Ok, ok, I gotcha mane 
Forearm rotation is the name of the movement. Not meaning that is the only mechanic a player can use, or is using. I do what you guys are telling me because, until a few months ago, Iāve never used my wrist or forearm much. Thanks for the guidance guys. Hehe 
Thank you @Frylock , you da man. I see what you are saying.
Hmm. Again, you got me reevaluating my thoughts about Teemuās technique. After watching all the rhythm clips from the interview and my video from the lesson I think you are right (surprise!). The wrist certainly moves independently from the elbow. (Looks like Iām only seeing what I want to see.) I experimented with this last night and found that when you do the motion from the wrist (extension + deviation) there is a parasitic rotation of the forearm as a side effect. I have to consciously try to not move the elbow. Could it be the same side effect in Teemuās case?
I also tried to use forearm rotation + wrist extension/deviation but it was hard not to lean to one or the other.
Anyway, I think Iām gonna give the wrist extension/deviation a try for a week or so. For now it seems that I have about the same speed with tremolo and a little less for downpicking. Will keep you updated.
Fyi hereās a quick closeup of Hetfield gallops and chord stabs from Battery. Indeed as Hank points out in Teemuās case, thereās a small amount of rotation for the chords but really not much. Heās just digging in across multiple strings, and needs to reach farther, so that makes sense. For everything else, he appears to be primarily a wrist player, and a powerful one at that:
Yeah, I think Teemu and Hetfield roll that forearm for accenting. Het is using forearm for accenting chords out of the wrist palm mutes here I think. I notice Teemu when galloping between 16th and 32nd notes; He might keep the forearm on the 16ths and let his wrist snap the 32nds(or vice versa?) here and there. Then I assume Teemu goes forearm sometimes when he doesnāt have to mute with tremolo picking. This isnāt rule, but yeaā¦ I think I see a lot of wrist in Teemu and James. But Iām not an expert, so donāt quote me. And Iām still taking the videos in. Only watched a few times. Sorry for punctuation. lmao.
2 mcm:
Well, I have another story. While Iām doing downpicking and getting closer to 200bpm my plectrum starts to grab the string on return motion so downpicking 8th becomes alternate picking 16th. I canāt play MOP in original speed (220bpm).
So, theoretically if one could do alternate picking 16th on 220bpm than he could do downpicking 8th on 220bpm. Practicallyā¦ no, it doesnāt work. I can do alternate picking in 16th on 220bpm without hard tension, but I canāt do downpicking at 190bpm without my hand being ruined after 1 minute or so.
P.S. Sorry for my english
I can see why you would think āIf I can do 16ths at X alternate then just doing downstroke 8ths should be easyā, but alternate picking is a really easy motion and youāre actually having to BREAK the motion to do just the downstrokes.
Thereās no substitute on this for just doing long stretches of endurance work, I find particularly going down to a slow tempo where you maybe start to find it hard to control the rhythm and get it sounding really chunky (both on donwstrokes only and alternate).
If it ruins you after a minute, maybe tomorrow you can do a minute and ten.
Iāve mentioned it before but Zero Signal by Fear Factory is a great endurance workout - I like to see how far I can get into it before having to switch my wrist-based technique to an arm-based technique* out of fatigue - 6 months ago I couldnāt even make it to the first chorus up to tempo, now I can just about get the whole way through.
*Just to add, I prefer playing from the wrist because I feel like I have a lot more control both over dynamics and speed/rhythm, whereas going for that extra speed boost from the arm feels a bit like ātense it up and hope for the bestā
I hope this isnāt too much off topic.
Yesterday I was having fun playing āEverlongā from Foo Fighters and after playing the song a couple of times, I noticed that I was well warmed up to play Metallica down picking patterns. Just an idea for some of you who want a fun exercise. Your friends could be singing along while you get better at down picking!
Youāll have to tune down to drop D though. That also means youāll be all set for some RATM \m/
Cheers!
Thatās interesting, totally different to my experience. I think your case makes more sense, because as you speed up it gets harder to do the wrist extension to jump over the string for downpicking, so you end up catching the string on the upstroke and start alternate picking. I think that means you have a good non-stringhoppy technique. Alternate picking at 220bpm without tension is pretty amazing, Iām envious.
In my case, I think the reason Iām faster at downpicking is because Iām using totally different hand motions for downpicking and alternate picking - finger motion for alternate and wrist for downpicking.
