When shooting events or action photos, engaging people, I often find that frontal (or rear) perspective may be very expressive, but my problem is focusing when the subject moves towards the camera (or away from it). I rarely have even a single decent shot in a series.
If I use AF, then the lag between autofocusing and the shutter release is long enough for the subject to move out of focus. This is especially a problem when shooting wide open. Burst shooting doesn't help here, because the subject is by definition moving more and more out of focus.
I tried focusing manually anticipating the subject, but my eyes are far from perfect in focusing, I often focus at the wrong plane (and it's hard to focus manually when there is nothing at that point yet).
What techniques do you use to shoot such photos?