The Military Gymnastics Training School of Joinville opened its doors on 15 July 1852 at the Faisanderie redoubt, a military structure of the Saint-Maur fortifications, on the eastern edge of the
Bois de Vincennes and the . The land was then part of the territory of the commune of
Joinville-le-Pont, in the
department of Seine (today in
Val-de-Marne). The aim of the school was to train military gymnastics instructors, but it soon took advantage of the absence of training systems for school physical education to expand beyond the space specific to the army and get involved in gymnastics in public schools. In 1872, the school became the Joinville Normal School of Gymnastics and Fencing, and it later helped to train French athletes participating in the Olympic Games. The club closed in 1914 due to the outbreak of the
First World War, during which it became the first French physical rehabilitation center. In 1925, it took the name of "higher school of physical education" and published a reference manual called "The French Method", which spread throughout France for almost a century. It then closed again in 1939 due to the outbreak of the
Second World War. Its former staff resumed their functions in 1941 in civil and military establishments, such as the national college of instructors and athletes of
Antibes, the national sports institute of Paris, the national schools of military physical training of Pau-le-Hameau and Antibes, the army sports center of Pau, the sports center of the armed forces of Joinville, the battalion of Joinville, the joint sports group of Joinville and the joint school of physical training and sports of Joinville. ==The Joinville Battalion==