So, I think what might help you is to try and use a different motion for downpicking than for your alternate picking. Try and feel around for something that feels more like youāre bouncing off the string, using the ādoor-knockingā wrist extension movement to jump away from the strings after the downstroke. Also what @Prlgmnr said, it helps to do endurance practice where you slow down and try to downpick for like a minute constantly, without too much tension. Donāt ruin your hand!
By the way I think Master of Puppets is actually around 212bpm. Although I guess the tempo drifts as they didnāt record it to a click. Also your English is great.
Yep, I think you are right. When one playing downstroke only he have to add some kind of motion to avoid the string which makes it more difficult than just āpluck string down - pluck string upā.
Well, I donāt consider myself as a guitarist, more like āguitar curiousā 
So, I am not āinto trainingā kind of man. Just strum some chords at evenings. ā¦Actually I tried some training this summer. And it was infamous CtC 6-notes pattern. Then I got pain in my hand, couldnāt even hold a cup. So I decided that all that kind of inspirational trainigs is not for me. Same for āendurance workoutā )
ehmmā¦ I donāt really think thereās any reason to envy. I have what I call āuseless skillā. As I said earlier Iām not a good guitarist, so despite the fact I do this 220bpm trill it gives me nothing. Because I canāt do almost anything with left hand in such a speed )) Just tremolo, or some kind of BlackMetal or Misirlou thing (when you change frets seldom relatively to picking hand motion)
To achieve MOP speed I tried to imitate Hettfieldās hand position and found that it makes me feel strange and my hand becomes all stiff. So I throw off the idea. May be speed just would come somehow
Thatās music! Misirlou is a classic tune, and a classic folk song, and lots of people canāt play it. Iāve said this before, but if youāre great at something, do more of it. And find cool uses for it.
If you get a chance to film some of this 220 tremolo, weād love to see it in āTechnique Critiqueā.
I donāt think its a useless skill, it means you already have picking speed down and just have to practice the left hand and synchronisation. Chunking short phrases like the forum-favourite Yngwie 6-note pattern would help. Troy has talked about chunking in the past for syncing up the left hand with the right. Sounds like you have a decent foundation, I think most players struggle to get the picking speed down in the first place.
And yeah, just copying someones hand position is maybe not the best idea, especially if itās uncomfortable. Everyone has a different hand movement that feels natural for them, thats why so many great players have completely different-looking hand positions. I would guess that you just havenāt found your ideal downpicking motion yet.
For the record It took me more than a year of practice before I could play MOPā¦ (not trying to be discouraging!)
Well, I meant I could play āsomething like Misirlouā not the song itself (I donāt even know it whole). Some kind of playing when you do many strokes with right hand, then change note with your left hand
and then again play many notes with right hand.
I could try record it, but I have cheap webcam only, so I doubt if it would be useful. Though - I guess - it may show things like hand position and something else. Worth a try?
Well, about this kind of fast movementā¦ Itās hard to explain. Itās like it has no connection with my ability to play music. When I play some melody I feel totally different. For example, after almost two monthes of training I now can play 6-note pattern with 85bpm (with good warmup). It would be about 125bpm in 16th, right? Thatās what I call āmy useful speedā. Though itās kind of my maximum, because I play scales much slower.
ā¦downpickingā¦ Itās really hard. I canāt even imagine how you do it. May be itās kinda physiological thing? I mean, someone could run fast, someone lift crazy weightsā¦ someone do mighty downstroke ))
Tremolo is still music! If you are good at unregulated tremolo, you can work on musical pieces which require it, like Misirlou. And then you can write your own tunes that have similar technical requirements. When you are learning technique, and you find you are good at something, definitely pursue it as far as it will go. Everything you can learn will help everything else eventually.
Sure, letās see what it looks like.
P.S. Iād never thought my hand looks so awful with these trebly spider fingers ā¦
We definitely need a CTC episode on Downpicking technique, speed, and endurance building!
Hey guys, I promised to keep you updated with my experiment(s) but I donāt want to occupy this thread so I created my own to abuse as much as I desire 
Anyone interested - head over there.
Hi all,
This guy seems to have figured it out:
I gave it a quick try and I donāt see any improvement yet, mainly because I am still using big movements and also not consistently making the wrist rotation as he mentioned.
Anyway, his result looks great. So i will keep trying.
Great YT channel by the way!