Anyone else been working on the down double up pick strokes as from Ben new mandolin version of wildwood flower? I have just been doing the exercises so far and it’s awkward as can be. It reminds me of when I was learning to ride a unicycle… every once in a while I’ll get it to start flowing and it just takes off on its own. It picks up speed a little and then inevitably… the crash 
I haven’t spent much time on it yet, but it has been fun working something completely different.
I tried it for a few minutes and almost threw my mandolin against the wall. It’s hard to re-program the muscle memory.
I’ll come back to it when I get the mandolin itch. Right now, I’m into guitar a bit more than other instruments.
The unicycle? Now that’s unexpected.
The drills were giving me fits, but for some reason, playing the song flows much easier. I might have worked on that song in a similar fashion many many many years ago on my first pass at mandolin. It seems a wee bit familiar, but I am not sure. At any rate, I am enjoying it. I have only hit it a couple times for 15 or 20 minutes. Once I get it ingrained I think it will sound really neat.
Unfortunately on the double ups, I am not real efficient as I am still lifting the pick a bit. When I go real slow and focus I can keep the pick going straight up through the strings (which is kind of the point).