I was a little concerned when I signed up for Gracie Barra because they said I had to go into the Fundamentals class for at least 16 weeks / 4 months even though I had been already rolling at other schools in the open classes. Five weeks in I'm extremely grateful they put me in there.
Most other schools I've attended in the past went something like this on my first month: Run around the mat twice, 13 seconds of stretching, then instructor starts showing reverse X-guard sweep techniques which make no sense to me at my level, then grab a random partner (who is usually the guy that likes to smash the newbie) and roll for 35 minutes. This would end up with me rolling extremely hard with no technique other than using a lot of strength in order to try and not get smashed and usually pull a rib muscle or quad or something during the roll that kept me out the next couple of classes.
This would force me to try and figure out what techniques they were using to smash me and ask them for tips between rolls so I could learn basic techniques. Even though I've been rolling on and off for 17 years in schools like that, I didn't realize how many of my pure basics were either loose or lacking from my game until I started doing the Fundamentals class at Gracie Barra.
If your school's fundamentals class is anything like the Gracie Barra Fundamentals program, they have systematically put together a curriculum that builds from the ground up all of the core techniques and concepts you need to know.
I was concerned that I would be bored in that class, but it has done several positive things for me. The first one is conditioning. The warm ups and cool downs at the beginning and ending of class are really preparing my body for rolling by build up my cardio, strengthening my abs and improving my flexibility in every class.
Then for the technique portion, they start from the very beginning and work systematically from most basic to more advanced techniques over the course of the 16 weeks. At the end of the 16 weeks, it starts over again from the beginning. The cool thing is each week highlights a position and builds on it. For example, this week is week 7 and this week the self defense techniques are focusing on Bottom Escapes with Punches and the sport jiu jitsu techniques are working Back Position and Back Escapes.
First two weeks were guard focused, second two weeks were side control focused, last two weeks for mount focused. Weeks 7 & 8 are focusing on working from the back. Based on the resources that GB provides, I already know the names and techniques we are going to be working on this week and I've already looked at the videos of them so they are fresh in my mind going into class. This adds another benefit in that after class I can go home and review the videos again which solidifies my retention and allows me to pick up pieces of technique that I didn't get the first time through.
Also, like others mentioned, the Fundamentals classes don't only have white belts in them. There are blues and purples that show up to refresh/revisit certain techniques and positions. Since it is all posted, they know what days to show up for which techniques and positions.
Then after the technique portion, we do either positional sparring or live sparring depending on who is in the class. I've actually been enjoying the positional sparring more as it starts from the position that we are working that week and we can actively go for the techniques and escapes that we just learned.
All of this is really moving my game forward in a way that just doing to open classes in the past had not. I'm really enjoying the process.
So to answer your question, don't worry about how long to be in the fundamentals class. Just go and enjoy.
