IN THE OLD DAYS, the men of the villages and nations pitted their strength against one another with the sword and crossbow.

After a number of years, the women got annoyed about all the bloodstains on the returning heroes’ chain mail and tried to make them stay indoors on Saturday afternoons.

The men did not like this and felt their masculinity threatened, so the woman said: “Okay, you can play with your friends, but no killing.” This was the first rule, and with it sport was born.

In the following years, sport became more and more popular. It took on a thousand different forms and is played, watched and adored all over the world. It has become so civilised that even the woman decided to join in.

The strange thing is that in this transformation from tribal warfare to modern sport, the one thing that never got lost is the raw passion. It is displayed every time a goal is scored and in spades full when the underdogs triumph.

This makes for great photography.

From the elation of the victor to the despair of the defeated, the opportunity to get great digital photographs of people experiencing life’s full repertoire of emotion is unrivalled in any other field of photography.

But sports pictures do not take themselves, and just turning up with a camera will not guarantee success.

In fact, photographing sport is a bit like a sport itself. The adrenaline is there, so is the requirement for split second timing and the constant strive for perfection. In fact, to be good at sports photography, you need the heart of a sportsman. Don’t find this intimidating though, because unlike most sports, photography is not only accessible to the ultra-athletic.

So what does it take to be a great sports photographer?

Know your horses

The first tip is that every sport is different. And not every great rugby photographer will make a great golf photographer. In fact, in the very highest echelons it is common to specialise in only one sport.

This rule holds true, however, only as often as it is broken and the key is not absolute dedication to any one sport, but rather a deep understanding of the sport that you are photographing and if you are able to attain this in a number of different sports, then you have every chance of being successful in all of them.

But why is knowing the sport in front of you important?

Let's look at the opposite first: Say I spent an evening photographing ice hockey, a sport I know nothing about, what would happen? I would arrive at the rink and would have no idea of where to set myself up, and even if I do pick a decent spot, I would be unlikely to get the sort of pictures I would be happy with, because I won’t be able to anticipate the player’s moves, and if I was paid to be there I would probably not satisfy my picture editor either, as I wouldn’t know the players and wouldn’t focus on the stars.

The very first time I took my digital camera to a rugby match, a sport I am passionate about, I instinctively knew that the corner flag would be a strong position to set up, as there was bound to be some cracking action right in front of me. And right from the word go I could almost sense the players' planned moves. Then when the ball passed to the new team captain and he ran straight for me, I felt the shutter click and I knew I’d got a winner.

Of course, this does not mean that you should leave your camera at home when you are off to attend an unfamiliar sport. It simply means that to get the very best from the occasion you would have to do a bit more research, making sure you know the rules of the game and perhaps looking at some pictures in magazines to see what others have done before, keeping an open mind and always thinking where they have gone wrong and where you can improve.