New Boxer, introduction and questions :)

Hi all,

I'm really glad that I was able to find a well populated boxing forum with regular activity going.

With that, I just wanted to introduce myself and start off on the right foot. :) So hello everyone.

Anyways, now to the questions:

-I believe myself to be relatively well rounded in regards to knowledge about general fitness, nutrition and weightlifting; but boxing seems to be a whole 'nother beast all together :); any other regular lifters able to offer me advice for increasing strength while maintaining speed and agility?

-Are there any people here in the Los Angeles area that can refer me to a decent gym? Most of my "training" and work has been all on my own with shadow boxing, water-base bags and jump rope.

-Most likely I will not be going into the competitive aspect of the sport, picking up boxing is mainly another option for me as a good way to get some cardio done without getting bored. If I decide to get more serious about it in the future, so be it. Could anyone provide me any samples of their own drills and routines so I could model or improve my own routine?

-I guess my body structure is a bit weird compared to most people, I'm a 5'5" endomorph. I'm at around 15-16% bodyfat (which I'm trying to get below 10) and am currently lifting heavy to increase strength and maybe put on a little bit of size. My question is: Are there any other short boxers in the house, and have you all run into problems during competition? (especially with reach); I imagine that if I were to ever think of fighting competitively I would have to drop a lot of weight (I'm @ 147 lbs.)

-Any advice or words of wisdom are greatly appreciated. This seems like a really helpful and mature community, I hope to stick around for awhile :)

p.s - what does speed bag training do?

Cliffnotes:

-Hi everyone
-Any other regular lifters in the room? Need advice on maintaining/increasing strength while maintaining/increasing speed.
-Any good Los Angeles (west LA) area gyms?
-For the fitness boxers, any samples of routines and workouts would be great, I'm kinda just floundering right now while touching up on a little bit of everything.
-Any other short (stature) fighters in the room? I have a weird body structure, stocky, short, not too much fat; and want to know if this would limit competition potential @ all.
-What does speed bag training do?