Short Punt Formation Play Proven Single Wing Plays for Youth Football
Today’s free youth football play is the Short Punt Formation Play from the many proven Single Wing Plays for Youth Football. The short punt formation has been around since the early 1900s and invented by Stagg. The offensive formation is the forerunner of the modern Shotgun formation. As a youth football player in the 70s, we ran this formation for quick kicks and fake quick kicks and is suited for this task.
The free youth football play below is the Short Punt Formation Play the Tailback 23 Cut Back Counter Trap Play. This formation is called “Open” by Coach Zuppke in his book. This Counter Trap play is from his book Football Techniques and Tactics. The play is very similar to an I Formation midline counter trap play or most likely the other way around since this formation is from ~ 1896.
Short Punt Formation Play

I like this play for youth football since there are no offensive guards pulling. You can use the QB as a trapping guard. This is very similar to my Trig formation / Diamond with the QB now used as a sniffer. As I was researching this play and playbooks, this is a very good formation as a youth spread formation with the TB a hybrid QB/TB player. Kinda looks like a Gus Malzahn power spread formation. Now I wonder, Hmmm? The more I write and research football, nothing is new.
We have run Cut Back plays in the past on our youth football team and what we have found is your running back must be a very quick juke type running back to consistently run this play vs using as a “big play” for a large gainer or TD. Either way it helps to have a quick running back to carry the football in this play.

I like the short punt formation. It is similar to a Pistol formation with the QB as a sniffer back. We actually use a short punt formation to run our Rugby punts from since it is easier to snap than a normal punt formation with a 15 yard snap. I also like to run fakes from this formation and it is pretty effective. We will run a route combo with X and the WB.
You can find out more Single Wing Formations in my blog post on Single Wing Offensive Formations. and some more on the Yale Single Wing Beast Formations.
Sources for the Short Punt Formation Play – Football Technique and Tactics – Zuppke 1924, Championship Football DX Bible 1947, The Modern Short Punt Howard 1959, Coaching Football – Flores, Wikipedia.
Just as an FYI, much of the base play and formation info I sell in my youth football playbooks can be obtained on my Website, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube sites. Enjoy the Short Punt Formation Play, youth football coaching tips and plays!!! Let me know how I can help you become a better youth football coach. You can also find more of my free youth football plays that I posted on my Youth Football Coaching Tips Pinterest free football plays board. I tried to post all the youth football plays diagrammed from CoachParker.org.
Do you run this Single Wing Short Punt Formation Play or other youth football plays from the UBSW or another similar single wing formation plays please let me know. Did I choose one of your favorite plays? If not let me know what free play you would like to see next in my youth football free play series at CoachParker.org.
Please leave me a comment below or contact me anytime. I love talking youth football, Short Punt Formation Play, Single Wing Beast Formation Plays and other SW youth football formations and plays, especially in old football formations like the UBSW Offense and Yale Single Wing or Beast Offense.
Remember to Play for Fun and Winning is Funner!
Coach Parker
Fort Worth, Texas / Keller / N Fort Worth
PS: Stay Safe & Be Nice.