After a severe pruning and long delay budding out, during which I thought I'd killed it, mine grew long 'whips'. It was very unattractive. Eventually buds broke along the branches and by year 3 post 'pruning' it was much fuller.

Based on no authoritative source other than my own experience , I'd trim back that second 'story' of branches to the lower leafed level. Even if the bare branches leaf out, is that the shape and height you want? Head back those lanky shoots by 2/3s and it won't look so strange while you wait to see if it's going to fill in.

Advice to myself after the experience: read first, ask questions, have plan then with great deliberation get the pruners out of the locked gun cabinent and have at it.

I personally feel that the purple leaf smoke bushes look best coppiced yearly and allowed to grow a huge flush of deeply colored leaves. No smoke with this technique, but the leaves are so gorgeous, who needs the blooms? I do the same with my yellow leafed one. After years of awkward shape I just cut it down one spring several years ago and let it flush. Very beautiful.

Only the straight species, which gets very large and is quite hardy, seems to look good when allowed to grow to full, very large, size. Smoke is beautiful too. Seems impossible to find in the trade now though.

Cotinus coggygria are tricky, especially in fertile soil. Standard pruning techniques compound the issue, resulting in bizarre structural forms. Severe (or even moderate) pruning during the dormant season generally results in these long growth stems. However, the presence of leaves exclusively towards the stem ends is not a result of pruning. It's just more apparent because of the rapid stem elongation from dormant season pruning. I do not know the name for this growth pattern, but in general, a leaf covered stem develops in growing season one. In growing season two, multiple (five to a dozen) new growth stems emerge exclusively from the very end of the now bare stem from season one. This pattern is particularly apparent when the bare stems are extremely
long and narrow. The development of the flowers at the tip ends keep this rapid elongation in check. See pic below of mine, unpruned, sending out new growth in this same manner. Those buds below the new growth more or less remain dormant.

The solution, in general, is to prune after new growth has finished for the current growing season. However, I wouldn't go crazy with the removal of tree mass. I try to remove less than 15% of the total mass for this particular species. This tree excels in quickly replacing above ground mass after pruning. But if this removal (pruning ) is done after all the growth season energy has been expelled, it has no choice but to harden off it's current structural form. This seems to calm it down and restore more natural length-to-stem-diameter growth.

You said you enjoy pruning. Take this as an opportunity to experiment. I suggest cutting stem at different locations. Perhaps some flush to a junction or fork, reducing to just two or three stems. Others, cut to a dormant bud, reducing the length. You may even leave some alone and monitor how it compares.

Thanks for the responses everybody. I'm going to re-read them a few times before I make a move.

I love how these trees look. I have another one near a fence shared with a neighbor who cuts off anything that crosses into her yard. My fault for planting it so close to the fence.

So it's been pruned in the past but never grew these longish limbs. I chopped the one in this photo way back last fall so will see what happens.