Air layer then trunk chop my Trident Maple

[scher1s]

Been out of the game for awhile as I haven’t had room to store my bonsai and have left them in the care of my father at his property. I have just instructed him to let them grow in their large pots without interference and have done so for atleast 8 or 9 years. I am now back at my parents for a little while and finding time again to do some work with them again and found they have grown quite a bit. Anyway! I have this trident maple that started much smaller (about 30cm) than what it is now and is now quite big (about 60cm) and thinking of doing an airlayer where I’ve marked with red and trunk chopping it to make two. And then doing a tourniquet airlayer after the yellow line to shorten the trunk. Thoughts if this a bad or good idea? I’m open to any other thoughts on what I could do with this. TIA!

 

[Shibui]

OK. First this trident maple appears to be a Japanese maple - 5 or 7 points on the leaf V 3 points in trident.
The red layer line might give you something worth working with. There's more movement and taper up there but you will need to have some idea of which of those main trunks you will use to really decide if it is worth doing.
Shortening the lower trunk would also be worth while in itself but what will the tree look like above it? There's not much there at the moment and JM have a habit of not giving as much as say trident maples do..

I always ask:
Am I doing this for the practice? - OK go ahead nothing lost and some experience gained.
Do I want a good bonsai from the result? Then ask: Would it be better and quicker to start again with better material? Just because it has some age does not make it good bonsai. Try to leave sentiment out to make better choices about quality. Sentiment does not make good bonsai.
I know I am spoilt for choice and not everyone else is but I would probably start again rather than pursuing this one.