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Originally Posted by cybersmyth
The only rhythm techniques I really know are the simple down up strums, hitting on every beat
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That's a great start and you will use that with a wide majority of rhythms even if you don't technically "play" on each beat.
The easiest way I can describe it is your arm is basically like a metronome going up and down all the time, then you pick certain moments to strike the strings and that creates your rhythm. While the strumming pattern may be different your arm will always have the same steady up and down motion.
There are times though where you won't want to make full "up/down" motions accross the strings if you are playing something that has a long pause in between strums such as:
D_____ D U D U
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
In this case you wouldn't want to make full up/down motions after the first down stroke because you're not strumming the strings again until the "3" count. So what you can do is make smaller up/down motions below the strings just to keep the timing. A lot of the time I see beginning guitarists completely stop their arm when they are not strumming and then totally loose the sense of rhythm. Making small up/down motions has the same effect of tapping your foot and allows you to keep a steady rhythm feel without making full swings all the time.
For a good "random" rhythm exercise, write on a piece of paper:
D U D U D U D U
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
...Then cross out random beats and try to play the ones you didn't cross out. This will allow you to keep creating your own new rhythms to work on. Not only is this good practice, but you can come up with some pretty interesting rhythms this way that you may not have thought of otherwise.
-tkr