3.0 . . . Anyone?

[Muppet]

I'm a 3.0 player and I use relatively heavy racquets. I've been working on my serve, which I'm hitting pretty solid now. More recently, I have switched my ground stroke grips and I am hitting a really solid TS forhand. My backhand still needs another grip change.

The problem I've noticed is that my power was already above 3.0 level with an eastern forhand and two handed backhand. My regular partner is at least 3.5 and he always beats me. I'm wondering if I continue to work on my strokes will it seperate me further from the 3.0 sector, and if perhaps I should slow down on technique improvement and spend more time playing other 3.0s? There isn't much of a tennis culture here in Boston, so most of the time I find myself grinding on skills, which is fun in itself, but maybe counter productive.