What timing? There are plenty of market timing strategies that will beat holding (the market is more volatile than underlying values so this is a natural certainty)...but it depends what you mean by timing.
Most of the conventional things that people understand about holding are wrong though...unsurprisingly, given that most of these conventions are produced by people trying to sell you something (I know this, because I worked in financial services, and used some of these conventions to sell things...it makes sense because individuals are stupid enough to do themselves real harm by trying to be clever...but this does not mean that being clever doesn't work, it just means you are stupid).