Pruning and the tree's energy

[TeT12a_sPiN]

Apologies if this is the wrong thread and if this topic was brought up somewhere else.

I am 2 years into bonsai. When I first started, I was eager to prune at any sign of new growth. I wouldn't let branches run, as I thought pruning as often as possible would fast track development. As I've learned throughout the past 2 years, I'm letting my trees flush out and gain vigor before pruning back down.

I recently hard pruned a few cuttings to try to start to build branch taper and the tree has pushed out new buds all over like crazy. So my question is, can I start to get rid of new shoots I don't want right now? Or should I let ALL the branches grow out 4 to 6 nodes or so, then go back in to select my branches? Not sure if pruning this soon will hurt the tree's energy or not. Thoughts?
I appreciate your help with this.

 

[Shibui]

Removing anything will limit the tree's ability to harvest sunlight and therefore energy BUT sometimes it is better to prune than o allow growth that will case problems further down the track.
I let ALL branches grow, sometimes much more than 4-6 nodes UNLESS I think that growth might cause some problem.
Problems can include:
shading or competing with more important branching I want to retain later
inverse taper - especially where many shoots are close together.

 

[Goodbrake]

The general advice I've seen is to wait until the leaves harden off, and then prune.

 

[pandacular]

It sounds like you’re applying refinement techniques to a young plant when they are in need of development. If you’re interested in learning more about this distinction, the Bonsai Empire course on developing from seed is really good.