Justin Aucoin is the product of when a five-year-old boy who fell in love with reruns of Guy William’s Zorro grows into a mostly functional adult. His life-long love of athletics and swashbuckling has led him down the road to practicing historical fencing as well as personal training. He’s available for both fencing coaching & personal training in private, semi-private, and group classes both in-person and online.
During his free time, Justin enjoys reading and watching old swashbucklers and historical adventure tales. The Three Musketeers continues to be his favorite franchise (even the really bad renditions). He’s also a huge fan of the Captain Alatriste series and almost anything written by Rafael Sabatini. Justin has even penned a few tales himself. Justin is also an avid cosplayer and enjoys playing video games and tabletop games with friends.
You can find Justin under the moniker of theTavernKnight on social media, a reference to one of Sabatini’s earlier adventure novels.
Read on to learn more about his historical fencing and fitness journey.
Fencing Career
Justin has been fencing since 2006, first as a modern foilist and then joining the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) in 2010. For the past decade, he has studied Italian rapier — going through the works of Giganti, Capoferro, Fabris, and Alfieri — as well as the French branch of fencing including Besnard, Dancie, La Touche, Girard, and Angelo.
As a competitor, he has won numerous rapier tournaments in the SCA — both in singles and in group melee — including Carolingia’s Baronial Rapier Champion, East Kingdom Crown Rapier Champion, and named 6x to the Pennsic Champs team. He is the 15th member of the East Kingdom’s Order of Defense, the SCA’s highest fencing award. He is also a member of the Order of the Golden Rapier and Order of the Silver Rapier for fencing prowess.
Similarly, he is a member of the Order of Silver Broach and the Order of the Maunche for his historical martial arts research, and holds a Silver Wheel and Silver Crescent for his coaching service to the SCA. He’s also a member of the Company of St. Jude, a group dedicated to the study, exploration, and practice of historical martial arts within the SCA.
Outside of the SCA, Justin is the founder and head coach at Boston Academie d’Armes, a HEMA & SCA crossover school with classes in Italian rapier, dueling saber, and smallsword/dueling sword.
He is also a Level One student guide & apprentice instructor through Academie Duello.
The Rest of the Team
