Originally posted by monochrome PLANNED MOMENT - know your sport, your subject and your position and you should be able to make your capture in ONE FRAME. She'll allow that, of course, doesn't take into account the unexpected, such as the Daytona 500 crash - but those are exceptions that prove the rule.
+1 I agree with this, I use a D4 capable of 10 FPS for a majority of sporting events that I do cover - Motorcross, (Australian)Football and Soccer. The only time when that full 10 FPS is necessary is with motocross because the bikes are moving considerably faster than a human can, and even then at 10FPS I can count on my hands the number of times I have held the shutter down for longer than two seconds*. When I am covering Soccer or Aussie Football 7 FPS is more than enough, I rarely use AF-C when I'm using high FPS, i'm better at anticipating where the peak of action is going to be. A good hunter waits - a bad hunter chases.
*these moments are often to document accidents, while this may seem a bit heartless: but keep in mind the shots I do get are often used to confirm the cause of the accident.