Never Give Up Ice Stars

Previously on Ice Stars...

..Kloe's confidence took a knock

when she fell at a major international competition.

Sometimes we have days when we fall on jumps that

we can literally do in our dreams

and that's when you just think, "What's happening?"

-Destiny.

-Destiny was awarded a scholarship

giving her free lessons at the rink.

And after spending the summer back home in Italy,

Adriano returned with a surprise for Ella.

Who have you been skating with while you've been away, then?

-Three girls.

-Three girls?

He's been cheating on you, Ella.

Coming up - Kloe is fighting to get back on top...

I've worked with Kloe now for four years

and I've never seen her come back from a competition so devastated.

..Josh gets some shattering news...

If I had to stop skating,

it'd just be the end of the world, really, for me.

..and Ella realises she'll need to fight to keep hold of her partner.

Could be the last time that me and Adriano skate together.

Nine-year-old Destiny is very proud of all her ice hockey pucks.

She's collected them from the matches she's been to.

Normally, I would just go down and wait there at the barrier,

so then I could just get a little one of these pucks.

Destiny!

Since Destiny won her skating scholarship,

she's been busy practising nonstop at the rink,

determined to become an ice hockey player.

I keep falling.

Like Bambi!

At first, my mum wanted me to do figure skating, but I'm just, like,

"No, that isn't my thing."

Decided I want to go and play ice hockey.

There's a lot of players that I want to be like from our local team.

At the moment, playing for a team is only a pipe dream.

It's something that she's always wanted to do,

but I suppose until she actually gets down there

and gets her kit on and gets on the ice,

it's probably not going to be real.

Destiny's commitment to hockey is starting to get noticed at the rink,

and word has reached Matt, the ice hockey coach.

-Hello?

-Vicky, it's Matt at the National Ice Centre.

-Hello.

Hi, there. I've heard some great things about Destiny

-and her ice skating.

-Yeah.

And we'd be really keen to invite her to the centre

to train with the ice hockey team.

OK, that's great.

-That's great.

-All right, then, Vicky.

-OK, then. Thank you.

-Thank you. Bye-bye.

-Bye.

Do you know who Matt is?

-He's one of the coaches at the stadium.

-Yeah.

And they know that you're mad on ice hockey,

and they want you to go down and a trial

with one of their hockey teams.

-How do you feel?

-Really excited!

You might finally get to be a hockey player.

Yay!

If I do actually play in a team as a net minder, I'll be so happy!

As Destiny's finding out,

making it as a skater requires 100% dedication.

But if you have exceptional talent and are prepared to put in the hours

of practice on the ice, you might just make it to the top.

In about a week's time,

Josh and Ellie have got the British Championships.

Probably the biggest competition of their season,

so we just want to make sure they're as ready as they could possibly be,

to go out there and give it their best.

We're trying to get the lifts

and the spins perfect,

so we get the right scores.

Even the most experienced skaters like Jellie

can struggle with their lifts,

and if this happens at the British Championships,

it could be a disaster.

You have a certain amount of time to do your lifts in.

When Ellie's feet lift off the ground,

so as soon as her feet go back, you're allowed six seconds.

If you don't do it in under that time,

you get marks taken off.

I have to get into it and then hold my position for three seconds

and then get out of the lift, so it's quite fast.

That time, you took ages to grab her on the way back up, didn't you?

You were, like, "Oh-oh-oh!" for ages.

We've been trying to get shorter,

so we have to go out quicker.

I just hope that I can hold it long enough without falling,

or sliding off Josh's knees.

Boom!

Just that last one, I was like, "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!"

All right. If you guys just perform,

there's no reason you can't do really well there, yeah?

To win a medal at the British Championships,

these lifts will have to be perfect.

But time is running out for our golden couple,

as the competition is only a week away.

Despite only skating together for a few months,

Adriano and Ella have also won a place at the British Championships.

They're younger than Jellie, so will be in the category below.

