For two years, Shawna Grosskleg watched other people play pickleball.

Every summer at her cottage in Prince Edward County, Ontario, she and her husband would see the same group of people out on the courts. They always looked like they were having fun, but Shawna wasn’t sure the sport was for her. She worried she wasn’t athletic enough, young enough, good enough, or coordinated enough to play.

As it turns out, none of that mattered.

Once Shawna finally picked up a paddle, she was hooked. What started as something she watched from a distance quickly became a huge part of her life. Today, she’s the creator behind FearlessPickleballHer, where she shares what it’s really like to learn pickleball as an adult without a background in tennis or another racket sport.

These days, Shawna jokes that she spends her time “thinking about pickleball way more than any reasonable person should.” She’s playing whenever she can and sharing the experience with other women who may be standing where she once was: outside the court, wondering if they belong there.

Learning Pickleball Out Loud

Shawna describes herself as an “advanced beginner learning out loud,” and that is a pretty accurate description of what she has created online.

When her social media algorithm started filling up with pickleball content, she noticed that she wasn’t seeing many women sharing what it was like to be a regular person learning the game in real time. Much of the content was coming from pros, coaches, and men. Shawna wanted to see something different, so she decided to create the kind of account she wished she’d had when she was starting: one that was honest, encouraging, and realistic.

That meant she wasn’t interested in only showing the shots she got right. She’s shared the missed shots, the frustration, the awkward moments, and the days when it feels like she’s not making any progress at all. At 46, learning a new sport hasn’t always been easy, and Shawna doesn’t pretend that it has.

“Because I think that’s where the real story is,” she says.

It’s also part of why she thinks sharing the less polished side of learning can be valuable. Someone sitting at home might see Shawna struggling with the same things they’re struggling with and realize they aren’t the only ones.

She knows that feeling herself. Before she ever stepped onto a pickleball court, she had already convinced herself that she might not be athletic enough or coordinated enough to play. Now she’s hoping her experience gives other women a reason to push past some of those doubts and give the sport a try.

What FearlessPickleballHer Means

The name FearlessPickleballHer came from hours of brainstorming with her husband. Shawna knew she wanted the account to have a distinctly female voice, but it took some time to find a name that felt right.

Her husband kept asking why she was creating the account, and that question ultimately helped her figure out what she wanted the platform to represent.

“I want women to feel fearless enough to try something new, whether that’s pickleball or anything else in life.”

For Shawna, being fearless doesn’t mean walking onto a court without any nerves. It means doing something even when you’re uncertain, uncomfortable, or intimidated.

That perspective has shaped the way she thinks about women entering pickleball. Shawna has noticed that women often underestimate themselves or wait until they feel ready, while men can be more likely to jump in and figure things out as they go. She wants women to have spaces where they can learn, make mistakes, and improve without feeling judged.

That includes dealing with what Shawna jokingly calls the “Garys” of pickleball: the players who have barely seen you pick up a paddle before they’re already explaining everything.

As Shawna puts it, “Encouragement is wonderful. Constant mansplaining? Not so much.”

Finding Community Through Pickleball

When Shawna finally gave pickleball a try, she thought she was learning a new sport. She didn’t know it would also introduce her to some of her closest friends, give her a new community, and become something she and her husband could learn together.

She now gets to be part of two pickleball communities throughout the year, spending her summers in Prince Edward County and the rest of the year in Toronto. Both have become important to her, and she admits that she misses her Toronto pickleball crew enough during the summer that she’ll sometimes find a reason to sneak back into the city for a few games.

“Despite being a large city, the pickleball world feels surprisingly small,” she says.

That sense of connection has followed her online, too. One of the most rewarding parts of sharing her journey has been hearing from women who tell her they thought they were the only ones who felt intimidated, frustrated, excited, or completely obsessed with pickleball. She’s also had people at her club recognize her from her content and ask if she’d like to play.

What started with Shawna simply sharing her own experiences has turned into a community of its own.

Learning to Be Patient With Progress

If there’s one thing Shawna has learned through the process, it’s that improving at pickleball takes patience.

Without a tennis or other paddle-sport background, she was starting from scratch. And because she’s competitive, it can be frustrating to watch someone else pick up a paddle for the first time and seemingly progress much faster.

She’s had plenty of moments when she’s wondered why it’s taking her so long, but she’s also learned that everyone has a different starting point and improvement doesn’t happen in a straight line. Some days feel like a breakthrough. Other days, it can feel like you’ve forgotten everything you know.

That’s why Shawna tries to pay attention to the smaller victories.

One of those came this summer at the cottage, when several people commented on how much she had improved since the previous year. Hearing other people notice the difference gave her a sense of pride and, perhaps more importantly, even more motivation to keep going.

Sometimes someone else notices your progress before you do.

Making Room for More Women in Pickleball

As Shawna has become more involved in pickleball, one thing has surprised her: how dominant the male voice remains across the sport.

She sees it in coaching, content creation, equipment reviews, and media coverage. It’s one of the reasons she wanted to create FearlessPickleballHer in the first place and why having a distinctly female voice was important to her.

“I wanted to help bring more women’s voices and experiences into the conversation.”

For Shawna, part of that is simply showing another side of what being a pickleball player can look like. You don’t have to be a pro, a coach, or someone who has been playing racket sports for years to have something worth sharing.

And you don’t have to be great at pickleball before you’re allowed to enjoy it.

You can simply be a beginner.

You Belong on the Pickleball Court

Shawna’s own pickleball journey is still very much in progress. She wants to continue growing the FearlessPickleballHer community, highlight more women in the sport, work with brands that align with her values, and, of course, keep improving her own game.

But what she hopes another woman gets from following along is much simpler. She wants her to feel encouraged, see some of herself in Shawna’s experience, and realize that she doesn’t have to be a pro to belong.

Shawna knows what it’s like to be the woman standing outside the courts wondering if she should give pickleball a try. If she could talk to that woman now, her advice would be simple:

“Grab a paddle, make mistakes, miss shots, have fun, laugh and learn.”

After spending two years watching from the sidelines, Shawna knows just how much can happen when you finally decide to step onto the court.