yep, zone focusing. i use it all the time at events, particularly weddings. ie, bride walking down the isle. i will pick a point on the floor, focus to it, and when the bride gets to that point, BAM. if the shot isn't great, then i'll abstain, then move with the subject until the shot is right.

it is a bit harder to focus manually with a modern dslr, as they are geared towards af, and the focus lock has some inaccuracy. but remember, before af, there were millions of photos taken of moving subjects. it is not impossible, in fact far from it. when you get yourself out of the af mindset, you will see that it can be easier to mf in a lot of situations. usually with small format, you could set your diaphragm to f8 on a 35mm lens, and you've got so much DOF. here you would get to know you lens focus ring (hopefully you have a tab on it), so that when you turn it, you know at what distance it is focused to.

it all sounds hard, but you have full control, and with a bit of practice, you'll make all of these decision in the blink of an eye.