It's a much bigger competition

than they've ever done before and it's really important that

they're ready and they're prepared the best they can be.

OK, guys, come in.

Let's start with the waltz then today.

We find it quite hard to count and concentrate on all our leg lines

and our hold at the same time.

Move when Adriano does.

Don't pull me.

Stretch your legs, stretch.

-Stretch.

-Don't.

Adriano... Adriano, could you...?

Yeah, but you're just squeezing my shoulder.

And it don't work.

We need to stay focused and don't argue,

so we don't lose time with skating

and that could affect our results in the British.

You know it takes less muscles to just...

-What are you doing?

-She didn't say anything.

Yes, she did, because you have to do it in time.

-She went, "Do it in time."

-Back, go back.

Not that much.

It is.

It's not just keeping in time that's the problem.

Adriano came back after the summer with one of his parents

and his other parent has stayed in Italy, in Rome,

with his two brothers,

so the family's split now.

With Adriano and his family missing each other so much,

they have come to a brutal decision

which could devastate his partner, Ella.

If they do badly at the British,

I think that will cement Adriano's decision to go home,

which will be heart-breaking for Ella,

so it's important that they do well.

So the decision is really hard to decide of staying here with Ella,

or going back to Rome with my family.

When you're out there, you're out there by yourselves and that's it,

and it's down to you whether you want it or not

and how badly you want it.

It could be the last time that me and Adriano skate together,

so we need to put 110% effort in.

You've got to remember, when you're nervous as well

and adrenaline's pumping and your heart's pounding fast,

it makes you want to count quicker, but you've got to be smart

and you've got to concentrate.

If the British Championships goes badly,

probably will go back to Italy.

For Adriano to get a medal at his first British Championships would be

unbelievable, but that's what his family need

to justify the separation.

Across town, Kloe is doing all she can

to stay confident for the season ahead.

Things for me at the moment

are really good. Kind of busy.

I moved from a school to college this year.

It's closer to the rink as well,

so it's easier for me to go to training

and I can get a lot more practices, so I sometimes go in my lunch break.

Last season wasn't as successful as Kloe hoped.

In her international competition in Luxembourg,

she fell on both of her routines.

But she's now determined to get her confidence back

and is setting herself new targets.

I just always try my best on practices and...

practising triples,

and my goal at the moment is...

probably to land three to four triples until the end of next year.

But not every training session can be successful,

especially when you're trying to learn new moves

as complicated as triple jumps.

As an athlete and a skater,

you definitely have really good days and days when you can't do anything.

Yeah, there are days when I try triples

and I stay up on every single one,

and there are days when I fall.

Keeping positive is really important for Kloe

and coach Joy is helping her stay optimistic when things get tough.

One of the coaches gave me this piece of paper,

so that I can write down everything that I do

and then I can read it back every week,

so I can concentrate on the good things as well,

because sometimes you only remember the bad things.

It's called a positivity diary

and it's a great way to stop a bad training session getting you down.

Someone else who needs to keep positive

is Kloe's best friend, Josh.

I went to a training camp and we had to do loads of fitness testing,

and one of them involved, like, looking at our heart,

and they realised that it wasn't quite the same as everyone else's.

The way it was beating, it didn't sound the same as everyone else's.

I told Kloe about it, because I just wanted to see what her opinion was

on it as well, because I tell her everything anyway.

We tell each other everything.

Josh rang me and told me that he has something wrong with his heart

and to hear that, it was such a shock for me,

and I guess for him as well.

Any health issue to me that would jeopardise my skating,

I tend to just ignore it completely,

because I just don't want to even think about something like that.

I mean, it would just be the end of the world, really, for me,

if I had to stop skating because of something that...

I can't really control.

Josh's future on the ice hangs in the balance.

Tomorrow, he's going to hospital, where doctors will carry out tests

on his heart. But, like Kloe, he's working hard on staying positive.

-Oh, do you want something to make you feel happy?

-Yeah.

