Josiah received his black belt from Coach John Holm on December 17th, 2007, after ten years in judo, almost eight of those years at the U.S. Judo Training Center.  Coach Holm awards black belts to those who consistently beat black belts.  And Josiah has been doing that for five years, since he received a silver medal at the Judo Junior Olympics in New Mexico in 2003, beating mostly black belts to win.  Before receiving his black belt, Josiah and the other black belt candidates each got a Taser application while holding onto their black belts!  Here, Josiah is held while he locks up from the Taser by William Nitta on Josiah's right and Josiah's brother Nathanael on his left. 

Josiah used "body crusher" on his way to winning this match at the Sumner Brazilian Ju-Jitsu Submission Tournament, March 10th, 2007. 

January 27th, 2007, at the Washington State Championship, Josiah, in blue in the picture on the left, made his opponent in white tap out to his "baseball" choke, then, in white in the picture on the right, won another match in overtime with stomach throw.

Ride Across America, Spring 2006

Josiah Thalhofer and his brother Adam rode their bicycles all across America in the Spring of 2006, 3,877 miles from Anacortes, Washington, on Mother's Day, May 14th, arriving at Bar Harbor, Maine, June 24th.  At left, Josiah is climbing a hill in New York.  At right, the brothers finally arrived at their destination, six weeks after starting.  They averaged 107 miles per day, with 186 miles their highest one-day milage.  They met many interesting and friendly people along the way.  One of the best was a police officer in Maine, who showed them a place to set up their tent one night, then brought them a bag full of groceries!

Washington State Championship, January 28th, 2006 Josiah Thalhofer won this match with a very forceful Outside Rear Leg Throw.
	Grand Canyon After the 2005 Nationals, Josiah (left) and his brothers, Adam (middle) and Nathanael (right), hiked the Grand Canyon.  Josiah liked to take the lead most of the way.  They went for speed, passing 5 hikers on the way down and 55 hikers on the way up.

Junior Nationals in Irvine, California, Summer of 2005

Josiah Thalhofer threw his opponent with this variation of Gorilla Dump.  Josiah trained hard leading up to this tournament, and this throw emphasized power more than technique.  Josiah basically jumped off the ground with this opponent and then slammed him onto his back.

In another fight at Nationals, Josiah threw his opponent with this sweet Stomach Throw:

Josiah, at 160 lbs., won 1st place in the Pacific Northwest High School Championship May 14th, 2005, in the 198 lbs. division, beating opponents who outweigh him by almost 40 pounds.  Two weeks later, he fought in the Budokan Tournament in Seattle on May 28th.  In this series, he throws one of his opponents in the Budokan Tournament with an inside leg sweep.

Josiah at 18 graduated from both high school and two years of Tacoma Community College, where he has been concentrating in Calculus.  In the Fall of 2005, he headed to Northwest University in Kirkland, WA, where he pursued a degree in Bible Literature.  In the summer, in addition to training for the Judo Nationals, he workd hard to complete his private pilot's license.  His goal is to be a Mission Aviation Fellowship pilot in third-world countries.  Josiah has memorized the entire books of Matthew and Proverbs and he's currently working on Romans.

A Winning Choke One of Josiah's favorite techniques is this "Baseball" choke, which he has used successfully in several tournaments.  Often, as here in the Rainier Cup, 10-09-04, the opponent waits too long to tap--and goes unconscious. If you want to learn how to execute this very effective choke, come train with us at our U.S. Judo Training Center!

Josiah, in the middle, won first place at the Pacific International Juvenile Invitational Tournament in Richmond, BC, 11-15-03.

After getting a silver medal at the U.S. Judo Junior Olympics in July of 2003, Josiah was featured on the sports page of the Vashon Island newspaper, The Beachcomber.