Wrist Tension?

Buco

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/102155#Comment_102155

I've been working on this again recently in a focused way and I'm making a bit of a breakthrough.

This description is really one of the best I've read. Especially letting the weight of the wrist doing the job on the way down. Extremely important to pay attention to. And then the way you describe using the opposite muscles to bring the wrist up and the rest... it's the perfect manual in one paragraph.

Except one thing. The breakthrough I'm feeling has to do with one thing, the thumb does help with picking. At least in my case. At this point I'm very close to cleanly play Aurelien's exercise at his tempo (and can go to Stochelo's if I'm just playing small chunks, which is how I got to reach Aurelien tempo).

Then another thing happened. Seeing Sam Farthing play up close. At high tempos it's very noticable that the thumb is helping push the pick through on the way down. It's not a sweep. It's intentional note by note downstrokes, and they are reststroke, but the thumb is having much more active role along with the wrist.

And I've noticed that before with other players, this thumb pushing through thing. It's been brought up on the forum before too. But I wasn't making a connection before. Which, again at least in my case, the connection is that the thumb helps the wrist stay relaxed.