What about some really nice, fresh pasta?

-Yeah.

-Right.

How are you feeling about it?

Yeah, fine. I'm sure I'll be fine.

As long as they don't find anything, it'll be fine.

When you are skating and you're skating really hard,

do you feel your heart pump harder than you think it should pump?

It just feels like... Sometimes it, like...

I feel, like, it's pumping really hard.

I don't feel, like, it hurts or anything like that.

-It's good that we're getting it checked.

-Yes. There's no point

stressing about it, really.

As long as they don't say that I have to stop skating, then...

it'll be all right, really.

You know, it's very worrying,

because if they turn round tomorrow and say he has a problem,

he can't do competitive sport any more,

everything changes tomorrow.

That might be the end of his skating.

Today will not only be a big day for Josh, but also for Destiny,

as she takes the first step towards realising her dream

as an ice hockey player.

-What have you got to remember?

-Speed.

-And?

-Focus.

-And?

-Practice.

-And what else?

-Listen.

-OK.

-Do as you're told.

-I will.

She'll be having her own tutorial with ice hockey coach Matt.

I was really excited when my mum told me that Matt had invited me

down here and it's finally here,

so I can actually see if I'm any good at ice hockey.

I'm going to give it my best shot when I get on the ice.

This is an ideal starting point for

all hockey players that want to give it a shot.

What we need to see now is just the basic skills,

can she skate reasonably well?

Are you worried?

The only thing I would be worried about is if I was to go in goal.

Whacking pucks at my face!

Don't worry about going on goal today, but the most important thing

today, go in and enjoy yourself, all right?

Step on slowly.

Try and just push the puck in front of you

and skate with it at the side.

Just pushing it. That's it, just pushing it. Well done.

OK.

So we're simulating passing and receiving the puck, all right?

So it goes like this. OK, are you ready?

Pass. Good.

It's really rare to find girls playing hockey,

but it's mainly boys who play it.

OK, we're going to skate across the ice now this time,

try and pass to each other,

while we're skating. This is really tricky.

I want to become a net minder in ice hockey,

which is just basically a goalkeeper.

Show me how a goalie holds his stick.

Does he hold a like this?

Yeah, show me. Yeah?

OK. So this is the catcher.

This is the blocker and this is your goalie stick, all right?

So this time, we're going to skate up, we're going to skate up here.

We're going to skate backwards.

So if you want to give that a go.

She's got aspirations to play in goal

and she's got nice forward to backward motion there as a goalie.

OK. You've got to remember, when you're that goal-tender,

that hand's got to be up. OK?

I'm possibly going to get pucks launched at me,

-but I don't really care.

-OK, you ready?

You're my goalie now, OK?

You ready? Down there, near goal. You're going to stop this puck.

Oh, it went through the legs!

My mum's been launching socks at me

as preparation.

You ready? Good. Good.

I just want to play ice hockey.

I don't care whatever team I play for, I just want to play ice hockey.

-So how do you think that went?

-I think that went really well.

OK. What did you learn? What was your favourite bit?

My favourite bit was acting like a goalie!

Once you pretended to be that goalie

and then you really did it on the ice, and that was great to see.

You look like you're tired out.

-OK, that's good.

-My feet are killing.

-You did really well today.

Get your glove. Get your gloves, get your helmet. OK.

-Let's go.

-Lots of equipment to carry.

If I can even carry it all.

It was so fun, but tiring!

And it makes your feet ache.

It made me think that ice hockey was really, really hard.

Yeah, but I just still want to do it,

because I think I might make a pretty good net minder.

Can we just have sandwiches for tea?

-Ah, my feet!

-Other foot.

My feet hurt.

It'd be great to see her on the ice as a net minder

and I think that's the way forward with her now.

It just doesn't happen overnight.

Hard work and effort and determination,

and that smile on her face.

She wants to be a net minder, you can tell.

To become an ice star, you don't just need encouragement on the ice.

Sometimes you need it off the ice, too.

