I’m not sure how it happened but all the sudden roadblocks that I continuously kept running into over and over got ironed out and things are becoming way more easy and fluid. I’m not sure if it’s a total coincidence but I switched to lighter strings going from 10’s to 9’s. I started jamming along to backing tracks so the difficult musical licks started making more sense to me with music behind it, and lastly I started watching myself in a mirror at what my picking hand was doing. Playing EJ 5’s at 170-200 all the sudden feel and sound right. As most of you know i’ve come very close multiple times At just throwing in the towel because I just never got anywhere, then one day all the sudden mechanically everything just started clicking. Pretty crazy! 
I guess the moral of the story is it just takes a lot of time and a lot of repetition and a lot of patience so any doubters out there, hang in there. 
This is awesome! I think you should film it so if the ‘losing it’ ever comes back you’ll have a well documented reference point. But let’s hope that never becomes necessary 
Yeah I’m worried about that. 
I just got thru playing and was seeing how fast I could play sweep 5’s and 210-220 was doable when my mechanics are synced up. 
One thing that I’ve noticed is my pick is going up and down from string to string lifting up in the process on the upstrokes. That may sound funny to say, but one of the biggest hang ups I’ve had is wiggling around my index finger and thumb too much and almost picking linearly across the strings like a swinging pendulum. It’s like the pick is dancing around the strings instead of going up and down on them So my pick never had a positive good connection with the strings a lot of times. For the life of me I could never figure out how to stop doing that but finally after years it seems to be going away,knock on wood. 
I don’t want to get cocky and say that it’s automatic now because I still catch myself drifting off to it sometimes but I’m getting better and better with it to where it’s becoming second nature.
Good stuff, glad to hear about a breakthrough!
I’m curious: How would you describe using the mirror has helped in performing the motion?
The reason I’m asking is just comparing experiences. I used to use the mirror a lot. There were definitely benefits, but lately I’ve had good advancements in minimizing ingrained tension by shifting my focus a bit and getting rid of the mirror. Not saying I’ll never use a mirror again, but at this stage, I’m happy to just have conversations on how other people are benefitting from one.
I think I recall Troy saying that a mirror can be an issue if used too much as you might find that you end up relying on the mirror to perform the picking motion. Its probably fine to look every now and then, but best to go by feel rather than what it looks like. Looks can be very deceiving also…
I quite like looking in the mirror to see if there is any physical tension in my body - quite useful - its often not in my picking hand, but I have a tendency to have bad posture and raised/tensed shoulders. The mirroe is a great check for that.
Would be great to see some video @Regotheamigo! I know from your previous posts that you struggled for quite a long time to find a comfortable picking motion, and if I remember correctly we have some footage of your old picking somewhere in this forum already.
So having a before / after video comparison could be very interesting from a teaching perspective and probably very helpful to other forummers who are facing similar difficulties - we’d like to get to a point where no one should spend months / years to figure out an efficient picking motion
Good question and I’m not sure I have the right answer for it. 
my guess is it’s taking the attention away from me so intently focusing on what my picking hands doing by staring down at it. It’s helping me relax in my opinion. When I’m looking in the mirror I’m focusing on other things and seeing things from a different view point. I think it’s easier to watch what your picking hands doing in the mirror as well. I can see that it’s going up and down, not string hoping etc Also as I mentioned before I jam along to backing tracks. When doing that it’s not ALL about the technique and it shifts my brain into musician band mode. It could be from just good ole fashion practice and repetition. I’m sure @Troy would have a better explanation than I would 
There is a weird occurrence I noticed some time ago during technique practice specifically. There is a fine line between the amount of attention and focus needed for efficient technique practice and “too much” attention where your mind is cluttered with so much that you can’t let things happen naturally (and coincidentally tension arises). Petrucci recommended a book that touches on this, it’s called “The Inner Game of Music” Definitely worth checking out!
Yeah that sounds like me in a nutshell. I’m surprised veins didn’t pop out of my head I focused on it SO intensely! Ha
Just wanted to share I had a major breakthrough today myself
For me I spent a LOT of time analyzing my picking my motion and realized as I sped up I was deviating from my main picking motion causing all sorts of problems. Anyway, everyone keep at it you never know when that breakthrough will happen!