He does not seem bothered about the surroundings in kabaddi across the country. He does not use a smartphone. Naturally, he becomes able to keep himself always out of the 'so-called' digital world. Even he has stopped watching Pro-Kabaddi League since last year despite having admitted that the game on the synthetic mat has brought revolutionary changes, especially considering the speed of players' movement. Rather he emphasizes concentration and determination in his training and says to his students to become spiritual. The students obey him seemingly more than their parents and they sit for prayer every day after training in front of the temple he built a few years ago. A portion of the expenditure was taken care of by his couple of former India students including Jeeva Kumar who is presently the assistant coach of U Mumba.

He is R. Ravichandran from Tamil Nadu, more precisely from Rajakamangalam village, around 20 kilometers from Kanyakumari. The 57-year-old coach is a priceless name in Indian kabaddi. Ravichandran was a kabaddi player from Tamil Nadu. He represented the state for consecutive 20 years, acquiring gold medals in the national championships for so many times. During his time Tamil Nadu turned out to be a dominant force in Indian kabaddi in the 80s and 90s. He donned India shirts also in an invitation match against Japan. The match was held in the early 90s.

But Ravichandran did not want to join the flock of birds. He wanted to be an exception and as an aftermath, he founded a kabaddi club in Rajakamangalam named Alakantharai in 1989. Most of the people in Rajakamangalam struggled to survive financially. Heads of the family members were not able to even feed their children. Ravichandran took an initiative to provide a platform that could help the boys to earn and settle their future. Kabadi was that platform. Ravichandran built up the club, the first-ever indoor kabaddi club consisting of a synthetic mat in the country. The state government provided financial support during the construction of the club building. This apart, all other expenditure for the boys was being endured by Ravichandran himself from his own pocket.

Today, after 25 years of journey the lanky but calm and nonchalant coach shared a little bit of pride when he revealed that in the last 25 years, nearly one thousand kabaddi players from his club have obtained jobs and been able to take care of their families.

He has produced several laurels from this legendary club. Ravichandran has not yet been honored with the Dronacharya award. Still, he is not at all bothered. Rather he put statistics while speaking to Parallel Sports.

Sitting at the club ground, Ravichandran said, “Under my tutelage players nearly 20 international players have glorified the country, and more than 20 players have so far represented different franchise teams in the Pro-Kabaddi League since its inception in 2014. Right now, I have one student, Abhishek representing Tamil Thalaivas in the Pro-Kabaddi League. I have seven students who have represented Inter-University. More significantly, Among the 25 chosen probables for the ongoing Asian Games preparatory camp, only one player is from Southern India and he is my student. So, I am not at all concerned about Dronacharya. I become happy mostly when I watch my students performing well and someone from my club gets a job in the sports quota after completing nationals or University. They are my biggest reward."

Ravichandran was also offered the job of national coach. But he refused. He divulged his happiness increases every day by transforming a beginner coming to his club from one of the poorest families, to a professional player. He emphasizes this has been his continuous dream and whenever it is fulfilled he becomes the happiest man.