How the Ballpoint Pen Killed Cursive

I sometimes wonder if my handwriting would be less bad if I used something other than a ballpoint. Not that my handwriting with a pencil is any great shakes, either. I literally got Ds in handwriting all through elementary school, on otherwise straight-A report cards.

I tend to grip too hard, press to hard, and otherwise fail to achieve the kind of smooth flow of people with neater handwriting. I can't tell if that's something I could be trained out of, or if it's something in my brain wiring or chemistry (perhaps in fine motor control or dysgraphia). My handwriting is tolerable if I write very slowly and very carefully, but that makes compostion harder and notetaking almost impossible.