If it helps others. It helps me to learn and internalise if I practice a lick or musical phrase whilst watching TV. If you drive a car you'll know from experience that your focus is on the road and not your controls. These actions are carried out on autopilot. Our brain takes over.
Marvelous video, Ben, I think Me and My Old Banjo by the Osborne Brothers has a lot of great alternating roll stuff. The "forward-backward" roll I think of as an alternating-index roll, lead with the thumb. It's wild how alike our methods are! I teach Dock Boggs arrangements tunes a lot, they're so elegantly constructed. And the beginner tunes I teach encourage the student to mix a lot of these patterns together freely, though the student should have a few things comfortable by rote before varying. Can't wait for the other videos!