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Danielle - what kind of camera do you have? Is it a point & shoot, or an SLR? (If you're not sure... can you take the lens off and put a different lens on? If the answer is no, it's probably a point & shoot. If the answer is yes, it's probably an SLR.)

I'm not aware of a function that allows you to change the shutter speed on any point & shoot camera. On an SLR, I could teach you how to do it if I knew what kind of camera it was.

And Eva... sounds like you're looking for a point & shoot with good zoom? I've had good luck with my Olympus Stylus Epic 170mm Zoom. And you can't go wrong with a Canon Sure Shot (IMO, the best line of point & shoot cameras out there). I understand Minolta has a new max-zoom point & shoot too, although I haven't seen it.

AQW

Lara - this might be difficult to explain in posts, so email me if you'd like more info. You want to buy a lens with the smallest f-stop capability you can afford. Unfortunately, with a super-zoom like a 300mm, you're likely looking at a f/5.6 or so. (My 75-300mm zoom is f/4-5.6, so at max zoom it's f/5.6). I would dearly love to have an f/2.8 @ 300mm... but that gets into the $1,000+ range. Booooo!

Your Rebel has two functions that will allow you to play around and see how the shutter speed and the aperture interface. If you set your dial on AV, that will give you aperture priority - you set the aperture, and the camera will automatically set to the corresponding shutter speed. The reverse is true for the TV mode - you manually set the shutter speed and the camera will pick your aperture. As one goes up, the other goes down to create a good exposure. If you want to play around with this, you should familiarize yourself with the standard "stops" for both aperture and shutters speed. It's a bit tricky to do with the Rebel since it stops up and down in one-third stop increments rather than full stops. Looking solely at f-stops, the standard scale would look something like this:

f/4.0
f/5.6
f/8
f/11
f/16
f/22

And for shutter speed it would be something like this:

1/30
1/60
1/90
1/125
1/250
1/500

Say your shot would be correctly exposed at f/11, 1/125. Should you choose to stop-up your shutter speed to 1/250, you would need to stop-down your aperture to f/8 to maintain correct exposure... these two would be "equivalent exposures". Make sense? So if you want to play around with your Rebel, I suggest metering a shot on full automatic to see what the camera thinks the exposure should be... then setting it into manual mode and "bracketing" around that exposure (maybe one-third stop in each direction, or even up to a full stop)... then see which you like better. But you gotta keep notes when you do this or you'll forget which frame was which combo! LOL

To freeze action you need a fast shutter speed. The problem in shooting sports lies with lighting... most gymnasiums are so horribly lit that when you set your shutter speed at 1/1000 or faster to freeze action, you can't get an aperture low enough to compensate and allow enough light in. GRRRRR. It's something you'll want to play with.

I hope this helps in some way... I'm always available at aqwphoto@aol.com to help out (and that goes for everyone!)

AQW