Global Chinese Kuoshu Wushu Society

Waysun Johnny Tsai is an internationally recognized Martial Arts, Combatives and Survival instructor. 

 

He is a published book and DVD personality with nearly 40 years of experience in teaching Practical Street Defense and Combatives to the Military, Law Enforcement Agencies and Civilians alike. 

 

His teaching resume reads like a book including chapters in :  Traditional Chinese Kung Fu (TMA), Tactical Practical Street Defense programs, women’s self-defense courses, instructing at Cook Country Illinois Juvenile Correctional and DuPage County Illinois Juvenile Correctional facilities, Active Shooter Training for 400 (his share of 1600) civilian staff members at The Montgomery County Municipal Building (Dayton Ohio), to being one of the program manager  for Operation Safe Harbor, a program that was received at multiple public and private Illinois schools implementing better safety protocols and training school security staff. Operation safe Harbor was implemented in San Antonio, Texas Schools 3 days after the Uvalde shooting.

 

Through all formats, Sijo’s teachings and writings has reached over a half a million people around the globe. He has spent the last fourteen years as a government contract instructor conducting de-escalation, situational awareness and force-on-force training for law enforcement agencies across the country.

 

 

The Beginning: 

 

A Chicago native born in 1972, Sijo was raised during an era where martial artists like Bruce Lee had a huge impact on the film industry. Unlike others who would watch a Bruce Lee movie then seek out a kung fu school to build the skills to match, Sijo was born into a martial arts family. His late father, Grandmaster John-Chi-Yuan Tsai migrated from Taipei, Taiwan to the United States in the early 60’s. Bringing his family system with him, Grandmaster Tsai was considered a major martial arts pioneer who in 1964, opened the first public kung fu in Chicago. By the mid-1970’s there were ten Tsai Family Chuan- Fa / Shaolin Temple schools within the city limits. Sijo Waysun Johnny Tsai’s studies at his father’s schools informally began when he was just three years old, kicking and punching bags and mitts that the black belts would hold for him to hit. 

 

At eight years old he began his formal training as a “white sash” at what is now known as the “Sheridan School”. Sijo credits the retired full contact fighter and “Orlando Bad-Man” champion Master David Lewis as his first official instructor. It was “Sifu Dave” that ran the Sheridan school and oversaw the first couple of years of Sijo’s formal training. From the age of eight to nineteen years old, Sijo actively competed in local and national open Karate tournaments. While he was a formidable point fighter, Sijo enjoyed sparring with harder contact more than he did light point sparring. His hard-hitting antics resulted in him getting disqualified from almost as many matches as he won. In other words, he enjoyed hitting his opponents harder than he was supposed to and got disqualified for it. While this did not win him any national championships, it earned the respect of the other competitors, who never seemed to enjoy fighting him because there was a clear understanding that a match with him, win or lose, would hurt. 

 

At the age of fourteen years old, Sijo was awarded his “Brown/ Red sash” earning him the rank of junior instructor, with this rank he would go on to teach the children’s and beginner classes at two locations, the “Belmont/Ashland and Belmont/Oak Park schools. Sijo earned his first-degree black sash in 1988 at the age of sixteen years old. With this rank he was also tasked with creating and writing the entire Tsai’s Kung Fu International curriculum and testing requirements, these became the standards for all four of the family schools.

 

Sijo was responsible opening and running the ‘Harlem and Irving School” which, he operated from open to close for the next three and a half years. At it is peak, Sijo had built up the school to over 450 active students. It was not unusual to see 60 adults in one of his weeknight classes. It was during this time that one of his father’s most infamous master level instructors pulled Sijo into training. This master was none other than the late Grandmaster Steven G. Abbate. Grandmaster Abbate was a highly decorated Vietnam veteran who did two tours of active duty as USMC Recon during the war. He was also a highly accomplished full contact kickboxer finishing his career with over 64 wins and just five losses. It was Grandmaster Abbate that had planted the first painful seed of “combatives” into Sijo. While he was a feared fighter and decorated war veteran, Grandmaster Abbate is most known for being the founder of the original Cobra Kai (Tai Kit Kuen / Grand Snake Fist) school. While scouting local tournaments, producers for an upcoming martial arts movie had learned of his reputation as running his school like a USMC boot camp. The then unknown movie was the now classic “Karate Kid”. 

 

Producers had sent a pre-production team to the Cobra-Kai studio to study him and the way he taught in class. Unfortunately, when the movie came to light, the film studio had stolen (without consent) the name “Cobra Kai” and portrayed this Vietnam War veteran in the vilest way possible. The film ultimately destroyed the commercial reputation of his school and lawsuits pursued. By the time Grandmaster Abbate passed away, Sijo Waysun Johnny Tsai had earned an eighth-degree black sash under him. This rank would match and rival the rank of eighth degree black sash that Sijo had earned from his father in his own family system. 

 

Sijo’s plan is to one day pen a book entitled “The Real Cobra-Kai” with Grandmaster Abbate’s adult children to honor the legacy of Grandmaster Steven G. Abbate. 

