So, from what I’ve seen in the SAO progressive novels, it was implied that Kirito was using a sabre his off-hand and his sword in his main-hand, hence he was in an irregular equipping state and cannot use sword skills.

From what I can see in ALO, he dual-wields in the game as well, but uses an exploit known as “Skill Connect”. I understand that Kirito knew how to use this by activating another skill just before the post-skill lag starts, but...

I would like to ask why this wasn’t possible in Progressive. Wasn’t dual-wielding in ALO considered an irregular equipping state and therefore will not be able to invoke sword skills in the first place?