Background. The outbreak of Coronavirus-19 or COVID-19 has detrimental effects on the sports industry. Cancellation of sports training and competitions, movement restriction, and social isolation present an emotional challenge for athletes. Objectives. This cross-sectional study examined the prevalence of emotional distress among athletes during the MCO of Covid-19 in Malaysia. Methods. 224 male and 264 female athletes participated in this study in May 2020. The majority of the participants were archers (20.7%), followed by athletics (12.9), netball (8.4%), and badminton (6.6%). An online survey was employed, which consists of three measures: (a) demographic information, (b) Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale -21, and (c) Kessler Psychological Distress Scale -10. Results. The results indicated that 7.2% (N=35) of the participants reported severe to extremely severe stress, 20.5% (N=100) of participants experienced severe to extremely severe anxiety, and 10% (N=49) participants reported severe to extremely severe depression. Moreover, Chi-Square analysis revealed no significant differences between the level of stress, anxiety, and depression based on age, gender, and category of sports (individual vs. team sports), except for gender and depression (X 2 (4, N=488) = 12.18, P= 0.016). More female athletes reported severe depression (20.3%) compared to male athletes (13.4%). Conclusion. This finding suggests further assessment, monitoring, and treatment plan for athletes, especially female athletes, to ensure their mental health and emotional wellbeing during this Covid19 pandemic.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of archer' attitude towards sport psychology on the effectiveness of the intervention. The study involved 21 junior archers (age= 15.0 ± 1.7 years) from recurve and compound division of State's level team. The archers were divided into three groups including psychological (P), psychological with physical fitness (P+PF) and control groups (CON). They were followed a 12-week intervention training program. Sport Psychology Attitudes-Revised SPA-R (Martin et al., 2002) was used to measure the level of attitude among the both experimental group (P) and (P+PF). The outcome variables were measured after the 12 th week of the intervention. The athletes in this study reported a high score of confidence in sport psychology, which indicated that they have a positive attitude toward the sport psychology services (M=5.27, SD=0.69). In term of gender, the results showed most of the female athletes have more positive attitude towards sport psychology services which exhibit better outcomes in all of the measured parameters except for the personal openness. It shown that attitudes may moderate the effectiveness of training program provided to the athletes if it is not given attention by psychologists.

<p>Studies have indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic has had miserable effects on athlete performance due to the movement control order (MCO) announced by the Malaysia Government. Dealing with self-training without the coach's guidance leads the archers to lose concentration, diminished self-confidence, and elevated anxiety levels. These factors contribute to inconsistent shooting performance. This study attempted to identify the archer's anxiety status during the training isolation period on the shooting performance. A total of 32 participants from the recurve archery category were recruited and enrolled in a web-based cross-sectional study during the MCO. The CSAI-2R instrument was applied to participants to examine the psychological aspect. Training Isolation resulted in a significant effect on anxiety status and shooting performance. Analysis from CSAI-2R, low-level archers, indicated 5% more anxiety than top-level archers for both cognitive and somatic anxiety sub-component. In contrast, Top archers revealed a higher self-confidence mean of 2.32 (moderately high) than low archers (1.38). The result shows improvement in anxiety and score performance with complete online monitoring and coaching supervision first session until the 8th session. These findings could assist sports institutions in improving a better training experience and understanding the pandemic's impact on athletes' mental health during home isolation.</p>