 

The Falling Out:

 

At the age of nineteen years old, Sijo accepted a challenge at the school. The challenger left in an ambulance with a shattered knee. With the challenger now attempting to sue the school, arguments regarding on how he handled the challenge arose and had a falling out with his father. His father told him that he didn’t need him and that he was “expendable”. This resulted with him leaving the Harlem and Irving School. It closed within six months of his departure.

 

The Next Ten Years:

 

 Even with as rocky family relationship, Sijo had represented both the Tsai family system and Cobra Kai over the next decade (age 20-30 years old). These were rocky times as he had opened and closed several storefront martial arts schools under the brand of “Tsai’s Kung Fu International”. Because his schools were never able to capture the previous success successful of the Harlem / Irving school, Sijo was able to travel and explore other martial systems and fighting arts. 

 

Sijo had studied arts such as Kali/ Escrima, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Boxing. He found a love for these arts and would bring them back to his schools. It was at the age of twenty years old that he had written his own self-defense curriculum for the other Tsai’s Family Chuan-Fa Schools such as his brother Kenny’s school “Iron-Fist” and developed the reputation as the “Street Self Defense” instructor in the system. 

 

The combatives seed that Grandmaster Abbate had planted many years ago was growing and Sijo began calling his self-defense training program “Realty 101”. It was during this time that every family school system was calling on Sijo to demonstrate and teach self-defense to their students. The program’s curriculum was very fluid, always being tested and redefined in the Sijo’s Chicago apartment, living room with his private students such as Charlie Fusco.

 

 It was at 31 years old when Sijo’s father invited him to return to the family’s Wicker Park (Chicago) school, Sijo accepted the ownership of “Grandmaster Tsai’s Chi-Body. It was a beautiful school, but it only taught the internal arts.

 

 During this time, Sijo was promoted to his eighth-degree black sash and awarded the system’s title of title “International Chief Instructor”. His father wanted to retire back to Taiwan and have Sijo take over the family system. Under his direction the school transitioned from Grandmaster Tsai’s Chi-Body back into Tsai’s Kung Fu International. Now with a school, and unable to find time to travel and train in the other arts that he had enjoyed, Sijo started bringing in outside instructors to teach different arts just so he could attend classes. His father disagreed with this, his only preference was the Chinese martial arts, but since he was moving back to Taiwan, he conceded with the one request that his son call all the training offered at the school “kung fu”, because Kung Fu was “the best”.

 

Another argument ensued; Sijo did not feel that simply calling these other systems kung fu would be honest to anyone. This would lead to the birth of C.U.M.A. (Combined Universal Martial Applications). Tradition, Progression, Evolution. For a variety of reasons, the school moved locations three times in three years. Landing at what was known as the Lawrence School (Kimball and Lawrence, Chicago) Sijo had finally opened a school that he could run the way that he wanted. It was at this location where Sijo had his direct student Robert Page create the classic green and yellow C.U.M.A. Brotherhood of Fighters logo. It was during this period that Sijo began writing his ever-evolving curriculum for C.U.M.A. And while Sijo was on a very progressive path, he would continue to take a team from his school to demonstrate traditional kung fu on stage at the annual Chicago Chinatown Summer Parade.

 

He had brought in seminars and workshops for Master level instructors from around the world. Some of these seminars included the last seminar that Grandmaster Abbate would ever teach before his untimely passing. 

 

Finding His Own Path:

 

It was in late 2006 that Inside Kung Fu Magazine had reached out to him about being featured on the cover of the magazine. Sijo Waysun Johnny Tsai was featured in the center and on the May 2007 cover of Inside King Fu, and his phone began to ring. Unfortunately, not long after the magazine came out, the building that his school was in had a gas explosion during the “bow in” of one of his evening classes, while he and his class was in it and everything was put on hold. He had lost his school. Fortunately, his good friend, mentor and Chicago martial arts pioneer Grandmaster Fred Degerberg opened his gym to Sijo and a handful of his students followed his as he taught in a basement room at the Degerberg Martial Arts Academy for the next three months.

 

Because of the distance to the Degerberg academy from his home, Sijo decided to move to a seminar format and began teaching at various gyms. At one of these gyms, he had taken on a student by the name of Scott Rowan, who had worked for a book publishing company. Scott was impressed with what Sijo was teaching and introduced him to the editor of Triumph Books (The sports division of Random House. After a short lunch meeting, Sijo was offered his first book deal and was given 90 days to turn it in. This book “Practical Kung Fu: 100 Ways To stop an attacker in 5 moves or less” ended up being released in 2008 by Triumph and the now defunct Borders bookstores ordered the first 2500 copies. Sijo was now a published author and felt that he should open another school. That school opened on the Southside of Chicago at 111th and Western and it would change everything that Sijo did moving forward. Forging ahead with C.U.M.A: Sijo found a new level of inspiration with the southside school. His C.U.M.A Combatives hybrid street defense system had launched, and classes were once again full. He had just released his C.U.M.A. RAM Tactical Pen and decided that he was going to self-produce a series of 3 Self Defense DVD entitled: Practical Tactical Street Defense. While filming the DVD series Sijo had contacted several knife manufacturers including TOPS Knives, Cold Steel, ESEE Knives and Taylor Brands (Schrade /Smith and Wesson Knives) for knives to feature. These phone calls were the beginning of a then unknown career path and directions for Sijo.

