12 REDs is prevalent in young biathletes – a need for awareness among sports medicine practitioners

unanticipated perturbations and examined potential sex-specific differences.Materials and Methods Thirty physically active adults (15 female, 15 male) completed standardized head perturbations in flexion, extension, lateral flexion, and rotation using a custom-built apparatus.Perturbations were delivered under anticipated (pre-activated neck muscles) and unanticipated (masked, relaxed) conditions.Head kinematics were recorded with 3D motion capture.Mixed ANOVA was used to test effects of sex and condition.Results Unanticipated perturbations produced significantly greater accelerations than anticipated perturbations across all directions (LHA mean difference ranged from 0.02 to 0.04 g, p<0.001;RHA mean difference ranged from 1.1 to 4.0 rad/ s, p0.053).Females exhibited greater RHA than males, particularly during rotation, with higher values in both anticipated (41.7 vs. 37.3 rad/s; p=0.003) and unanticipated (42.9 vs. 40.0rad/s; p=0.052) conditions.No sex differences were observed for LHA.Conclusion Anticipatory neck muscle activation reduced both LHA and RHA, supporting its potential role as a protective mechanism against SRC.Females consistently exhibited higher RHA than males, particularly in rotational trials under both anticipated and unanticipated conditions.These findings point to sex-specific differences in head-neck control and underscore the importance for further research to inform tailored SRC prevention strategies.