Cal Hoops Coach Charmin Smith Competes in Muay Thai Fight

Bears women's basketball coach got in the ring after five years practicing the kick-boxing sport (fight video included)

Cal women's basketball coach Charmin Smith faces a quandary: Should she do it again?

After five years of studying the martial arts discipline of Muay Thai, Smith decided to get into the ring -- or whatever the venue is called for Thailand's national kick-boxing sport -- and compete in a genuine Muay Thai fight.  Before the fight, she admitted she was scared and had already decided it would be her first and last venture into this sport's one-on-one physical battle. 

Now, a few weeks after last month's bout, she is weighing the possibility of getting into the ring again. You see, she is an athlete -- among other things -- and she figures the experience of the first bout should prepare her for a second fight.  The unfamiliarity presented in her first foray into Muay Thai combat caused everything to happen too fast.  She figures everything would slow down if she did it all again.

Of course, she has other things on her mind for the time being.  The Golden Bears began basketball practice last Tuesday, and they are preparing for their exhibition opener against Westmont on Oct. 29 and their regular-season opener against Saint Mary's on Nov. 4. She promises her third season as the Bears' head coach will be more successful than the pandemic-impacted 2020-21 season.

But after the season, maybe, just maybe, a Muay Thai fight will be back on her agenda.

Smith explains in the video atop the story how she got involved in Muay Thai, and eventually decided she wanted to advance to the next level -- a Muay Thai fight. 

“I’m thinking, ‘I’m doing all this and putting all this time into it, I got to try it at least once,'" she said in the video below. "And you go through a stage where, ‘I don’t want to get hit, I don’t want to get hit, no, no. no.’ And you start drill sparring and you get hit, and you’re like, ‘Oh, that wasn’t so bad.’ Then you’re like, ‘I don’t want to spar, I don’t want to really fight.’ And you try it and you’re, 'oh, that wasn’t so bad.’"

So she trained hard for the fight, working with coaches twice a day, in the morning and the evening, losing 15 pounds on a body that was already slender.

Then she discovered her opponent had some experience and looked pretty tough.

“I was scared," she said. "'Oh, God, what did I sign up for?’”

The fear passed, eventually turning into excitement the day of the fight, with a bunch spectators, including members of the Cal women’s basketball team, on hand at the Santa Cruz arena that is the home of the Golden State Warriors G-League team. .

“I’m thinking,’This is wild, this is crazy,'" Smith said. "'I fighting, not playing basketball.'”

Then the fight started, and she doesn’t remember much.

“It was a blur,” she said.

Here is her fight. Smith is the one with the black shin guards.

She didn’t win, but she forced a third round, which is an accomplishment in this sport. Her players and Muay Thai coaches said they were proud of her, and she concluded that the experience was fun.

“I did not get hurt," she said. "My face looks the same.”

Before the fight, she had decided this would be her only venture into the ring to compete. But she was less certain afterward. If she had won, she could have called her one fight a success and left on a high note. And if she had been totally obliterated, she could have said a quick goodbye to competing. But she competed well, barely lost, and figures the experience of that first fight would make her more comfortable and more effective in a second fight.

“It has me like, ‘Hmm, I don’t know, I got to sit with this and see,'" she said.

"Cailyn [Crocker, a guard on the Cal basketball team] came up to me afterward and said, ‘Coach, got to tell you, Charm, we think you should do it again.’ It’s like, ‘Oh, no.’ So I don’t know.”

For now she’s satisfied that she stepped outside of her comfort zone and “did something that was extremely scary.” But her Muay Thai fighting future is on hold.

She has decided that the experience has made her a better coach, as she explains in the video below.

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Cover photo of Charmin Smith and her Muay Thai coaches is by Cal women's basketball

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Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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