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This thread has gotten slightly off topic from the purpose of the original post about where this coach goes from where he is at, but I do think there's been a lot of great advice given.
As for the topic of starting out in slow or fast, I think there are some pros and cons, though I know 95% of the people who post on OFC are going to be proponents of fastpitch all the way. Partially due to the fact that my area of the state was among the last to go to fastpitch, and partially because I didn't know any better at the time, my DD played slowpitch up through age 12 before going over to fastpitch, and she ended up having a pretty good career playing high school and D3 college, and is now involved with me in coaching herself. She absolutely did learn some things playing slowpitch, and it took a little bit of time to "catch up" but I think she got there by the time she was in high school. If I were doing it over again knowing what I know now, I would definitely have got her into fastpitch earlier, but only if I knew she had very good coaches and if that team was going to play competitively. I have seen some "rec" fastpitch that consisted of nothing more than the pitchers walking and/or striking out everyone, and the coaches yellling a lot, and I don't think a lot was being learned and many girls lost interest in the game ... so I guess my point is that I will disagree that any fastpitch experience at a young age is better than any slowpitch experience, but if one does their homework and gets the right team/coaches, the girls are more likely to be successful by going the fastpitch route.
As for the topic of starting out in slow or fast, I think there are some pros and cons, though I know 95% of the people who post on OFC are going to be proponents of fastpitch all the way. Partially due to the fact that my area of the state was among the last to go to fastpitch, and partially because I didn't know any better at the time, my DD played slowpitch up through age 12 before going over to fastpitch, and she ended up having a pretty good career playing high school and D3 college, and is now involved with me in coaching herself. She absolutely did learn some things playing slowpitch, and it took a little bit of time to "catch up" but I think she got there by the time she was in high school. If I were doing it over again knowing what I know now, I would definitely have got her into fastpitch earlier, but only if I knew she had very good coaches and if that team was going to play competitively. I have seen some "rec" fastpitch that consisted of nothing more than the pitchers walking and/or striking out everyone, and the coaches yellling a lot, and I don't think a lot was being learned and many girls lost interest in the game ... so I guess my point is that I will disagree that any fastpitch experience at a young age is better than any slowpitch experience, but if one does their homework and gets the right team/coaches, the girls are more likely to be successful by going the fastpitch route.