Techniques - Action

You don't need press\passes and long lenses to shoot great action pictures. Your local park or sports club is a good starting point, plus a telezoom of around 70-300mm.
Choosing the right shutter speed to freeze the action is vitally important. As a rough guide, use 1/125sec for joggers, 1/250sec for footballers, 1/500sec for cyclists and 1/1000sec for motorsports.
Alternatively, use a slow shutter speed to give the impression of movement. Combine it wth a burst of flash for a frozen subject with blurred surroundings.
For fast moving subjects, try the panning technique. This is where you follow a moving subject at a constant distance and gives a sharp subject with a streaked background.
If you can get close to the action, try fitting a wide-angle lens for dramatic results. Also try different viewpoints to give a different outlook on the sport you're photographing.
Fast shutter speeds means wide apertures. This throws the background out of focus enabling you to concentrate on the main subject, but focusing is critical.
If the subject is going to pass a certain point, pre-focus on that point and then release the shutter fractionally before the subject gets there.

Don't expect brilliant results first time, practise your focusing techniques.

Learn about the sport you're going to photograph, this will enable you to anticipate what will happen an get better pictures.

Setting to try out...

Exposure Mode: Shutter Priority

Focus Mode: AF-C (continuous)

Aperture: 1/500 sec or faster

ISO: 800 or higher

To improve your shots...

Try to follow individual players, rather than follow all the action on the field.
You will be able to cover more of the play from the side of the field, but to capture goal-mouth action, you will need to choose one end of the pitch.
Use a high ISO of the light levels drop.

Tip

Along with the action on the field, you can also find striking images in the reactions and emotions of the crowd and spectators.