The 3 cone drill, or three cone drill, is a test performed by American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 athletes at the NFL combine

NFL Combine

The National Invitational Camp or NFL Scouting Combine, as it is more widely known, is a week-long showcase, occurring every February in Indianapolis, Indiana's Lucas Oil Stadium , where college football players perform physical and mental tests in front of National Football League coaches, general...

. It is primarily run to evaluate the agility, quickness and fluidity of movement of players by scouts

Scout (sport)

In professional sports, scouts are trained talent evaluators who travel extensively for the purposes of watching athletes play their chosen sports and determining whether their set of skills and talents represent what is needed by the scout's organization...

, particularly for the NFL Draft

NFL Draft

The National Football League Draft is an annual event in which the National Football League teams select eligible college football players and it is their most common source of player recruitment. The basic design of the draft is each team is given a position in the drafting order in reverse order...

 but also for collegiate

College football

College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...

 recruiting

Recruiting (athletics)

In college athletics, recruiting is the term used for the process whereby college coaches add new players to their roster of student-athletes each off-season. In most instances, it involves a coach extending an athletic scholarship offer to a player who is about to graduate from high school or a...

. While not as highly regarded a test as the 40 yard dash

40 yard dash

The 40-yard dash is a sprint covering . It is primarily run to evaluate the speed of American football players by scouts, particularly for the NFL Draft but also for collegiate recruiting. A player's recorded time in the 40 can have a heavy impact on his prospects in college or professional football...

, it is still an important barometer used by NFL personnel to compare players.

The drill

The name "3 cone drill" is derived from the fact that there are three cones used to distinguish the path for athletes. Three cones are placed five yards apart from each other forming a right angle

Right angle

In geometry and trigonometry, a right angle is an angle that bisects the angle formed by two halves of a straight line. More precisely, if a ray is placed so that its endpoint is on a line and the adjacent angles are equal, then they are right angles...

. The athlete starts with one hand down on the ground and runs to the middle cone and touches it. The athlete then reverses direction back to the starting cone and touches it. The athlete reverses direction again but this time runs around the outside of the middle cone on the way to the far cone running around it in figure eight fashion on his way back around the outside of the middle cone and finally finishing back at the starting cone. The total distance traveled is about 30 yards. Athletes are timed for this whole procedure. This drill is primarily used to determine a player's agility.