>>35383409According to bulbapedo, its japanese name is "round trip slap", so that plus its animation plus the way it was shown in the anime probably means it is intended to be interpreted as the pokemon just slapping the shit out of its foe back and forth for a while.
Luckily for you OP, double hit exists. It does exactly what you think it does, and is just as shitty as you wish it wasn't (except if you're technician ambipom, I guess).