The relationship between athletes' perceptions of Covid-19 and communication with the psychological skills

Many athletes experienced psychological problems and communication with their coaches during the Covid-19 pandemic. The purposes of this study was to determine: athletes’ perceptions of Covid-19, communication athletes to coaches, the psychological skills of athletes, the relationship between athletes’ perceptions of Covid19, and communication athletes-coaches with the psychological skills of Bengkulu athletes during Covid-19. The method used in this research was quantitative with a correlation approach. The population in this research was all Bengkulu athletes who would participate in National Sports Week (PON) Papua 2021, totaling 83 athletes. Sampling technique used is total sampling so that all populations were used as research samples. Research techniques and instruments used individual perception about Covid-19 questionnaire, the coaches-athletes relationship questionnaire, and the psychological skills inventory for sports questionnaire. Data analysis technique used multiple regression with SPSS at the significance level of 0.05. The result of this study indicates that: (1) athletes’ perceptions of Covid-19 have a good perception with score 70.00 – 84.00, (2) communication athletes to coaches have very good communication with score 41.39 46.00, (3) the psychological skills of athletes have a good category with score 129.20 159.9, (4) there was a significant relationship between athletes’ perceptions of Covid-19, communication athletes-coaches with psychological skills level of Bengkulu athletes during pandemic Covid-19 with sig. score 0.005 < 0.05.


INTRODUCTION
The Covid-19 was a national pandemic in Indonesia that has an impact on all aspects of life, including sport (World Health Organization, 2020). Many sporting events that were originally scheduled for 2020 were postponed due to Covid-19 such as Olympic & Paralympic in Tokyo (Stambulova et al., 2020). In addition, there have also been cancellations of national sporting events such as the National Sports Week (PON) in Indonesia. Many people feel the disadvantages of postponing sports events due to Covid-19 . Athletes were one of the people most disadvantaged because they have to do quarantine (Fiorilli et al., 2021). The negative impact of quarantine of athletes includes decreased psychological skills such as concentration and motivation (Belinchón-deMiguel et al., 2019). In addition, the existence of quarantine which requires athletes to stay at home causes major psychological problems such as increased stress, anxiety, and depression (Iancheva et al., 2020). The results of research in Italy also showed that quarantine significantly reduced the level of physical activity and that this decrease has a negative effect on psychological (Maugeri et al., 2020).
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused different perceptions for each athlete and most athletes' perceptions of Covid-19 were negative. They consider that following the quarantine during Covid -19 caused their performance to decline (Clemente-Suárez et al., 2020). The same perception between coaches and athletes of the goals achieved will have a significant impact in overcoming stress during the competition and have a significant relationship to athlete's performance (Nicolas et al., 2011). Negative perceptions about Covid-19 will lead to a less optimal training program for PON Bengkulu athletes to face the PON 2021 which will be implemented in Papua.
The Covid-19 also has an impact on communication between athletes and coaches during the Covid-19 pandemic (Ruihley & Li, 2020). The athletes communication referred to in this research was an intensive relationship between athletes and coaches in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. Communication in the relationship between coaches and athletes were very important factor in achieving sports goals or achievements (Nicholls et al., 2017). During the Covid-19 pandemic, athletes and coaches cannot communicate directly or face-to-face in carrying out the training programs that have been scheduled (Bijen et al., 2021).
Based on the results of previous research, it was known that out of 692 elite and semi-elite athletes in South Africa it was reported that 52% felt depressed and 55% felt a lack of motivation to remain active during the Covid-19 pandemic (Pillay et al., 2020). In addition, it was reported in Italy that anxiety levels also increased during quarantine and influenced the intention to engage in physical activity (Chirico et al., 2020). Based on the results of research from 252 athletes consisting of elite athletes stated that depression and anxiety were the biggest factors in psychological disorders (Vaughan et al., 2020).
Based on the results of interview with coaches, the authors believe that many factors affect the psychological skill of Bengkulu athletes during Covid-19 pandemic including, first; the perception of athletes in carrying out training programs during the Covid-19 pandemic, second; communication between athletes to coaches during the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on the author's knowledge, until now there has been no research that examines the perceptions of PON Bengkulu about Covid-19, communication between athletes to coaches during the Covid-19 pandemic, and psychological skills of PON Bengkulu athletes during the Covid-19 pandemic. So this research needs to be done as a basic effort to determine the level of preparation for Bengkulu athletes in terms of psychological aspects towards PON Papua 2021. The results of this research can be used by coaches in Bengkulu Province to develop psychological skills training programs for athletes during the Covid-19 pandemic.

METHODS
The method used in this research was descriptive quantitative research with a correlational approach. This research was conducted to determine the relationship between two or more variables, without adding or manipulating existing data (Suharsimi, 2013).

Data Analysis Techniques
The data analysis technique used Statistical Product and Service Solution (SPPS) software version 23.0. The steps to analyze the data were as follows: 1. Grouping data based on variables. 2. Presenting data from the variables studied. 3. Creating categorical criteria based on research variables.  4. Using multiple linear regression analysis. To assess the accuracy of the regression function, the researcher used the statistical value of "r" (Sukestiyarno, 2014).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
This research examines the athletes' perceptions of Covid-19, the communication of athletes to their coaches, and the psychological skills of PON Bengkulu athletes during the Covid-19 pandemic.The results of this research based on each variable are presented in the table and graph below. Based on table 4, it can be seen that 20 athletes have moderate category, 62 athletes have good category, and 1 athlete has very good category , and no athlete has bad or very bad category. The result of psychological skills of athletes are presented in graph 3.

Hypothesis Testing
The researcher conducted a prerequisite test, namely the normality test and linearity test. The normality test used the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test with the following test criteria: 1. if the sig. score < 0.05, then Ho is rejected so that the data comes from an abnormally distributed population. 2. if the sig. score > 0.05 then Ho is accepted, so the data comes from a normally distributed population.
The results of normality test data are presented in tabel 1.   Based on table 6, it can be seen that the sig value > 0.05 so it can be concluded that the research data on each of these variables have a linear relationship. Hypothesis testing used multiple regression with the following test criteria: 1. if sig score < 0.05 then Ho is rejected, so there is a relationship between the variables being tested. 2. if sig score > 0.05 then Ho is accepted, so there is no a relationship between the variables being tested.
The Results of analysis multiple regression presented in table 7.