need help with these crappy pics!

I concur with AI Servo. Any motion after you push the shutter half way down in One Shot will be out of focus. Try AI servo for any motion shots.

The only advice I will add is PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE. Photography takes time to learn, none of us picked up a camera and had great photos on our first try. Just ask my father how many rolls of film I wasted till I learned how to use a light meter!

Instead of AI Servo, why not AI Focus? When set this way, the 40D automatically switches between One-Shot and AI Servo when needed. For example, lest say that you are taking pictures of a dog that may not be moving at the moment, but may do so at any time.

I've read the reason why AI focus isn't used widely is because its inconsistent.

Rafromak wrote in post #5895450
Instead of AI Servo, why not AI Focus? When set this way, the 40D automatically switches between One-Shot and AI Servo when needed. For example, lest say that you are taking pictures of a dog that may not be moving at the moment, but may do so at any time.

There's a reason why AI Focus isn't available on the 1d series cameras... Hard to break it to you but it's a gimmick thrown in there by the marketing people rather than the engineers. Shoot AI servo when possible, or learn the oneshot pump action technique.