With just one word, Master Fitzgerald has their attention.

"Beginners."

His students stand, remove their shoes and socks, and step lightly onto the training room's red and blue rubber floor. A young girl gives her mother a quick look before following.

Master Fitzgerald carefully places his seven students in two rows, each an arm's length from one another. He positions himself in front of them and turns away. Starting with the master, one by one they sit and, together, they meditate.

Moments later they will stand and begin learning the footwork, blocking techniques and punches that comprise the master's self-defense training. They will grunt. They will shuffle their feet. They will be corrected by the master. They are learning Tang Soo Do.

But right now they sit still, and this, according to Joseph Fitzgerald, is an equally important part of the free beginning martial arts lessons he offers at Fitzgerald Martial Arts in Hyde Park.

"Most people never take a moment to be in silence at any point during the day," said the 37-year-old instructor after a recent lesson. "Meditation gives you a moment to clear your mind."

Since 1999, Fitzgerald, who lives in Park Forest, has been teaching Tang Soo Do to the professionals, students and families of Hyde Park. He has previously taught at the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club and the University of Chicago, where he continues to mentor a Tang Soo Do student group once a week.

In a neighborhood where stress and crime can seem like old, unwanted friends to many, Fitzgerald feels his Tang Soo Do lessons offer Hyde Park residents both a pressure release valve and a means of self-defense.

Tang Soo Do originated in Korea and is as a combination of Chinese Kung Fu and Japanese Karate forms, according to Fitzgerald. Search through the Chicago Yellow Pages and you won't find another school teaching it in the city. Fitzgerald says his is the only one though two of his students teach members-only lessons at local community centers.

Fitzgerald instructs about 150 students of all ages at his school and teaches free beginning classes twice every weekday and once on Saturdays. First time students need only show up in athletic clothes, ready to go barefoot and to listen, according to Fitzgerald.

Lessons take place at Fitzgerald's "Do Jang"-or training hall, located on 55th Street near Lake Shore Drive. Like those in many martial arts training centers, the walls in Fitzgerald's are covered by plaques, trophies, banners and pictures of luminaries from his fighting form. A seating area just beyond the center's store-front window gives parents and students waiting for lessons a nice place from which to watch the master at work.

In addition to meditation, beginning lessons consist of practicing a few basic fighting methods. Fitzgerald leads his students back and forth across the floor of the training hall practicing techniques like the "Kee Ma Chase"-horse riding stance, the "Sang Dan Mahk Ki"-high block and the "Chun Dan Kyuk"-middle punch. Though not complex, these movements demand precision and thought.

Fitzgerald's buzz cut, goatee and athletic physique contrast with the calm, almost amused demeanor he displays while teaching. While he is quick to correct poor wrist positioning or an unlocked back leg, he does so with good humor.

To get the attention of one young student who dropped his guard during a drill, Fitzgerald explained how a dropped guard once cost the boxer Oscar de la Hoya a fight and some ribs. Wide-eyed, the student quickly adjusted his stance.

Self-defense is very important to Fitzgerald, who began studying Tang Soo Do in 1988 while a student at Penn State University.

"I think everyone should know how to defend themselves. It's like having two kids and not knowing CPR," he said.

Fitzgerald said he has used Tang Soo Do on three occasions outside of his training and "all three were very successful, in fact the person never got a chance to hurt me." Passing on these skills to others is a big reason why he teaches, particularly in Hyde Park, where he sees crime and safety as a growing problem.

"Hyde Park has two faces, a daytime face and a night time face and the night time face is much more dangerous," he said. "The daytime face is professionals, families, students and professors but at night there are gang bangers, drug dealers and people who will hurt you for money."

This emphasis on self-defense separates Fitzgerald and his school from other Chicago martial arts practitioners in Fitzgerald's mind.

"I train for self-defense. Others might train for physical fitness, weight loss, whatever, but I train for self defense and I want my students to come back to me and say it worked." Fitzgerald said. "Criminals hate victims who fight back."

Fitzgerald also takes pride in the accessibility of his beginning classes. He said they "give people a chance to come in and take a test drive."

"A lot of people, before you ever get out on the floor, they make you pay," Fitzgerald said. "I'd rather they come in and check it out a few times. I want you to like it, enjoy it, be sure that you like it, and then sign up for class."

After his students have worked up a sweat from all the blocking and punching, Fitzgerald's beginning lessons end the same way they begin, with seated mediation.

Afterwards they stand, Fitzgerald reminds them to keep selling pizzas to raise money for a 2008 trip to Korea for the International Tang Soo Do Championships and dismisses them with a bow.

Then he sends them off, both a little more prepared and little less stressed out.

Fitzgerald Martial Arts is located at 1742 E. 55th Street and offers beginning lessons weekdays at 11:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 11:45 a.m.