Thank You very much for responding. I just wanted to follow up with leo_e_49, dereck and prizewriter.
In regards to boxing what does "Make sure everything's above board" mean?
Just make sure that the people there are actually going to help you improve instead of just using you as a punching bag. They should be willing to answer questions you have and spend time showing you better ways to do punches, footwork and counters instead of just throwing you in the ring and letting you figure it out for yourself.
"save the heavy hits for competitions and self defence" So I should look into self defense classes as well, will tht help me?
I'm not saying that boxing isn't good enough to form the basis for self defence. I'm just saying that there's a difference in pace between regular training and actually applying techniques full force. If you get hit hard every time you go to the gym, you'll get injured really quickly and that won't help you get better. You'll definitely appreciate this the longer you spend training. When you get to a real competition match or self defence situation, of course you don't necessarily have to hold back.
If you have the cash for a self defence class then they'll be much more targeted towards self defence specifically. I hear that there will be a lot on awareness, avoidance, de-escalation and escape as well as physical self defence. I've never actually been to one but I get the impression that they're of variable quality, you can't really tell ahead of time how good they'll be without getting a recommendation. Police departments often give classes in self defence.
Me and my brother fight all the time but no iv never been in a fight outside of tht. Your right when you say i need to assert myself better, how do i do tht, and get some more self confidence in tht area?
I can't really help you there, I'm no expert on that sort of thing, I'm just a martial artist. That said, a lot of people say they feel more self confident having learned an MA and don't feel that they have to show other people that they're tough.
I dont look for fights obviously, but theres been cases where iv backed down when i really didnt want too because i no im not tht big and would most likely get messed up.
If you and your loved ones managed to get away safely, you did the right thing. All the better if you avoided hurting other people in the process, that can be legally complicated.