The 2025 international calendar will start with the European Championships, and everyone is eager to see how teams have evolved since the Olympics. Germany has made significant changes to the men’s sweep programme. I had the opportunity to sit down with Mark Emke, the new lead coach for Germany’s men’s sweep team.
Mark began rowing at the age of 12, joining the junior team at Amsterdam’s RIC. Situated in the suburbs along the Amstel, it’s a beautiful place to row and still serves as Mark’s home club, where he trains several times a week. Like a true Amsterdammer, his favorite race is the fantastic Heineken regatta in March. As a junior, Mark competed in two World Championship events in the quad before transitioning to a career largely in lightweight rowing, racing both the four and the eight. Notably, he crossed over to the quad in the 1980s and competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, where the crew finished ninth. As a student, he rowed for A.S.R. Nereus on the same waters. After his last World Championships in 1995, he returned to Nereus to begin his coaching career.
He started coaching lightweights at Nereus in 1996 and became the club’s first paid head coach. In parallel, Mark launched development projects with the Dutch rowing federation (KNRB). One of these projects led to the creation of an 8+, which Mark first took to the World Championships as a coach in 2003. The boat went on to win silver at the 2004 Olympics. This group, under Mark’s guidance, became known as the Holland Acht. He served as head coach at the KNRB until 2008, after which he stepped away. At the London Olympics, he coached two scullers for Portugal before returning to the Netherlands in 2013 to coach the Holland Acht through the next two Olympic cycles. From 2022, he spent two years coaching in Norway and, in 2025, will move to Germany.
Over the past five years, many of Germany’s top athletes—such as Hannes Ocik and Richard Schmidt—have retired. As a result, Germany’s international results have declined, and the team has focused on developing younger athletes at their U23 center in Dortmund.
Mark now leads the German men’s sweep squad in Dortmund alongside Sabine Tschäge. Together, they are developing a squad of over 20 athletes with the goal of rebuilding the Deutschland-Achter (German Eight). Mark emphasizes that the eight will remain the priority, but they are also investing in a coxless four and a pair.
While change is natural with new leadership, Mark says he wants to preserve the German style of rowing, as it aligns with his coaching vision of how a boat should move. Still, he believes change is necessary, similar to how the Dutch evolved over the past decade. His focus will be on rethinking training methodology. In particular, he’s a strong proponent of polarized training, a concept he developed with physiologists for the Dutch team.
Polarised training is an endurance method that prioritises spending most of the training time at low intensity and a small portion at high intensity, while minimising moderate-intensity work. Typically, about 80% of training is done at an easy aerobic pace, and 20% at high intensity. The major benefit is that it maximises performance gains while reducing the risk of overtraining and burnout, making it ideal for long-term development. Increasing weekly mileage isn’t something you do overnight—it requires gradual progression, and the team is now focused on taking those steps. This approach moves away from some traditional rowing practices, like low-rate intervals and battle paddling, which are now seen as outdated and inefficient.
The program’s intensity blocks are built around achieving maximum heart rate, and where possible, Mark prefers to use actual races to reach this intensity, as racing experience is essential for developing young athletes. Although Henley is not ideally timed this year, Mark is a strong advocate for the value of side-by-side racing. Having attended several times with the Dutch eight, he hopes to bring the German team back for good race practice in a positive environment.
When it comes to racing, Mark believes clarity around crew selection is critical. Working with a group of 14 athletes vying for seats in the eight can create internal competition. Teammates may see each other’s faults but won’t speak up because they are in direct competition. This dynamic changes when athletes are clearly assigned to boats—they start seeing each other as teammates, not rivals, and focus on increasing boat speed collectively rather than individually.
So, what is Mark looking for in an athlete? We discussed what makes a good rower, and he highlighted three key aspects: technical proficiency, physical capability, and—perhaps most importantly—having the right mentality. His program will clearly develop athletes physically and technically, but Mark believes a coach plays a vital role in shaping an athlete’s lifestyle outside the boat. Young athletes entering such an intense environment need guidance, and it’s often what happens off the water that makes the biggest difference.
I asked Mark directly what he thinks makes a good coach. His answer mirrors what makes a good athlete: the ability to develop those three pillars. It’s not necessary for a coach to perform the skills themselves, but they must be able to communicate effectively so the athlete can execute them. A great coach also knows their own limits. While Mark is confident in coaching technique, he acknowledges that mental coaching is highly specific. It’s crucial to surround yourself with staff who can bring your vision to life. This open-mindedness is essential in modern coaching. A coach must be firm enough to unite eight athletes in motion, but also open to input from athletes and fellow coaches. Ignoring that input, he says, will eventually render any coaching vision outdated.
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