Oh how much I hesitate to do the same and bend the bitches and tie them. Looking at what did you weird BDSM analogies comes to mind :-D
About the main cola/LST thing - I tend to think of it as of a fountain or a geyser that shoots upwards, and the branches are exits for the flow so that if you bend the main cola, it searches for a way up through other branches :-D The fountain is called osmotic pressure as far I as know. Don't know if that analogy is any use to you :-D Also removing the leaves according to most of the botany people is not a good idea like they're accumulating energy and used a lot during the flowering phase... I've read something similar that Jorge Cervantes was saying... Though I'm still not sure if all those leaves are useful if they cover all the lower branches so that light won't ever reach them.
Cheers and happy growing!
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