Social Media Efficacy o n Athletes’ Training and Workout During Covid-19 Pandemic in Kwara State, Nigeria

Background : It will be interesting to say that the rise in e-sports participation and online training is more prevalence than before due to COVID-19 pandemic. It is in view of this that the study investigated social media efficacy on athletes training and workout during COVID-19 pandemic in Kwara State, Nigeria. The objectives of this study were to assess. influence of use of YouTube on athlete training and workout, ii. influence of facebook and twitter on athlete training and workout during COVID-19 pandemic. Contribution: Coaches and athletes are encouraged to embraced digitilization of sports as a mean of effective communication. Method : Descriptive research design of the survey type was used. The population of the study comprises all coaches and athletes in the study area. The Multistage sampling procedures of stratified, purposive and random sampling techniques were used to select 85 respondents. A researcher-structured questionnaire was used for the study. The instrument was validated and tested for reliability using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). A correlation co-efficient of 0.65r was obtained. The data collected were analysed using inferential statistics of chi-square (x 2 ) to test the formulated hypotheses set for the study at 0.05 alpha level. Results: The Results


INTRODUCTION
The engagement of social media in sports is one of the most significant issues in the sports industry today. Sports fans, athletes as well as coaches are embracing social media as an important tool towards promoting and to interacting freely. Communication is a vital means of disseminating information to a targeted audience. It is so crucial in life that even before the advent of new technology, the traditional methods of communication plays a vital role in getting information to intended audience with ease. With the coming of new technologies in communication, the traditional method has been relegated to the background, if not totally forgotten [1]. Modern means of communication play a key role in relation to effectiveness and efficacy in the world sports today. Along the line, a new means of communication surfaced known as "social media". Social media has become a household information agent across the world; the users cut across ages, tribes and nations [1]. However social media is a good platform that is used to share ideas, thoughts and connect people together in the society. Also social media has become an important tool for distributing sports contents and attracting new readers as well as creating more participation in social life [2]. Social media is one of the most important tools for sports development in the world today through effective use of mobile phone and other accessories. However, the population of social media users has increased drastically in the last two decades especially in the area of sports. People do engage themselves in sporting activities by following or monitoring the progress of their favourite athletes on daily basis. The advantage of using social media in sports organisations often helps users to establish a cordial relationship that would reduce marketing cost but increase sales. On the part of athletes, the efficient use of social media platform is to connect both the players and coaches together especially during breaks and in the midst of lockdown policy as a safety measure put in place by the government to fight COVID-19 pandemic in the world [3].
More so, the rising of mobile phone users and application of social media has changed the way people observed things in the society including our level of involvement in sports. The social media platform that is available and easy to access by both sportsmen and the general public are facebook, twitter, instagram, YouTube, video call, telegram, google chart [4]. Social media is seen as the online technologies which people use to share opinions, experiences, insights, contents, perspectives and media themselves. It combines participation powered by network effects, making social media platforms almost 'the most powerful form of media yet created [5]. Social media comes in different forms and these includes magazines, internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, micro blogging, wikis, podcasts, photographs or pictures, video, rating and social bookmarking. With the world in the midst of a social media revolution, it is more than obvious that social media tools like Facebook, twitter, blogs, YouTube and others are used extensively for the purpose of communication. The social media tools have virtually brought people close to one another especially those living in far places [6]. Some of the most popular social media platforms utilised in sports organisations include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedlIn, YouTube and Instagram. Trisha however identified Facebook as being the most popular social networking site and YouTube as the second most popular social media platform. In 2014, Facebook was rated to be the largest online social network with over 1.31 billion users with many communications and integration options available for its user [7].
It has more or less coincided with the social media revolution and today is the largest social networking site that accommodates a large number of people in the world. Facebook gives room for people to screen shot their pictures and post them online especially football players and other sportsmen. Proper usage of social media such as facebook and twitter often arouse the interest of people towards watching football and other games on the Internet [8]. It is also used by the coaches to assess the performance of their athletes on daily basis during breaks when the athletes are not in camp [9]. Facebook and twitter has also contributed to online team participation because both the coaches and the team management would want to communicate directly to athletes while they are away through facebook and twitter. The advantage of twitter/facebook is the capabilities to function by communicating instantaneously with athletes and their coaches in order to assess the level of commitment of individuals during their personal training [10]. Athletes and coaches adopted the use of twitter during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown to enhance effective and smooth dissemination of information in terms of sending training programme to athletes by the coaches and also receiving the feedback through the same means. Coaches and athletes have grasped the importance of using social media technologies to connect with themselves as a means of sending information such as uploading of pictures and sending of training programme during lockdown. YouTube is a video-sharing website that pave way for both the sender and receiver to upload their images online during their communication hours. In sports, the use of YouTube enables players or athletes to do basic video editing and also tag video in such a way that people can easily find them and also received comments on their videos [11]. YouTube is a video sharing service. The principle of YouTube is really simple; one will upload videos and share with other people. YouTube enables user to upload a video and then, put the URL as a link on their website to direct people to the video. Users can also use the embedding code to make the video appear on their own website or blog. Doing so is free and it makes such sites look very professional. [12] established that YouTube users also allow people to embed their videos which will create viral marketing so as to make some people help to spread the content. Signing up to YouTube will allow one to own a YouTube channel on which one can constantly update people interested in their organisation.
