Defoliating works amazing, but you must have a strong root system first and strong and healthy established plants.
When you remove leaves (with a stalk), i.e the fan leaves, remove top down, you want to maintain a 80-90 percent leaf canopy at the lower level to trap the light, its your solar panel, we are light farmers after all. after defoliation the leaves supporting the buds grow rapidly, energy is directed into the bud leaves. carbohydrates from the lower level flow upwards before flowing downwards to the roots.
If your a advanced grower you can research girdling, and girdle a max of 2 mm, 3 weeks prior to finishing, this will restrict the carbohydrates heading back down to the roots and boost bud dry matter, the girdle will heal over with cambium with-in 4-10 days, dont go wider than 2 mm and don't go too deep, some times 2 girdles can be done on long flowering plants.