japanese maple pinching

So I have this Japanese maple, which I cut back hard in the Fall of 2019. It's a garden center tree at the beginning of its bonsai life. It's waking up now and I have a few apical shoots that are very strong, while others down below are weak and maybe on the verge of drying up. I guess it's...

I seem to be confused with the best way to develop a new leader after a chop on Japanese maples while keeping the internodes short. This is probably the same with branches you plan to keep as part of your final design. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but when you chop a JM and when it starts...