I took pictures last night and I'm back to my focus problem again. I have great pictures of the people in the stands and blurry pictures of the players. I know you told me to set it in center focus but I have a Nikon d50 and I'm not sure which one of the settings I use. Hope my fellow Nikon users can help out. Also, is it best to take sports pictures in AF-S or AF-C?
Thanks as always for all your help. Feel like I was getting better and now I feel like I'm starting over again.....Taking pictures is so hard but I will keep trying:)

On the D50 the focus area is in the second menu about the 5th selection in the list. It's labeled "AF-Area Mode". When it's in the single area mode, you can use the selector pad to move the location of the focus spot. Be careful when you're shooting though I have inadvertantly moved it. As for the autofocus type, I like AF-C which will continually adjust focus as you hold the shutter button down halfway and track your victim.

Thanks Daniel for the help. I too must of moved the area of focus by accident.:mad2: You helped me so much to figure out my focus problem and it was so simple to fix!! You gave me great instructions. Thanks again....I took a few practice pictures tonight during basketball practice and my pictures improved 100%. Thanks again:)

Just a thought here, but I think the Sports Action setting on the D50 will automatically set the camera to Spot Focus and Continuous Focus modes. You can still bump your ISO, while gaining some insight on what settings the D50 (itself) uses for the different pictures you take.

You might give it a try while you are developing your manual setting skills.