Serious partnerships

My last two or three sessions with Agent 99 haven't been stellar. What with one thing and another, it's been difficult to play together any more often than about once a week, and that's taken a toll, I think. I was reading a piece on the internet the other day (about a bidding system or treatment or something, I can't remember what, exactly). A comment the author made in passing rang a bell for me. He said something along the lines of "this is perhaps not for casual play, but for serious partnerships that play at least 100 times a year, it's worth it". My first reaction was "100 times a year? That's twice a week. And he doesn't count a partnership as serious unless you play at least that often... There aren't many serious partnerships around".
Now, maybe I was reading a bit more into that comment than the author intended. But I got to thinking back to periods where I was most successful. And the truth is, I was always playing with one regular partner almost exclusively, I was playing with my favorite partner at least twice a week, and we'd been playing together for at least six months. Whether or not that author intended to say it, I've decided I agree that if you want to be a "serious" partnership in terms of consistent results in serious competition, you need to invest heavily in the partnership in terms of time.
I don't think it's a function of what particular bidding system you use, or what types of competition you play in, or what level of opposition you face. I know Sartaj Hans (The Imp Chimp) was talking about “concept” vs “delivery” one while. It's been my experience that the only consistently effective way to improve delivery is repetition. You have to become familiar with and negotiate out how your partnership handles various situations. When you've coped with (or failed to cope with) enough different situations enough times, then you get a good grasp of what partner will expect/do in a new situation. And that means putting in practice time and playing time. I was hoping Sartaj, or someone, would come up with some other way to do it, but I don't think anyone has, really.
On the other hand, I don't know that my reaction was wrong, either. I see lots of players at the Manhattan that play two, three, four times or more each week. The club is open seven days a week, and there are some people who show up almost every day. But they play with multiple partners – very few are “serious” partnerships.

Anyway, I thought I would wrap this up with a couple of questions.

How serious are you about your bridge?

Do you have a partner that you are willing to invest the time in?

Do you think that you can be serious without putting the time in?

How is that working out for you?