Today, Josh is looking to best friend Kloe for that support.

I guess if you get told that something is wrong

with your heart...

and we skate so much and train so much that we would think that

we would have to stop.

Josh thought that this might be the end of his skating

and that's horrible, and obviously I thought that as well,

so it wasn't nice.

Josh is going to the hospital with his parents

for the investigation into his heart.

The results of the test will decide if it's safe for this

British champion to carry on skating.

I've never been to the hospital before for, like, anything really,

so it was really nerve-racking for me and I think my parents could tell

as well. I don't really like things like that, going to the hospital,

because you want to be as fit as you can all the time.

So, an elite skater.

-Yes.

-Wow, fantastic.

You're having annual checks.

You had one recently where they detected a heart murmur.

So that's why you've come to see me today.

So, let's have a look at you on the couch.

-How long have you been skating for?

-Eight years.

-Have you?

It's just a very, very soft murmur.

I think we should get an ECG done today.

When I first went to have the ECG,

I was a bit nervous because I'd never had one done before.

ECG's absolutely fine.

For completion, we need to do a scan.

But when he was like, "Yeah, we need to have some more tests done

"on you," I was kind of like, "Oh, maybe there is something wrong."

And you start to get that bit of doubt in your mind.

We haven't found anything particularly to explain the murmur.

No, so we haven't found anything structurally wrong with the heart,

-really.

-Fantastic.

-That's really good news.

-Well, thank you for that.

-OK.

-Makes us feel a lot better. Feel happy?

-Yeah.

Is it OK if I continue to skate as I am?

I can't see a reason not for you to carry on.

-Thank you very much indeed.

-Thank you.

-Bye now.

Doctor said that everything's OK, so I'm really happy that I can

continue training as normal and can, like, go back to training without

any worries in my mind that it might be something wrong.

And skating BFF Kloe is clearly pleased to have her training

partner back again.

We train together every day and we help each other.

I just think that's so nice and I love that.

After the all-clear from the doctor,

Josh wastes no time getting back on the ice.

Let's cook!

After a hard session on the ice,

Adriano is cooking up a feast with his dad.

His mum has gone back to Rome to look after his brothers.

When I came back, I came with my mum.

And now we exchanged, so now my dad is here.

But the family do manage to catch up with each other on Skype.

So now, are we Skyping...?

While we're cooking.

-Fine.

-Yes.

-Let's Skype.

-Hello.

-Hello! How are you?

-'Are you good?'

-Yeah, I'm good.

What are you doing, Patricio?

-'Ice rink.'

-Ice rink, all right. Right.

DAD SPEAKS ITALIAN

Hey!

So, normally, we do it once a week

and we Skype them and talk about the things that are happening there

in Rome and here in Nottingham.

Ciao!

Then it makes me feel a little sad that I'm not with them.

Adriano's family have come to a decision.

If he and Ella win a medal at the British Championships,

he can stay on in Nottingham

and follow his dream of becoming an Olympic gold winner,

but this will mean leaving everyone he loves back home in Italy.

It's hard to choose skating with Ella or being at home.

In one way, skates again with Ella and try to win the British - good.

And the bad way is leaving my family in Italy.

The British Championship

is important to finish the job.

I want to win the British ice dance competition,

because the splitting of my family was worth it.

So to justify that sacrifice,

he and Ella need to take a spot on the podium.

Do you have a guess where you're going to come?

Where do you want to come?

Adriano will say he wants to win it.

If we maybe, like, competed tomorrow,

I think we would come, like, second or third, maybe.

Yeah? To think, if you could podium at your first British Championships,

-I think that's pretty amazing, don't you?

-Yeah.

Yeah. Big decisions for Adriano, whether he's going to stay or not.

Tough decisions, I think, for him.

What is your gut feeling? He'll stay, do you think he'll go?

I'm not sure, but at the moment, he seems, like, really happy.

I'm getting the feeling that he's going to stay,

but obviously he's split with his family.

