U.S. JUDO TRAINING CENTER

Josiah, Nathanael, and Adam Thalhofer had been asking to get Tased (their Dad is a deputy who "Rode the Lightning" in training), and William Nitta also wanted to get Tased.  In December 2007, these four were promoted to black belt by Coach Holm and their wish of getting a Taser ride was fulfilled the same night, courtesy of the sheriff's office Taser trainer.  A side note about Coach's conservative black belt promotion policy: Adam was a blue belt in 2004 when he beat brown and black belts to win the Junior US Open in Florida, and received the ranking of #1 in the country for his weight and age class.  For that achievement, Coach Holm promoted Adam to purple belt.  Then, after three more years of wins against teens and adults, including winning the WA State Judo Championship nine years in a row, Adam is awarded his black belt.

Josiah was next up.  The trainer told them that if they could get the word "Stop!" out of their mouths, he would stop the electricity.  Josiah wants to get the full 5 seconds and says, "Don't stop if I say stop."  Listen carefully after the Taser and you can hear a witty comment from the crowd.

Nathanel takes the ride with the least noise of the three Thalhofers.  Coach encourages him, "Take it, Nathan!"  Afterward, Nathanael said that he thought he could smell his nose hairs burning.

In the words of one who watched this video of William getting Tased, "It looks like he goes into his happy place!"  Catch Bill's smile at the end of the ride!