What steps to take for photoging kids sports?

It will depend on your market. I do tournaments and do quite well, (hockey mostly). Its nice to give back a % to the orginzation as a way to say thanks (ok so its not nice, but it keeps us in there)
One thing to keep in mind is the ones that are digital and print on location. Impulse buying is what we thrive on.
By the way every one, Im a newbie here.

If you work the deal early enough with the team or league management, you can get them to put the "photography agreement" into their team or league registration form that the parents have to sign. Then copies of that go to you, so it protects you if there is any problem later.

So, if the team or league management is doing that for you, you do something for them. For example, you shoot the team photos for free, and the management gets a free print. Then you get to sell the prints to the parents.

---Bob Gross---

I'm not aware of any alternative here to selling prints. They are not going to want to buy photographic rights, and the shots aren't going to be published anywhere, except for the possibility of a small town newspaper.

---Bob Gross---

BikerFox there are two ways of making money off youth sports, basically. On site and online sales. Online is the easiest to get started with. I use printroom, a pro account which does cost $99 a year and 16% commission to include accepting credit cards. You price the prints as you see fit. All commissions and print costs come out of that amount. You upload a thumbnail and when someone buys, you get a notice and upload the fullsize image. This can be done as a one man operation, of course you need to have away that the parents can find oiut about you so a booth set up with someone there is a good way to get the word out.

On site printing is good for "spur of the moment" purchases but, you need a good printer which is pretty damn fast. A laptop to edit and print from and of course someone who can do that. You also need a way for the parents to view the images available.

Just starting out you might be better off with the online sales, unless you already have the setup for fast printing. Just have a good way to let the parents know about you.

For Event Photography, this is what i bring on location:
4 computers with sports and event software, which alows me to do almost everything from ssingle prints to pacages, I only sell in 8x10 sheets and they start at $12.00 and go up to $20 And then there are poster prints to (12x18) and double sided trading cards, laminated.
For printing, I have 3 kodak 8650 dysubs, and anepson 2200.
Printing on location is a must for me, 95% of my customers exspect it.
another nice touch (would not do an event with out them) are graphics or borders. a good 80% or more of my sales are with a border of some sort. And of course, I charge extra for that
For staffing, I like to have at least one other photographer and my self and two computer people if not more. Your sales on a 3 day tournament will be slow the first few days and then you will get slamed on the last day. Its also wise to have paper and pens handy for the parents to write down game and photo numbers. I usualy have a space on the back of the business card for this.. gives them my card as well as a record of what prints they like.

First you shoot in a style that reduces your editing, use adobe for an auto correct when you have time. Also rememeber our standards of what makes a great print is about 75% above the costumers expectations. To have a "perfect" photo is not as important as having a happy custumer.
In adition to the The sports and evet programing can adjust each picture befor you print, so you basickly edit it in front of the custumer to thier liking. They feel important when they are part of the corection and it help sales.
When a parent first sees the picture they think its great, then when you lighten or darken it a little they are just in awe. when we crop it in a little more ect. parents love it

Of course there is a line.. the event software i use helps with work flow over adobe ect. but if you have a line persay, you look busy, tells people your product is in demand, and if your in demand, you sell more. That is also part of the reason i have 4 computers, not one. The key is people that can push the work through, aka your sales people. as soon as the order is done you just simply say next and keep it going

what we do with rugby is go to a field where there are sevaral kids games going on throughout the day (or 2 fields if they are close by). whichever is the 'home' team, we tend to focus more on their kids (for example Belrose), as there may be 6 or 7 games in the day, but a Belrose team will be playing in all of the games. we note the age groups of the teams (to help us find their parents the following week as well as the 'away' team later in the season). we try to get at least one shot of each child carrying the ball as well as making a tackle.

we then do any editing throughout the week and thursday/friday print out all of the acceptable prints in 4x6. any that are exceptionally good, we'll blow up larger.

my wife can go to the field the next time they have 'home' games to showcase the prints. almost every parent buys the 4x6 for a few bucks and many will order enlargements (often multiple copies!). the 6 and 7 year old's parents will buy many pictures throughout the year, where after about 13, parents are less likely to buy photos. sports cards are also a huge hit, too. meanwhile, i hit a different field and start the process again. by the end of the season (15 games+), we will have hit all the teams in one league and then can choose some teams in another league. people also like getting photos of their kids playing in the grandfinal/championshi​p game - if they win... so we will bring a laptop and people can order prints (to be mailed/delivered) at the end of the game, but yes there is always a big crowd and it's difficult. i like the idea of having extra computers and some helpers

cricket is much harder as the players all wear white (no numbers) and have hats or helmets on. but we use a similar process.

good luck - i hope it all works out for you

With the cost of printing, doing prints befor they are sold is hard for us to do. we do a few examples but they tend to sell each tournament..Parents tend to buy on the impluse.. often if i do a poster print its sold with inthe hour, though the parents are usualy nice enough to let us use if for an example.
We also tend to shoot 150-200 pics per game so there are lots to choose from. for us the more comptuers the better
with our system all the picures are loaded into one comptuter and the rest draw from that one computer which is also a print servr
our bigest seller is graphic borders avalable in all sizes, and we only print in 8x10 sheets. we do encuage parents to combine prints of there are parents that only want one print. if you show the parents u want to help them save, then they remember that.. and buy more later
We never just focus on the home team. I feel that is unfair to the rest of the teams, and would also decrease our sales.
when we do a tournament that has more then one feild or court, if i dont have enough photographers, we shoot a few periods of one then go to the next.

we take about 1200 or so pics on a busy day with 6 or 7 games. some weekends we also shoot on sundays. we focus on the home team but also take photos of the other team as well. remember that we travel to the other fields as well. so later when we take photos of that team, we've already had lots of prints to choose from.

printing up 100 or so 4x6 prints costs next to nothing (only about $.20) each and we'll sell most all of them for $3 each (2 for $5, etc.) plus take in quite a few orders for enlargements. we did quite a few 20x30 posters last season and squillions of a4/8x10. we always print way more prints for the 6, 7, and to some extent 8 year olds as their parents buy everythig we have.

we also do lots of team photos at the end of the year.