Half his family are in Italy.

-What if that was you?

-I would hate it.

Yeah.

I can't have it in my head that he's going to leave,

because that would just put me down.

It's not long before the championships,

when we'll find out if our ice stars have a future together

or if they'll be forced to say goodbye.

Life for our ice stars can be tough, and no-one knows that better

right now than figure skaters Kloe and Josh.

I think it was hard for both me and Kloe when we heard that she hadn't

skated well. When you come from such a difficult situation,

you've just kind of got to look past it

and just look at all the positives you can take from the sport.

It's not just Josh who's been helping Kloe get back on track.

Coach Joy has been pushing her too.

I came to the rink today to catch up with Joy on the skating diary that

she gave me and hopefully she'll like the things that I wrote on it,

and I feel like it really helped me.

I've worked with Kloe now four years

and I've never seen her come back from a competition so devastated.

She's fresh into the junior category and, you know,

there's a lot of skaters have been in there many years.

When she went into Novices,

she was always in the top three of all the competitions

and she won Novices.

We can't expect to go into the next category and suddenly, you know,

come in the top three.

What I've asked Kloe to do...

and it's purely and simply for her

to write down how she feels after each session.

In figure skating,

the mental side of the sport is just as important as the physical,

if not more important.

-You OK?

-Yeah.

Come on then, let's have a look, see what you've done. Mm-hm.

You have been working hard.

-Yeah.

-What did you find...

-which helped you?

-I wrote all the, like, positive things down,

so it kind of, like, made me more confident, because...

And did you honestly, as soon as you got off the ice, did you fill it in

-as you got off?

-Yeah.

I think what a lot of people, not just yourself,

tend to do is you sort of, like,

you know, zoom in on the negative things.

-Yeah.

-And then you're feeling bad with yourself

so that nothing positive gets done.

So this is really, really good.

Here it was, like, axle, step off,

and now, in the last week, I did four triples in one practice.

This is literally for you.

-Yeah.

-And, you know, if you hadn't have wrote this down,

you would never have looked back four weeks ago

and you've already found out that now you're landing the triples.

You know, I'm really pleased with the work that you've done.

Make sure that you do it next month as well.

-Yeah.

-Well done, Kloe.

Thank you.

Skating requires a lot of mental, like,

you need to be really strong mentally.

And when you have a bad competition like I did,

it just kind of puts you down,

so you'll need to have a chat with someone, or do something like this.

That's why I'm really happy that Joy started this with me.

To help boost Kloe's confidence, Josh has come up with his own plan.

As the current British champion, he's been invited to perform

a routine of his choice at a nearby gala.

And to show Kloe how special she is, he has a little surprise in store.

I knew that I wanted to make it special. Not just for me, but

I needed something to help Kloe and kind of help her feel more confident

about her skating after, obviously, her not skating her best.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

I knew that I wanted to do something a bit different,

so we had a bit of a special idea planned for everyone

and hopefully they were going to enjoy it.

MUSIC: Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars

I started the routine off by myself and, like, midway through,

I went over to the barrier

and that's when the spotlight hit on Kloe.

MUSIC: I Gotta Feeling by The Black Eyed Peas

I was just sat on the barrier!

I think, like, when we do galas on our own, it's still fun.

But we did it together

and that was the first time we've ever done a gala, like, together.

That was so much fun!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

It's so much fun to just be, like, on the ice and have fun,

and not concentrating on landing a jump or not.

We got to do the routine that we wanted to do, so it was really good.

That was beautiful,

and just shows that when you have a friend to help get through the bad

times, it's so much easier to come out the other side.

Next time on Ice Stars -

Ella finds out if Adriano is staying or going home...

His face was kind of really disappointed,

so I was a bit worried.

..the race is on to see if Charlie and Freddie

are ready to represent their country...

I could have gone faster.

..and Asiah sets her sights on performing

at the British Championships with her new team.

I need to be better than everyone to make the coaches pick me.