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.

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In-Person & Remote | Individual & Small Group Training

I’m available for private fencing lessons for individuals and small groups both in-person or online.

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.

Remote/online lessons put a stronger emphasis on refining a student’s body and blade mechanics, while in-person sessions are a balance between leveling-up techniques and adding in tactical context.

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. Online private lessons are held via Zoom and can be recorded for further review.

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:

• 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).

Custom Workout Programs

Whether you’re a self-proclaimed “couch potato”, a “weekend warrior” or an avid fitness junkie, it’s nice to have someone guide you along your fitness journey. Unfortunately, a lot of programs out there aren’t really built with the average person in mind and figuring out what exercises to exchange when you don’t have the right equipment can be tricky and frustrating.

Justin builds custom four-month programs that are tailored to your fitness goals, current fitness level/experience, gear access, likes/dislikes, and lifestyle. These programs are perfect for budget-friendly folks who can get themselves to the gym but just need help building a roadmap from where they are now to where they want to be down the line.

Programs go for $300 and includes:

• Custom, tailored-to-you four-month fitness program
• Weekly check-ins and continued program tweaks based on your feedback
• Stretching & Mobility Routine
• Diet & Nutrition: How to Match Your Meals to Your Goals
• Fitness FAQ

To get started, email heroforgtraining@gmail.com for the free questionnaire and consultation.

Personal Training | In-Person & Virtual/Remote

I’m also available for private and small group personal training sessions. These can be done in-person at your home gym, at one of my partnering gyms, or virtually/remote via Zoom.

These session and overall programs are tailored to your fitness goals, current fitness level/experience, gear access, likes/dislikes, and lifestyle. They’re best for folks who need a little more daily accountability to get their workouts in and/or folks who enjoy a little socializing while they work out. My training style is friendly, understanding, supportive. I’m not a “hardass” trainer who’s going to yell at you or berate you. I’m there to help you put out your best effort in that moment and remind you that your health and fitness is a long term game.

My personal training specialization includes:

General Fitness. Get stronger and improve your cardiovascular endurance. The overall goal is functional fitness, such as muscular endurance and good movement patterns, so you can get through your life with as little pain as possible and improved health.

Strength Training. Get strong af. After building a baseline, the goal is focusing on compound lifts of various reps, loads, and volume to improve your overall strength. Think of this as grinding XP to boost your STR bonus.

Hypertrophy. This is all about looking like a superhero. And while the focus is on making you look like a superhero, we also put an emphasis on heavy strength training so you can perform like a superhero, too.

Fencer Performance Training. It’s one thing to have a gorgeous lunge and know when to perform a girata. It’s another thing to do it explosively and over an entire day of tournament fighting. Performance training is all about complementing a fencer’s technical training. The focus is on improving the fencer’s overall athleticism, including power, quickness, and endurance. This is done with a mix of heavy lifting, power training, SAQ drills, and focus/reaction training.

To get started, email heroforgtraining@gmail.com for the free questionnaire and consultation.