The use of social media by professional sports teams is increasing rapidly. Many teams are dedicating more time and resources to operate their social media presence and to connect with stakeholders. Additionally, [13] observed that nearly all sports teams' websites now integrate links to their respective pages for Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and blogs. This makes sense because brads rely heavily on fan following, so it is essential to understand what media fans want. These social media outlets provide efficient means for sportsmen and women to facilitate fan interaction and commentary of their brand due to low entry costs and large fan population presence. [14] found that there is a significant rise in social media use in sports and entertainment industry resulting in the decline of traditional marketing and communication methods. He conducted an online survey of sports and entertainment venue mangers to understand their perceptions and predictions of social media in sport and entertainment facilities.
In addition YouTube is a site that enables athletes to record their training or workouts on daily basis and send it to the coaches. [15] stressed that YouTube is a technological device that allows the athletes to interact freely with their coaches especially during breaks and also engage with their audience via video in which they can watch them anytime. The use of video call through skype has also created a lot of opportunities for coaches and athletes to interact freely by viewing the level of involvement of athletes on social media. Similarly, digital media such as video call through skype as a virtual platform used has often facilitated social interaction and empowers people in the area of sports management [16].
The use of cell phone through Skype has also contributed to information sharing across sports organisation which enhance greater access to facts, figures and statistics about responses of athletes to training or workout sent to them by the coach. The use of social media by teams sports is increasing rapidly on daily basis. Some coaches are dedicating more time 10.12198/spekta.v4i1.5115 and resources to operate their social media in order to connect with the players and other stakeholders in sports such as journalists, sports administrators among others. This may have enhanced effective communication between coaches and athletes on the basis of training/workout assessment. Social media is a powerful tool that is embraced in sports in order to bring about effective communication between the athletes and coaches as well as the fans and sports administrators [17]. During the 2020 lockdown in Nigeria, the technical crew of Kwara United Football Club observed their players training/workout sessions through the use of video call through skype, while some other coaches used virtual training sessions to evaluate the level of commitment of their athletes to training during the lockdown.  Figure 1 shows the graphical representation of the mean number of athletes engaging in personal training / coach and athletes relationship. The figure revealed the cordial relationship and interaction between coaches and athletes due to total lockdown. The trend starts from March when the total lockdown started, and how it rise to it peak in the month of June and later coming down. This is an indication of cordial relationship that exist between coaches and players, we can see effectiveness of sending training programme to athletes during lockdown to athletes and athletes sending feedback to coaches through whatsapp, twitter, and facebook.
A study conducted by Chidi (2020) [8] affirmed that 90% of the Sports journalist were found of using face mask while conducting interviewed and 10% of them conduct virtual interview through the use of social media platform also in his study Madaki (2020) [11] affirmed that 95% of Non athlete. Individual who engage in exercise to keep fit usually adopt the use of social platform to communicate and display their exercise as a faceback mechanism between them and their fitness instructors. But to best of researchers knowledge no study has been carried out in the study area on social media Efficacy on athletes training and workout during Covid19 pandemic. This is the research gap. Despite the enormous benefits of social media in sports, some athletes and sports administrators still abused their usages by posting negative comments to influence the attitude of some players. This often hinders thiefs performances. The researchers observed that during the 2020 lockdown the coaches do send their training programmes to their athletes and got feedback through video calls, WhatsApp, use on YouTube, and instagram. Some of these athletes had no idea of using twitter and YouTube to feed their coaches back on what they do during their personal training or workouts in order to keep themselves in shape. However, those athletes who were good in using these social media to record and send the pictures of their training sessions to their respective coaches as a means of feedback usually manipulate the pictures sent. Similarly, poor network system as a result of geographical location of where some of these athletes resided during the lockdown hindered efficacy of social media usage between the coaches and their athletes on the basis of assessment of the training sessions and workouts of players. This necessitates the needs why the researchers deem it fit to investigate perceived influence of the social media efficacy on athletes training, and workout during COVID-19 pandemic in Kwara State, Nigeria. The objective of this study was to examine social media efficacy on athletes training and workout during COVID-19 pandemic in Kwara State Nigeria.

