i just posted this on a outdoor thread thought it may help, just pick a technique and go with it, that's how you learn.
first year I just let them grow, second year I topped once,
Year 3 I did supercropping and lst this year I'm trying heavy topping. I got a great result last year from the supercropping and lst I'm hoping to get good result from this year's effort too.
I do have to say I'm not the biggest fan of pinching my new growth as it does seem to stress them but I love the shape they take and I'm getting lots of heads, then again last year with the supercropping and the LST had lots of heads too.
For me it's all about learning what works for me and developing my own techniques to get the best results.
I think another 2 seasons will really nail it down and I will have enough experience and knowledge to manipulate each plant the way it needs to be and apply the proper technique, for example I am going to lst my purple ghost of leeroy because it just doesn't take to topping well so I know that plant needs a different technique applied, but my bubblegum and 5th element thrive on topping so now I'm trying to look at structure differences of the plants and attempting to identify which would likely benefit from topping, lst/supercropping. The indicas seem to be happier to be topped than the sativas but then again they are all hybrids and some of my indica doms have sativa traits so
It ain't exact lol