Brainstorming for longer piece

Disclaimer: This blog post may be edited in the near future as I explore further options with this new piece.

The idea I'm considering centers around a particular event in my childhood that I've told a number of times to friends and family members: taking part in a martial arts tournament when I was about thirteen. The tournament itself was an exciting enough event for me, as it was the first I'd ever attended; the real kicker, however--no pun intended--was the problem that arose as I reported to my station for the events I'd take part in. The tournament broke the participants up into groups in terms of age, belt rank, and gender. While there were other kids that fulfilled the first two requirements, there weren't any who did the same for the third.

My piece would open up with the problem; of watching the instructors at the tournament conferring amongst themselves about where to put me; to let me join the older girls, put me with the younger girls, or to simply put me up against the boys in my rank. Eventually, it'd be determined that I would need to compete against the two boys in my age rank.

The meat of the piece would be the main event of the tournament: the sparring matches, one against one, where each person attempts to score a certain amount of points (or hits) on the other.

One major aspect of the piece would involve the encouragement I received from one of the instructors immediately before my last match against one of the boys. This would be somewhere around the end of the middle, or the beginning of the end of the piece.

The ending of the piece would be immediately following the outcome of the match, with further interaction with the same instructor.

I'm sure some clarification will be required for the piece. Which martial art, for example, or any terms related to the martial art that may show up in the story. These meanings will need to be incorporated into the story as smoothly as possible without bringing the reader out of what's going on. Another point of concern I have is in regards to the sparring/fighting matches themselves, as writing fight scenes isn't my strong point. I'll need to play around with the timing of the piece to see if I can minimize that particular part.