METHOD
The descriptive research design of the survey type was employed for this study. This design was considered appropriate due to its advantage to describe the existing phenomenon in relation to the variables being studies. The population for this study comprised all coaches and professional athletes/players within the study area. A multistage sampling procedure of stratified, purposive and random sampling technique was used to select eighty-five (85) respondents. The respondents were stratified into two strata, players and coaches. Twenty (20) football coaches who were handling professional clubs were randomly sampled out of the fifty (50) registered coaches in the study area. The purposive sampling technique was used to select all the twenty (20) players of Kwara United Football Club and twenty (20) players of Abubakar Bukola Saraki Football Club two (2) basketball coaches and two (2 athletic coach. All of these respondents were purposively sampled. Also twelve (12) basketball players and nine (9) track athletes were randomly sampled. In all eighty-five (85) respondents were sampled for the study. A researcher-structured questionnaire was used for the study. Titled "Social Media efficacy on athletes training and workout during covid-19 pandemic in Kwara State Nigeria was prepared in four (4) points rating scale of Strongly Agreed (SA) Agreed (A) Strongly Disagreed (SD) Disagreed (D) were adopted for scoring. The instrument was validated by three (3) lecturers in the Department Human Kinetics Education, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State. The reliability level of the instrument was ascertained through test re-test method using the Pearson Product 10.12198/spekta.v4i1.5115 Moments Correlation (PPMC). A correlation coefficient of 0.65 was obtained. The instrument was administered by the researchers and two (2) trained research assistants. The data collected were analysed using percentages and inferential statistics of chi-square to test the formulated hypotheses set for the study at 0.05 alpha level.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
1. Ho1: Use of YouTube will have no significant influence on training and workout of athletes during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Kwara State.  P<0.05 Table 2 indicated that 173(45%) of the respondents agreed that the use of facebook twitter had a significant influence on athletes' training and workout during COVID-19 pandemic in Kwara State, while 252(55%) of the respondents disagreed. It also shows the calculated (x 2 ) value of 24.09 against the critical (x 2 ) value of 21.03 with 12 degree of freedom at 0.05 alpha level. Since the calculated (x 2 ) value is greater than the critical (x 2 ) value, hence the null hypothesis that stated that the use of facebook, twitter will have no significant influence on 10.12198/spekta.v4i1.5115 athletes' training and workout during COVID-19 pandemic was hereby rejected. This means that the use of facebook twitter had a significant influence on athletes training and workout during COVID-19 pandemic in Kwara State. 3. Ho3: Use of video calls through skype will have no significant influence on athletes' training and workout during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Kwara State. P<0.05 Table 3 reveals that 160(40%) of the respondents agreed that the use of video calls through skype had significant influence on athletes training and workout during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Kwara State, while 265(60%) of the respondents disagreed. It also indicates, the calculated (x 2 ) value of 28.18 against the critical (x 2 ) value of 21.03 with 12 degree of freedom at 0.05 alpha level. Since the calculated (x 2 ) value is greater than the critical (x 2 ) value hence, the null hypothesis that stated that the use of video calls through skype will have no significant influence on athletes training and workout during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown was hereby rejected. This implies that the use of video calls through skype had a significant influence on athletes training and workout during the COVID-19 lockdown pandemic in Kwara State. The findings from tested hypothesis one revealed that the use of YouTube had a significant influence on athletes' training and workout during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in the study area. This result is in line with the findings of [2] who affirmed that YouTube is a technological device that allows athletes to interact freely with their coaches especially during breaks and also engage their audience via videos in which they can watch them anytime. Also, [11] concluded that in sports the use of YouTube often enables players/athletes to do basic video editing and also tag such videos in such a way that people could easily find them and also receive comments on their videos.
The finding from tested hypothesis two showed that the use of facebook, twitter had a significant influence on athletes' training and workout during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in the study area. This result supported the findings of [10] who pointed out that the advantage of twitter and facebook are the capabilities to function by communicating instantaneously with athletes and their coaches in order to assess the level of commitment of individuals during their personal training. Similarly [9] affirmed that use of facebook and twitter had contributed to the online team participation because it enables the coaches and the team management to communicate directly with the athletes while they were away. It is also used by the coaches to assessed the performance of their athletes on daily basis during breaks when the athletes are not in the camp. Based on research Bolarinwa 2015, Loughead 2016, David 2018 this research can related the relationship the athletes training using the social media [18][19][20][22][23] in during covid-19 pandemic.
The finding from tested hypothesis three indicated that the use of video calls through skype had a significant influence on athletes' training and workout during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in the study area. This result buttressed the finding of [17] who submitted that digital media such as video call through skype and virtual training platform enhance effective communication between coaches and athletes on the basis of assessing their daily training and workout online. In the same vein, [16] affirmed that the use of cell phones through skype had also enhanced information sharing across sports' organization. This gave room for greater access to facts, figures and statistics about responses of athletes to training programme sent to them by the coach. The use of virtual platform had also facilitated social interaction and people in the area of sports management

CONCLUSION
The use of YouTube as a medium of digitalization of sports had a significant influence on athletes' training and workout during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Also, facebook, twitter and the use of video calls on Skype were fundamental and significant to athletes' training and workout during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Kwara State, Nigeria. Moreso, the club management should encourage coaches and players to acquire more skills in the use of mobile application tools such as twitter, facebook and even WhatsApp for their online training and workout programme. The implication is that coaches and athletes should be encouraged to embraced digitization of sports as means of effective communication.
The social media platform that is available and easy to access by both sportsmen and the general public are facebook, twitter, instagram, YouTube, video call, telegram, google chart. Social media is seen as the online technologies which people use to share opinions, experiences, insights, contents, perspectives and media themselves.