Hey y'all!
I just wanted to discuss how bending changed from ATLA to LOK. First of all i want to say that i started ATLA when it aired and i loved watching all forms of bending, it was raw, powerful, and very martial art like (as we know that they based bending on real life martial arts). Because the gaang was always out on the fields or outdoors in general, they could bend much more creatively and use more of their element, like huge waves, walls of fire, and mounds of earth. In the legend of korra however, most of the bending we saw was regulated to fit the probending rules. Don't get me wrong I still love bending, but i couldn't help noticed that they seemed really controlled and lost some of the original bending form to use in for fighting. And because they are in a city they have to control their bending to not disrupt the citizens daily life. An example would be Bolin, even outside the ring he was never rooted on the ground, he was very light feeted instead of standing his ground.
So if anybody would like to discuss the evolution of bending please join in

I want to say change of times have changed the way bending is approached. I mean, for example, you saw people lightningbending for a job when it used to be regarded as a difficult skill that took concentration and discipline. Now it seems that any firebender can lightningbend. So, I guess norms change. Perhaps people, for example, found another way to lightning bend? Just like apparently there is unthought of techniques used in waterbending (i.e. "taking away bending via bloodbending").

Bolin for example is used to Pro-Bending, so that may be why he isn't so rooted to the ground. Plus, did he have anyone really teach him how to earthbend? I don't think we know.

You also have to remember that most of the bending done in ATLA was usually done for fighting and protecting for/against the Fire Nation. After the end of the war, Avatar Aang and Firelord Zuko made a lot of effort to bring peace to the land. As peace continued, technology advanced as well. With the Metalbending in LOK, the policemen were using it as cords to manipulate. It seemed that bending evolved from fighting to recreational use.

You raise a good point. But then, what happens if people ever need to defend themselves again, I wonder? I mean, if you are travelling with Korra for example, you are obviously going to need to defend yourself. Is it possible that bending could have lost its defensive roots over the years since there had been mostly peace for so long?

I doubt many people ever expect to travel with the Avatar. For example, Katara and Sokka. They discovered Aang by some crazy, random, happenstance. With Aang's natural drive for peace, there's also a hidden layer nativity. So, taking on such a large part in the world as the Earth's Savior, the people lost some of their defense by depending on the Avatar.

I suppose with the world mostly at peace for such a long time, people wouldn't expect to basically be on their toes and be ready to implement self-defense. Though, it would be good practice just in case anything ever came up.

It could be a good plot point that they could potentially touch on.

As stated, there's nativity with peace. The people more than likely didn't think the peace would leave. Why learn to fight when nothing bad will happen? Like right now, both of us haven't gotten trained to fight, but there's always a chance we may need to. Why don't we learn to fight? Because we don't think we'll need to any time soon.