Kyle Tarp’s never been afraid to help his players make hard decisions. He forced freshman star Derik Queen to cut out his beloved grandmother’s half-and-half tea, told Kevin Huerter his vertical athleticism was “very poor” and is a booming voice of motivation in the weight room.
His methodology has worked. Maryland basketball’s Director of Basketball Performance has led one of the top training and nutrition programs in the country after joining Maryland in 2011 and working for three different coaches. He’s built an impressive career for a man with no prior basketball experience.
“I didn’t have an intention of getting into basketball,” Tarp said, “but I can say without a doubt that I love it.”
Maryland’s basketball performance team isn’t visible to the common hoops fan. Tarp is on the bench for every game, but his noticeable public appearance is hours before a game’s tip-off, when he helps players stretch. But current and former players say the strength and conditioning program is one of program’s most important tools.
Forward Jordan Geronimo said Tarp has a strong relationship with the entire roster. Queen Facetimed the coach this summer asking to prepare him for the upcoming season. In 2015, Jake Layman told the Baltimore Sun that “nobody studies his profession more than [Tarp] does”.
“We have a really special relationship with KT. He’s a guy that you can go to if you have a problem off the court,” Geronimo said. “He’s a fiery spirit.”
Tarp insists that he’s more than a strength and conditioning coach; Maryland’s staff emphasizes basketball performance over testing numbers. That’s somewhat surprising considering Tarp never played organized basketball past middle school.
A former football player at UC-Davis, he always planned on becoming a football strength coach. He landed at the University of Texas post-college, where he saw a story that changed his career trajectory. Tarp watched an ESPN special video on former Longhorn D.J. Augustin’s injury recovery and was fascinated.
“I shifted from how much [weight] I can pick up and put down to more movement-based, functional, dynamic and three-dimensional approach. Basketball to me is the ultimate manifestation of that,” Tarp said.
Tarp worked with the Longhorn’s basketball program, analyzing superstars Kevin Durant and Lamarcus Aldrige’s body performance. After Maryland hired him in 2010, his first couple of years required extensive basketball research. He watched every film study and jotted down notes during games.
His work is centered around preparation and recovery, though. Players lift weights in the offseason and they’re focused on recovery during the season. Injury prevention and rehabilitation is big part of Tarp’s job and he creates plans for every player. How Queen exercises is far different than Ja’Kobi Gillespie’s workout, for example. Every athlete gets a three-pronged approach.
First, his body composition is studied using DEXA scans, analyzing body fat analysis and bone mineral density. That’s how they discovered Queen needed to trim down his body fat after arriving on campus lasts ummer. Next, they view structural elements to find any movement deficiencies or potential injuries.
But performance is the most important aspect of Tarp’s job. Technology has reshaped that element. You might’ve seen Terps players wearing black Catapult vests before games; they track players’ workload and effort level. Tarp also uses force-plate testing, which classifies players into three types of athletes.
Load athletes, such as Queen and Julian Reese, put tons of force into the ground. Explode athletes are incredibly quick off the ground, like Jahmir Young and Bruno Fernando, Tarp said. Drive athletes are the most fluid, for example, Ja’Kobi Gillespie.
“If I’m [training] Steve Francis and all I’m doing is plyometrics and quick twitch stuff, I’m getting a diminishing return from that because he’s already elite at that,” Tarp said. “You might have a guy like Kevin Huerter, was one of those quick twitch guys, but very poor on his drive. We tried to make him a more fluid, better-moving athlete and took a totally different approach with his training, and we saw all those improvements in his vertical jump.”
Tarp’s job changed over recent years. The emergence of technology and the transfer portal have accelerated his training process. Now, players are much less likely to stay for multiple seasons, so the training process becomes more transactional.
Tarp insisted he didn’t view the changes as positive or negative. Instead, he said it’s emblematic of his job – constantly changing his techniques.
“If you’re not willing to adapt, you’re going to get left behind,” Tarp said.
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