Impact of Covid-19 on the Psychology of Coaches

Abstract The development of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), raises concerns about heightened stress and anxiety in people’s lives. The purpose of this research was to investigate the emotional influence of COVID-19 that professional coaches faced and how they managed to deal with social seclusion during the second wave of COVID-19. More precisely, it was investigated whether the age and educational level of coaches had an impact on their psychological condition during this period. The sample consisted of 605 Greek National coaches, 398 men, 206 women, and one coach who did not indicate sex preference, between the ages of 18-67 (M=38.18, SD=11.19). The results indicated the age differences between the youngest and oldest groups, and between high school and Ph.D. graduates. Overall, it was found that the Greek version of ERQ constitutes a reliable instrument for measuring emotion regulation situations in a professional sports environment.