Train your manual focusing abilities

While manually focusing moving objects, you might find that it is hard for you to keep the object in focus all the time while waiting for the right moment to press the shutter. A good way to become better at this, is to tie a nicely visible object (average ball for the more confident; balloon for slower friends – notice the difference in speed) to a string and hang it down from your ceiling. Now swing it back and forth hard enough to have some time to train focussing. Keep it in focus all the time while it swings!