Motivation Quote by Stefan Edberg

Edberg is doing the athlete thing that’s easy to misread as banal modesty but is actually a small manifesto about elite performance: confidence isn’t a personality trait, it’s a feedback loop. The timeline matters - “a month, two months ago” lands like an honest blur, the way real form changes do. He’s not selling a miracle tweak or a coach’s genius. He’s describing a switch flicking on, then explaining how he keeps it lit.

The quiet reveal is in “I sort of have to motivate myself to get pumped up.” Edberg’s public image was famously restrained; this is him admitting that intensity doesn’t always come naturally, even when you’re one of the best in the world. The subtext is that “calm champion” is partly an act, or at least a maintained state. Pumped up isn’t bravado here, it’s a tool he has to pick up and use on purpose.

Notice how the logic runs in circles: hitting well makes him play good tennis, which makes it easier to get pumped up, which helps his game, which helps him hit well. It’s not inspirational; it’s practical. He’s pointing to the psychological hinge between competence and aggression - the moment when belief turns into committed swings, early ball-striking, risk-taking. In a sport where a fraction of hesitation is a double fault or a late forehand, Edberg frames motivation as technique’s emotional twin: not a pep talk, but a performance variable he’s learned to manage.