What is the difference between MMA and traditional MA techniques?

it depends, MMA borrows techniques from various martial arts, see generally when people do that they end up lowering the quality of technique.
this guy Lyoto may just be mixing his attacking style up a bit rather than taking Shotokan stances & attacks as they may be predictable.
Traditional arts in general have a philosophy behind them & alot of styles looked to mimic animals (not all).
MMA however isn’t about that however it is a sports based fighting style, it doesn’t require a figher to know the traditional side of arts that he/she studies under etc, its just about going into a ring & winning fights against opponents.

Lyoto has been taught using traditional methods by his father, but when his father moved to Brazil he was much shorter than most of the other practitioners, so he found getting in close was difficult, so he developed a style to suit himself that involved much more footwork and slightly changed some of the strikes, however he still calls his style Shotokan. he then taught this style to Lyoto who now uses it in MMA.

many techniques have been changed for MMA because the traditional arts were designed to do potential lethal damage/death to the opponent, but these are obviously not allowed in a sport. another example would be Brazilian Jujitsu; it took most of its techniques from JJJ but changed them to be most effective fighting 1 person in a controlled environment instead off the JJJ approach which would enable you to fight more than 1 opponent in a self defence situation without rules.

the most important thing to remember is that MMA is a sport, practised for entertainment, traditional arts are used to severely wound/kill an opponent n a serious situation

hope ive helped

the difference is big traditional ma is only one form you do that and nothing else mma is taking some stuff from a bunch of different ma and putting them into one. yes machida is a shotakan prac. but in the cage he doesnt fight with just that he adds severl different elements. take randy coutur for example he trains and has competed in greco roman wrestling in the cage he adds punches because he cant win with just greco roman wrestling thats why people add more than one ma

Some do and it really depends on the technique and the martial art. Take the front guillotine choke for instance. In traditional jujitsu you are taught to use the bend or apex of the wrist slipped in between the column of muscles that you have traveling down on either side of your wind pipe or trachea which also sits further in partially protect by those columns of muscle. By using the bend of the wrist you can more easily apply direct pressure into the trachea and larynx rather than using the flat of your wrist and forearm across the entire front of the trachea. In MMA when wearing gloves this is much harder to do and many are not taught or encouraged to develop this technique to the fullest extent like traditional jujitsu practitioners are since gloves are so restrictive and work against accomplishing this. You also use this in applying many other chokes in much the same way and I can choke out a person or make them tap in just a second or two with my bare wrist positioned properly as opposed to when rolling with gloves on.

There was just a question the other day why punching combinations are so much less fluid looking and lack some power in MMA and if it was due to a lack of skill by fighters. For some it obviously is but for others it is because they are standing in a more squarish type stance so as to be better able to change levels and shoot or sprawl with their opponent as opposed to a boxing type stance where their front leg is more exposed to take downs and leg kicks while enhancing their punching combinations and capabilities. You don’t always see this in the tighter camera shots when they are just showing the action from the waist up so look at the far out camera shots and you will see a fighter sometimes make adjustments and change his stance to fit this depending on if he is trying to make it a stand-up fight or if he is wanting to instead change his strategy and shoot or defend against take-downs.

Kicks are another area and Maui Thai kicks are heavily used and relied on because they are faster and come in lower and oftentimes to the legs which is basically impossible to block with your hands and arms. Along with this they are very powerful and do not keep you and your balance up higher for very long and give your opponent less time to counter or take advantage of you. Also many fighters don’t develop their kicking ability to use traditional kicks like they should or could for this reason and Cung Li is a prime example of this I think. He is what I call a good kicker and how many Muai Thai or MMA fighters do you see that can do jump spinning kicks with speed, power, and accuracy like he does. Most who try to have kicks that look like wounded ducks and certainly are not of the quality that you find in more traditional martial arts in some styles. However such kicks carry with them a higher element of risk against a trained fighter especially if we are talking about take downs and slams.

These are just some examples of what I am saying and there are numerous others. A well trained traditional martial artist knows and understands these aspects and will not necessarily apply a technique in the same way in a street situation or even in a full contact situation much less MMA. The distance, timing, balance, are all factors and a good martial artist is aware of these variances. To some uneducated, unskilled, or puritan traditionalists the things you see Machida do may not resemble enough to fit their tastes. Along with this he also uses and employs many techniques outside of Shotokan as well, which I have a Shodan in among other things, and to some that may also rub them the wrong way. I see it though in his very linear style of going forward and his strong, straight punching technique and perhaps they just can’t recognize it or it is not there enough for their tastes.

In the case of the techniques, they are different because the point of their use is different.

In MMA competition, you and your opponent are in a guard and are attempting to 1. Knock one another out, or 2. Properly obtain the points needed to defeat your opponent in the minds of the judges. And the techniques have been tweaked from their core-arts for that purpose. Which is to say, an armbar isn’t necessarily placed to break your opponent’s arm, just to cause enough pain for your oppnent to submit to your superiority, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen though (Mir vs Sylvia)

In traditional MA, your strikes are designed to do whatever the MA intends, whether that be, put yourself in a position to be able to escape from danger, break your opponent’s limbs or outright kill your opponent.

To Mr X…BJJ is based on Judo, but Judo is completely based in J3. The creator of Judo was a J3 practitioner. That’s not to say its just a rehashing. Everything has been altered and is very original, but has its basis at its core in Japanese Ju-jitsu.