 

He proceeded to stay in touch with these companies and was invited by Schrade to produce two training DVDs for them: SCHRADE Tactical Baton and The SCHRADE Tactical Baton. SCHRADE would then fly Sijo that same year to the 2008 SHOT SHOW to present the DVDS and the pens to attendees. While at SHOT SHOW, Sijo walked the floor and introduced himself to the companies that had provided him with knives for his projects. The late Mike Fuller (Owner of TOPS / Sijo’s knife industry mentor) and Leo Espinosa (owner of TOPS Knives) embraced and welcomed Sijo into the TOPS Knives family offering to make him his first knife which was an evolution of an existing TOPS knife. The C.U.M.A. Evolution was released in 2010 and a legendary relationship with TOPS knives was born. The C.U.M.A. Evolution was immediately featured in an eight-page review written by an industry leading writer and martial artist named Michael Janich in the now defunct Tactical Knives Magazine.

 

Mike Fuller went on to mentor Sijo in both the knife industry and in life in general. Mike introduced Sijo to many avenues into the knife, tactical training, and survival industries. These introductions would forever change the direction of C.U.M.A. It is safe to say that without these introductions, the C.U.M.A. Survival School would have never of been born. Between filming a total of nine training DVDS, his book, his new TOPS knife, his YouTube channel, His C.U.M.A RAM tactical pen and a couple of other magazine appearances, Sijo was starting to catch the attention of the tactical industry. In 2010, was invited by Laura Burgess Marketing to be flown into the BLACKHAWK! headquarters in Norfolk Virginia along with what would be considered the gun industry’s top ten writers and firearms instructors. He spent a week the BLACKHAWK! HQ with these instructors, building a very large network of professional and personal tactical and firearm relationships that stand to this day. The majority of Sijo’s ongoing firearm, tactical and survival training stem from these relationships.

 

 

 

 

 GROWING C.U.M.A. AS A BRAND:

 

C.U.M.A. today is a far cry from what Sijo had envisioned when he was thirty-one years old. It has evolved from simply a martial arts system and school to an internationally recognized brand of knives, street defense and tactical training. Sijo has over a dozen knife designs and ZIPPO lighters (licensed out C.U.M.A logos) on the market. His most famous knife the C.U.M.A Tak-Ri and the C.U.M.A. KAGE (Ka-Gay) were both released by TOPS knives and are officially used at he the weapons of the GI JOE Ninja SNAKE EYES in the comic books as drawn by Robert Atkins. 

 

Some his 2020 and 2024 designs such as the C.U.M.A. KING DESTRUCTO and the C.U.M.A. Mike’s Arrow (Work Tuff Gear) are manufactured in Taiwan, and are sold throughout the United States, Japan and are featured in comic book projects by legendary artists and writers such as Larry Hama (GI Joe), Chuck Dixon (creator of the Batman villain BANE) and Guy Dorian Jr. (ROM the Space Knight / Blood Hammer). In between teaching classes and knife designing, Sijo is a regular contributor to several industry print magazines such as: Personal Defense World, SKILLSET Magazine, Survivor’s Edge, Prepper Survival Guide, Backwoods Survivor Guide, Inside Kung Fu Magazine, The Truth About Guns (Online) Knife and Gear Review (online).

 

Sijo is currently working on his second book entitled C.U.M.A. COMBATIVES: The Art of Violence and is in discussions for creating a training curriculum for The Gun Camp, a firearm training company formed by the legendary Chicago rapper TWISTA and his partner Creative Scott.

 

Sijo realizes that no man is an island, and there is absolutely a team behind C.U.M.A. now. A list of TEAM C.U.M.A. will be updated on its own section of the website at full launch.

So as most know, Sijo has been holding off on getting involved with ANY traditional martial arts organizations for almost two decades, simply because of the professional path that been on.

 

BUT...In April of 2025, Sijo was honored to be nominated into Global Chinese Kuoshu Wushu Society by his uncle Pai Lum Kung Fu Grandmaster Glenn C. Wilson.

 

Sijo will serve as the Society's Director of Modern Combat Applications of Traditional Chinese Martial Arts.

 

He is proud to have TEAM C.U.M.A. serve alongside with many of the greatest "Who's Who" legends of the martial arts industry. These are the pioneers of the past 60 years.

 

The USA TEAM C.U.M.A. Instructor team has over 100 years of combined experience in Law Enforcement, Military (all four branches), Government Contractors, Firearm Instructors, Security Management, Ring Fighters and traditional martial arts alike.