About Empower Padel

For Pepita Stonor (Founder), the journey into padel began in 2020, first on holiday in Portugal and then back at Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire. What started as a personal passion for padel among friends quickly evolved into a mission. It became clear that while many loved the sport in the community, there were few women ready to compete. This sparked the idea to create a community that could empower women through padel.

The movement gained momentum in April 2022 when Pepita (Pep) went with the first Australian Vets team (six women) to Las Vegas. It highlighted just how powerful the sense of team and community could be, and the joy you can derive from meeting people from all over the world through padel.

Later that year, Pep organised a women’s tournament in the UK in partnership with Swedish brand Femme Open, marking the start of regular, fun competitions designed to encourage more women to get involved, back when padel was still relatively unknown in the UK.

By 2024, a new need emerged: many women who hadn’t played sport for a long time lacked confidence to return. Padel, being easy to learn and with its highly social element, was the perfect solution. This led to the official launch of Empower Padel in September 2024, with a mission to help women and girls start, return to, or stay in sport through padel – and to support them in developing into the best players they can be too.

The Mission and Community

Empower Padel has since built a strong network of Coach ambassadors across the UK and they have a partnership with The Padel School to deliver coaching clinics. Another standout initiative is Empower Padel’s collaboration with The Hurlingham Foundation, and last year they were able to deliver a year of weekly padel lessons for over 96 girls through the Empower programme.

At its core, Empower Padel is about creating safe, supportive, and fun environments for women and girls to try padel and be the best players they can be:

We focus on making sure women feel welcomed to a safe environment where they can learn at their own pace and join in the events to have fun and be part of a wonderful community of women who all love playing padel.  We know it can be daunting coming back to sport or starting sport for the first time so we take care to welcome them and support them on their individual journey.

Getting Involved

Women looking to join Empower Padel can visit empowerpadel.com to explore events and helpful resources. The Instagram account offers a window into the community spirit, and ambassadors and mentors are available to guide newcomers who might feel nervous about stepping into competitions.

The focus is always on enjoyment, confidence, and connection. Events are designed to help women meet new padel partners, build skills at their own pace, and become part of a vibrant community united by a shared love for padel.

Pep’s Reflections on the Journey

One of the greatest joys of this journey for Pepita has been meeting incredible people worldwide through padel. Family holidays now always include padel matches, but the most rewarding part remains seeing how women’s lives have been transformed by discovering the sport.

The biggest challenge, however, has been managing court costs. To keep events accessible, Empower Padel works closely with padel operators, many of whom now, thankfully, recognise the long-term value of these events for growing their player base. Encouragingly, Pepita told us: 

Some padel operators are now supporting us with good court costs as they really see the value in our events and know that women will come back to the venue after one of our events to play, socialise, have coaching  and bring friends and children.

Looking Ahead

By the end of this year, Empower Padel will have run 50 events, including five in Australia. The mission moving forward remains the same: to keep focused on offering women opportunities to play, train, travel and “be part of an amazing global community of women who love the sport.”

We wish Pep and Empower Padel all the best on their mission!