| I think Lee’s article suggests how reducing an archer’s average time per shot can influence arrow speeds, and in doing so he illustrates how arrow speeds are important.
Speed is an important factor at this level; otherwise male archers would really have no incentive to shoot bows above 50 pounds. They could just as easily shoot 40-42 pounds as women generally do.
Further, I think it is more the profile of the arrow that is of importance than the weight. If you shoot a light arrow that has a large profile, it will not produce optimum groups at the farther distances of 70m and 90m, due to it being more susceptible to drag and other forces. A heavier arrow with a low profile can group well, hence the X10 shaft.
Obviously, there are advantages to having a light high profile arrow, where it can take up a little more space on a target, thus theoretically speaking giving the archer a slight advantage such as in 3D archery.
Indoor archery is relatively the same principle; many want the larger shafts (line breakers). Still while others prefer to focus on the most forgiving set-up.
At long distances accuracy becomes the most important variable for shaft selection. So far accuracy has been achieved by developing a balance between weight and profile, so that the effects of drag and wind are minimal and downrange speed is optimized.  |