Tayberry new shoots

nikcain

I planted a couple of tayberries two years ago and last summer got my first crop of berries. The advice for pruning is to cut old growth back to the ground after it has fruited, leaving new shoots for next year's crop.

However all my new shoots appeared as side shoots - both plants have 3 or 4 strong stems from the ground, and all the new growth last summer/autumn was from higher up on these stems, not from the ground. So that meant when I cut back the old growth I couldn't go to the ground, I could only cut it back to the side shoots (amazingly long shoots, each year both plants try to out-do each other with 20 foot long shoots)

Does this matter? Of course I'll see in the summer whether I'll get much fruit, but I was wonder how to tackle it if again this summer I don't get any shoots from the ground.