> I studied Chinese for a year on Duolingo and now I can barely recognize a few characters

That is a terrible learning outcome. I guarentee you that if you spent the same time with Remembering {Traditional,Simplified} Hanzi [0,1] you would be able to read more than a handful of characters. You'd also have intuition for novel (zero-shot) characters.

But I do agree you should practice writing, though -- as I argued in another comment -- I think the finger tracing is more about learning character shape rather than focused on teaching to write. That part is even important for reading. Though I do think Scritter, which uses fingers, will result in decent writing skills.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Traditional-Hanzi-Meaning...

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Simplified-Hanzi-Meaning-...

Remembering the Kanji I: http://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Kanji-Complete-Japanese-Ch...

Remembering Traditional Hanzi: Book 1: http://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Traditional-Hanzi-Meaning-...

Remembering Simplified Hanzi: Book 1: http://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Simplified-Hanzi-Meaning-C...

Take your pick.

I'm not so sure about the Chinese-style beating. At least use a structured approach; Chinese characters aren't random strokes, they have rules and history, and learning it can help your memory a lot (especially if you're like me - I just can't memorize something I don't "understand"). The Japanese version of this book is quite well-known and I found it helpful: http://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Traditional-Hanzi-Meaning-... (this is the trad. Chinese version)