INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION STRATEGY BETWEEN COACHES AND SOINA INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY ATHLETES IN INCREASING ACHIEVEMENT

ABSTRACT: Through this special sports program for people with intellectual disabilities (mental retardation),it is hoped that athletes can excel with their limitations and be able to socialize with the environment.Interpersonal communication between coach and athlete where the coach must be able to adapt himself toathletes who have physical or mental limitations. This study aims to determine how interpersonalcommunication strategies between trainers and athletes with intellectual disabilities SOIna, as well as todetermine the supporting and inhibiting factors in the continuity of interpersonal communication between thetwo. The research method in this study uses a qualitative case study approach. Then the data source wasobtained through interviews with SOIna trainers as subjects in this study. The paradigm of this research isconstructivism. The theoretical approach used in this research is Symbolic Interaction theory. The resultsshowed that the interpersonal communication strategies carried out by the coach with athletes includedindividual approaches to each athlete, understanding the characteristics / traits of the athletes, providingdirections / training materials in simple language, treating athletes with patience and compassion. So it can beconcluded that the interpersonal communication strategy carried out by coaches to athletes in improving theachievements of Special Olympics Indonesia athletes can help to facilitate the delivery of directions,information, commands, and knowledge about sports needed by athletes. Supporting factors for interpersonalcommunication between coaches and athletes include openness between coaches and athletes, feeling ofempathy and providing support and motivation from the coach, while the inhibiting factors are the lack of coachpower and limited intelligence of athletes

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication, Intellectual Disabilities, Symbolic Interaction