Abby Wambach

I've read that this shouldn't be a book because it's too short. Or because it doesn't add anything to the Barnard commencement speech it's based on.

I disagree. It deserves to be a book so that it can be re-read and savored. You can't deny the power of a well constructed and delivered speech, but there is something about transforming the ideas to a book that, for me, adds something to the message. It can attain more gravitas, can become a touchstone. Can be part of your life even when you're show more not watching a screen.

Wambach's message is timely and empowering. Her candid reflections on her career and her personal life provide context for her motivational message. I've been exposed (willingly and otherwise) to plenty of motivational speakers and books, and none of them has resonated like Wambach's "Wolfpack Rules". These are not just warm and fuzzy ideas - or ideals - they are specific empowerment recommendations based on her own life experience and the world she sees around her.

As has been noted, it's a really short read/listen, but you know what? That's OK. Her advice doesn't need to be padded out. It's good just as it is. show less

I love soccer – I’ve been playing it on and off for 30 years – and I especially love women’s soccer. I went to five World Cup matches up in Vancouver Canada last year, including the final, where the USWNT beat Japan 5-2. I have season tickets to the National Women’s Soccer League Seattle Reign (who still have a chance to make the playoffs this year!), and attended the USWNT victory tour match in Seattle last fall. When I learned Ms. Wambach was going to write a book about her life, show more I knew it was going to be a must read.

Ms. Wambach and I are the same age, but other than both playing soccer and being white women, we don’t have much else in common. She has an intensity that I can’t even begin to imagine, which makes sense – it seems fairly necessary to become elite in any field, especially one as demanding as athletics. For most of her life, she seems to have taken the concept of ‘work hard, play hard’ to the extremes, mainly through either strict adherence to training while in the middle of camps, or through serious ingestion of alcohol and pills. She remains the record holder (male or female) of most international goals, but she is also known for the DUI she received in Portland just a few months after retirement.

There is a brutality to this book that should make it a challenging read, but instead I devoured it. The fuel to turn the pages wasn’t so much born out of a desire to see what next ridiculous high or painful low was going to follow; instead I was genuinely interested in how Ms. Wambach was going to both explain and handle her life experiences. Would she be full of excuses? Philosophical? Would she only barely mention the more challenging parts of her story?

No, she was just honest. She sometimes looks like the hero (as she should), and sometimes she is epically fucking up. She is ultimately human, and I feel like we could only get this story from someone who is no longer in the field, especially if the story is coming from a woman. As we’ve seen lately, with Hope Solo being fired for calling the Swedish team ‘cowards’ (something Cristiano Ronaldo essentially did regarding Iceland to zero consequence), women get a whole lot of negative attention when they don’t fit into the mold we’ve created to represent what it means to be a woman in the public eye.

I don’t think you need to be a soccer fan to enjoy this read, so if you are curious at all, I recommend it. show less

Abby Wambach has long been one of my favorite soccer players. Her memoir, Forward, is a rather slight book but provides lots of detail about her history in sports, her coming out as a lesbian, and her struggles with discipline. She's quite frank about her problems with alcohol and pills and the problems that they caused her. Apparently she managed to switch back and forth between a very focused in-season persona and a very relaxed one, but is still working to find an identity that has the show more necessary restraint without overwhelming tension. A very public DUI arrest gave her the wake-up call that she needed to accept the need for serious change. She is turning the strong focus that she gave athletics to being a spokesperson for various causes, especially the empowerment of young women. For fans, it's an interesting look at how one star athlete dealt with her demons and also with the challenge of doing meaningful things after retiring. show less

There is so much more....so much depth....I was not expecting such an honest and straightforward memoir. It does center on soccer but takes it much deeper, into her life, her feelings and her climb to sobriety and staying healthy. inspiring and we'll done. an unexpected pleasure