Answer: false. The definitions keep them apart. Timing is the moments in time when each casting action transitions into the next. Tempo is the rates of movement within a cast.

Timing answers “when does the next action begin?” Tempo answers “how fast is the movement itself?” Because they measure different things, a cast can be slow in tempo and still be well timed: the movements are unhurried, and each transition comes at the moment the line needs it. It can also be quick and badly timed: the movements are fast, but the change from one action to the next arrives too early or too late.

In a lesson the two words point at different corrections. A caster with a timing problem needs help with when to start the next stroke. A caster with a tempo problem needs help with how fast to move. Say timing when you mean the moment, tempo when you mean the rate.

Both are also separate from the pause, which the definitions call the time period between casting strokes — a span, not a moment and not a rate.

Source

From the FFI Fly Casting Definitions (August 2025); terms follow the FFI Fly Casting Definitions; exam details are in the CI Study Guide (2025).