Strong to Gentle

By relaxing, I am able to sense when my opponent starts to use force, and if he uses brute force, I am able to ward it off. The problem with this right now is that, I am still unable to control his force. So if he uses a lot of force, by warding off his force, it causes my opponent to move very abruptly. That is not what I want to achieve. I want to be able to do what my teacher can do. When he wards off your force, it is in a very gentle manner. Even if you use a lot of force, he is able to use your own force against you, yet it is not abrupt. It is very gentle, so that even when you lose your balance, you probably won't hurt yourself.

I thought the key lies in relaxing and drawing circles. Well, I tried that, and nope, I was still unable to use my opponent's force in a gentle manner. Relaxing and drawing big circles only allowed me to better ward off his force, but if his force is abrupt, he still loses his balance in an abrupt manner. I guess I need to think more about this, and maybe ask my teacher.