Imaging Resource published a beginners’ guide to indoor sports photography by Dave Pardue a few months ago, but I’ve only just gotten around to reading through it. While I think the guide is probably a bit too technical for beginners, it’s consistent with my own experience of indoor sports photography—essentially, it’s a fine balancing act for the photographer and his/her equipment.
When shooting action indoors, we have the odds stacked against us: low light means slower focusing and longer exposure durations (all else being equal), when we actually need faster focusing and shorter exposure durations. This typically requires opening up our lens aperture (which makes precise focusing more important) and increasing our sensor’s sensitivity (which makes image quality suffer due to more digital noise). We’re facing an uphill battle to compensate for the inherent environmental disadvantages.
The equipment advice I first wrote some years ago still holds true today, but the crucial part only comes after we’ve put together a decent basic kit: we need to practise. For indoor sports photography, highly capable equipment makes the job of shooting much easier, but it doesn’t eliminate the need for the photographer to work to get the best pictures. That takes skill and awareness, and those only come with practice.