past a session, or the same ache turns up every time, see a doctor or physical therapist.

How the guide is built

Built for the first time your back says something

Every guide in the series is designed as a workbook first and a document second. For this one, that means:

  • A learning dashboard before page one

    What you will learn, what you need, the traps, and what success looks like.

  • The six setup changes, in order

    Raise the wheel first, then the seat, and the rest follows.

  • One video, checked

    A working potter solving a sore back on a real wheel. It was checked when the guide was built.

  • A setup log you actually fill in

    Eight rows for what you changed, wheel height, seat height and where you felt it.

  • The setup card

    The whole guide on one page.

  • Codes that keep working

    Every QR code points at a short Clay Hole address, so a printed copy keeps working when a video moves.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

All of the teaching in this guide comes from the free “Saving Your Back at the Wheel” lesson at The Clay Hole University. No paywall, no sign-up, no catch.

A sore back from throwing arrives slowly enough that nobody connects it to anything, and it is almost entirely a setup problem. The fix costs almost nothing, so this lesson never sits behind a paywall.

The University is free and stays free. The guides are the version rebuilt for paper with an unreasonable amount of care, and buying one keeps the free side going.

Thank you. Genuinely.

Dan Pearce, founder of The Clay Hole
Collect them

Build a little pottery library

Every guide carries a permanent number. This one is 02.04, the fourth guide in Safety and Your Body. The series is designed to live together in a binder, section by section, so the craft ends up on your shelf in the order you learn it.

Put any five printable guides in your cart and the cheapest one is on us. Put in nine and the two cheapest are on us. It happens automatically at checkout, no code to remember.

See every printable guide

  • 5guides in your cart1 on us
  • 9guides in your cart2 on us
Where this leads

From the back to the whole body

These lessons pick up where this one leaves off. Each one is free to read now.

Good questions

Before you buy

Is this different from the free lesson?
The teaching is the same, and the free lesson is complete. The printable adds a setup log, a one-page setup card, a printed quiz with an answer key, and a glossary.
Is this medical advice?
No. It is about the height of your wheel and seat and how you use them. If the pain lasts past a session, or the same ache turns up every time, see a doctor or a physical therapist.
Do I need to buy anything?
Usually something to raise the wheel, such as blocks, a platform or a stand, and a footrest if raising the seat lifts your feet. A mirror, any mirror, helps too.
I am not at The Clay Hole. Is it still useful?
Yes. The lesson is general throughout: it works for any wheel and any studio or home setup.
Do I need a fancy printer?
No. It is designed for an ordinary home or office printer on regular US Letter paper, with nothing important near the edges, so normal printer margins cut nothing off.
Can I print it in black and white?
Yes. Nothing depends on color, and we looked at the workbook pages in grayscale to be sure.
Can I use it on an iPad or laptop instead?
Yes. Every QR code in the guide is also a tappable link, so on a screen you just tap instead of scanning.
How do I get it after I buy?
Right after checkout you get a download link by email and on your order confirmation page. Each link works up to seven times.
What if the guide gets updated?
Every edition carries a version number. When we correct or improve a guide, everyone who bought it gets an email with the new edition at no charge.
Can I share it with my class or studio?
Please don’t. It is licensed for your own personal use. Anyone can read the full lesson free online, and the printable is here if they want their own copy.

Raise the wheel. Then check it, every time.

Print it, set the wheel and seat, and keep the setup card where you can see it. It takes ten seconds.

Get the printable · $5.00

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We work hard to make The Clay Hole University accurate, useful, practical, and ridiculously thorough. But pottery is a hands-on craft involving countless variables that no written guide can completely control or anticipate.

Depending on what you are doing, ceramics may involve extreme heat, kilns, electricity, gas, flame, sharp tools, spinning machinery, heavy equipment, pressurized equipment, silica-containing dust, fumes, chemicals, raw materials, stains, oxides, glazes, combustible materials, hot surfaces, breakable objects, and other hazards capable of causing serious injury, illness, property damage, fire, or worse.

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Terms version 2026-09-19b