Championship Jube....

The most important shot from a championship game is the jube or celebration. All the emotion and excitement of winning captured in one image. Be ready towards the end of the game, don't be caught flat footed because you weren't paying attention. Anticipate, get in position and keep your eye in the viewfinder, shoot through the celebration, chimp later. Also don't be the one who runs out and ruins the shot for everyone else, we hate that guy. :) For night games and indoor stuff, don't be lazy, throw a flash on there and get some quality images, put some light on those faces. Flash is also key for the group shot with trophy, even during the day, a little fill flash will really make the image pop and get rid of all that raccoon eye and cap shadows.

Always something interesting....

Heston Quan is always thinking outside the box, I know when I open one of his galleries he'll have some really cool shot in there, but I was really blown away by his recent Track and Field gallery.
Nice stuff Heston!

Here's the link to Heston's Gallery:
CIF- SS Championships (Boys Long Jump)







Photo by Heston Quan

Back Button Focus

If you're still using the shutter button to focus, then you're probably missing shots. Try using the back button, it takes a bit to get used to using your thumb to focus but once you get the hang of it you'll never go back. By seperating the focus from the shutter you can track moving subjects better, your shutter will release quicker and you can pre-focus and meter without moving focus. Here's an article about it from Canon: http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=2286
But it works for you Nikon shooters too. :)