Progress report - basketball photos

The "how to operate your camera" books have arrived. I've read a couple of chapters. I guess all the really useful tips are at the end...

My camera is too good for me

My dad always said that a person's equipment should never outpace their skill. He said this whenever I asked for a new pair of track shoes, a new water ski or a new bike. Hence the reason I skied on an ancient wooden slalom and rode a bike that looked like the wicked witch of the west just rode into town. With my dad's words ringing in my ears, my skills have almost always outpaced my equipment. I just make sure I have crappy equipment and ta-da, I'm better than my stuff.
Fast forward to this year and you can see that I have a great new camera. It has 3,047 settings. I know how to use about 5 of them. And those just happen to be the wrong 5 for taking pictures of high-speed action at a low-light basketball game. Most of the pictures I take look like this - totally missing the action. In others, I manage to catch the action but the shot is totally blurry.
Somewhere, my dad is rolling his eyes. A classic case of a person’s equipment outpacing their skill. I ordered some ‘how to’ camera books from Amazon so I can rightfully deserve the equipment I already own. I’ll get back to you. You too, Dad.