Justin offers private fencing lessons & events and personal training sessions to individuals, duo, and small-groups. He’s available for both in-person work as well as remote/online sessions.
In-Person | Individual & Small Group Training
I’m available for private classical and historical fencing lessons for individuals and small groups in the Greater Boston region. Weapon forms include:
- Single Rapier
- Rapier & Secondary (dagger, cloak, buckler, baton, etc.)
- Dueling saber
- Italian smallsword or dueling sword
- Classical fencing with the Italian foil and saber
- Spear/Partisan
- Baton-a-deux bouts/Jaegerstock
Lessons are completely tailored to the individual student(s) wants, needs, and experience level. However, a typical lesson includes:
- General warmup.
- Fencing-focus performance warmup to improve a student’s athletic ability, footwork agility, and mental focus/reaction time.
- Core fencing actions, scaled to the student’s skill level (i.e., get better at the fundamentals!).
- Advance techniques & tactics to either refine a student’s depth of skill or breadth of fencing knowledge.
In general, private lessons as a collaborative effort between myself and student, meaning students are always in charge of their education and what they want to learn. I’m there to help guide the student on their journey, provide context and refinement, answer questions, and act as a life-size pin cushion. 
In-person private lessons can be conducted at your home, a local public park, or at one of my partnering venue locations.
Small Group Outing
Want to learn how to fence like a Musketeer or live your dream of becoming a famous swashbuckler? Now you can with the Art of the Duel Adventure Program! This program is perfect for small groups of friends and family looking for a fun outing or to celebrate a special occasion.
Over the course of two hours you and your group will learn all the essentials of defending yourself in a Renaissance duel, including:
- The history and evolution of the sword and the duel
- How to stand & hold a sword
- How to move with grace & power
- Several basic attacks for dispatching your adversary
- How to defend yourself from oncoming attacks
- Specialized rapier & smallsword actions such as body voids, disarms, and yields (think: sneaky, dirty tricks!)
This is all done with expert instruction and a mix of partnered drills and engaging fencing games. You also get the chance to fight in your very own duel with one another or against myself (all with safety gear, of course).
The Art of the Duel program can be done at your home, place of business, or at one of my partnering venue locations.
Historical Fencing Workshops
Bring my experience and instruction to your next event. I’m available to teach fencing workshops at your next HEMA, WMA, or SCA Rapier event either in-person or virtually/remote. Workshops can be tailored to your school or group’s wants and needs and for various experience levels. These start as two-hour workshop to full-weekend seminars/events. I can also present my research projects into mid-17th Century historical martial arts.
Previous workshop topics have included:
- Random Acts of Violence: The Weird & Quirky Plays in 17th & 18th Century Fencing
- Pascha’s Jaegerstock Crash Course
- Approaching the Unorthodox Opponent
- Refining Finding & Gaining the Blade
- Building a Powerful & Efficient Lunge & Recovery
- The 4 Temperaments of Fighter (according to the Italian masters)
- Rapier & Cloak Crash Course
- The Master Players: Overview of 16th & 17th Century French Fencing & Dueling Culture
Justin’s focus is on Italian and French rapier and various secondaries such as dagger and cloak (among others), as well as dueling saber and dueling sword/smallsword, and jaegerstock (double-ended spear).
