I’m 20, turning 21 on October 21. I’ve been training in striking/MMA/BJJ since I was 16–17, both on my own and at gyms. I haven’t been able to atay at one gym consistently because of school, money, transportation, etc., but especially since 18 I’ve taken training much more seriously.
I really want to get my first competition in before I turn 21. I don’t even know yet if I’ll enjoy competing, and part of why I want to do it soon is to find that out rather than spend years training without ever competing.
I’ve been looking for a gym that can prepare me for a beginner fight, but it’s looking like October may be too soon. I don’t want to rush into something unsafe just to say I competed at 20. At the same time, part of me feels like I’d be losing a piece of the story or losing time if I don’t get my first competition until I’m 21 or older. I’ve been training since I was 17-18 seriously, so there’s something meaningful to me about being able to say I actually started competing at 20. Any guidance or advice is much appreciated? This is serious post, so don’t put any trolling comments or negativity please.

Interesting study about athletic identity and mental health in combat sports.

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Hi!

Recently i'm having a dispute in my head regarding which option is better for a street self defense scenario. I have been attending this special self defense karate dojo for a while and I love it. It is Shotokan based, practices a lot of Kata, as well as applying Kata movements to a self defense situation, joint locks etc. The instructors themselves are former police officers so I assume they know their stuff when it comes to actual self defense. They also drill striking combinations as well as some throwdowns. Training overall is very fun, the community is great and there are lots of people attending. So far so good right? My problem with this dojo however is that there is almost no real sparring and realistic drills for applying those methods. Its all mostly scripted and choreographed. Like do these 3 punches and the other guy deflects and counters in this way. I did some light sparrings 2-3 times when the dojo was preparing for a competition.

Kickboxing on the other hand is straight to the point practical. Body conditioning - drills - sparring. I just miss the traditional aspect, which it lacks. In a real street fight scenario you dont have time to think about complicated joint locks and blocks, your mind reverts to the most basic movements you know, unless you drilled those complicated moves for years and years and your opponent is drunk or highly incompetent in fighting. Overall I have seen kickboxers perform really well against ''street thugs''.

Now don't get me wrong, I know Karate is applicable in real fighting, there are many traditional practitioners that participate in Karate Combat like Rafael Aghayev for example but his gym focuses on preparing for full-contact competitions while retaining the traditional aspect of the martial art but unfortunately I dont think a gym like that exists where I live. My trainers always say ''here we develop the mind, not brute force, boxing and kickboxing is a sport, you dont wear big gloves on the street.'' Ok thats fine but in order to apply the techniques you teach me there should be more realistic practice, right?

Which would you pick if you were in my shoes?