'Pinching Out'.....?

From someone who has gone from a non-gardener to a veggie grower in a year or so, please can someone advise, preferably with a picture or two, how one 'pinches out' growing tips, primarily on tomatoes, but on anything really? It sounds dumb, but all the books say things like just pinch out the tops, but if you've never done it or seen it.......

We have been kind of randonly cutting bits off as the plants outgrow the plastic greenhouses they are in, but should we be de-foilaging our tomato plants?

To clarify.....tomatoes, if cordons, need the SIDE shoots (little sprouts at the join of the "branches" and main stem) pinched out. This puts all the plant's growth into the main stem and fruit. When you have about 5/6 trusses of fruit you can pinch out the main growing tip so the fruit ripen.
Bush types you just leave to do their own thing.

If you are relatively new to veggie growing it might be a good idea to get hold of a couple of books and have a read at them - I have a couple that I still refer to even though I have been growing veggies for many years.

The Vegetable Expert book is good, as is Joy Larkcom's Grow your Own Vegetables. I also have a number of John Harrison's books (this is his site and the link to the books is at the top of the page beside growing help). If you are not sure what books are best for you, you could try borrowing books from your local library. The one thing I would suggest is that the "coffee table" books are not always the best - very nice looking but not always practical for us more mortals.

The main thing is to ask questions - we all have to start somewhere.

Video of someone pinching out the tops of his broad beans:

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It all Harrison's fault I am here anyway! Started out with frugal living, now our house is like the Good Life!!

As I say, books are okay, but its hard to translate in to actions sometimes and obviously some authors assume a little of prior knowledge and we have none whatsoever!

John seems to have a lot to answer for  

I can appreciate what you say about the books being hard to follow sometimes - our local colleges run gardening courses - covering all aspects from organic veggies to flower growing. I am useless at flower growing and attended one of the short courses - it really was helpful. Might be an idea to check out your local colleges.