Fitness: If you want to ski faster, you have to start work long before you climb into your ski boots – by getting fit. This will give you the strength to hold a more aggressive line and will provide the stamina needed to work longer and harder at improving your technique.

Don’t wait until a week before the departure date of your holiday. Build a realistic exercise programme that you can sustain through the autumn and early winter. Cycling is a great way to develop leg strength (either road or mountain biking) without subjecting your knees to a lot of wear and tear. Each session should last about an hour and be designed to maintain a steady heart rate.

Working out with weights is also important, but get a fitness instructor to supervise you. My sessions include squats and hamstring and core exercises. I also do a lot of fitness work on a Skier’s Edge machine (www.skiersedge. co.uk), which simulates the action of edge-to-edge skiing.

Technique: The key is to stay balanced in the middle of your boots, with legs supple but not too bent (remember, long legs are strong legs) and arms in a relaxed position in front of you. During the turn make sure your upper body is over your outside/turning ski, and not leaning into the slope. If you find there’s too much to think about, concentrate on the one area that seems to be your weakest. If you get that right, often everything else will fall into place around it.

Racing: The key is to pick a good line. That means doing all your turning before you reach the gate. As soon as you’ve passed one, initiate the change of course that will steer you past the next, and load up the pressure on your skis as you make the turn. You need to be accelerating out of that turn as you whizz past the gate. If you leave your turns too late, you’ll find yourself skidding and losing lots of speed.

First you need to inspect the course. Make sure you are aware of any sudden changes in the terrain and visualise yourself absorbing them and taking the best possible line. Run over the course in your mind as if you were skiing it perfectly. Confidence and bravery are a huge part of skiing, so by building up positive thoughts beforehand you’ll be giving yourself the best possible chance of skiing well once the race is on.

— To follow Noel Baxter’s progress through the coming World Cup season and the World Championship at Val d’Isère in February, visit www.noelbaxter.co.uk