I learned a little something about shooting sports photos last week and the tips paid off.  Instead of hacking around with shutter or aperature priority, I set my camera to manual mode, with the shutter speed around 1/1000 to 1/1600, the aperature at f/2.8, and the ISO to automatic on my Canon 7D with the 70-200 f/2.8 IS lens.  So as the clouds moved in and out (after all, I am in Seattle), the ISO would vary from 125 to around 400 and back.  So the photos varied a bit in noise level (hardly any at those ISOs) but I got the depth of field and stop action that I was looking for.  Post processing included setting the white balance, doing a bit with the shadows, and a (very little) bit of noise reduction – overall very good results.