Getting good shots of FIRST robots

[Billfred]

So recently I acquired a new digital camera, a Canon PowerShot A620. I picked it up after reading some good reviews and a few good experiences with a borrowed PowerShot A95. (The A620's a more modern camera, albeit with a rather noisy zoom. I've been happy thus far.)

I used the A95 at Cal Games, snapping pictures in my matches off for posterity/reference/ChiefDelphi posting. Problem is, I couldn't seem to get a good picture of some robots on the field.

When I tried to get a picture with the flash, I would frequently catch many teams' reflective numbers, like this:



Now, that just doesn't look natural, so the logical solution would be to turn off the flash. The problem then becomes that the shutter speed has to slow down dramatically in order too get enough light, which between my shaky hands and the robots moving, leads to pictures like this:



Clearly, this doesn't work either. So I ask to the People Who Know More About This Than I: Is there any particular weapon of choice when it comes to camera settings for shooting robots on the field? Is it easier with the regionals and their professional lighting than it is at an off-season? Do I just inhale audibly at taking photographs?