This is the sort of nonsense that people try to counsel you about. If you took a little time to research
before replying, then you'd get more out of it.
1. Equipment skills. Set-up, adjustment, familiarity, operation, function etc..
All completely different in sidemount config, including SMB use, etc...
A single-piece webbing harness with chest and waist D-rings and a buckle that runs through metal plate at the back. The DSMB and spool live on the rear crotch D-ring. A long hose hog routed from the right. A short hose bungee-necklaced around the neck from the left.
Am I describing my backmount or sidemount rig?
2. Emergency/contingency skills. Air-sharing, CESA, Cramp release self-rescue etc..
All different or probably even not needed anymore. I would not teach CESA in a sidemount class.
Signal OOA - Locate and secure air-source - signal "ok" - ascent.
Sidemount or backmount?
3. Personal skills. Propulsion, breathing, stability, control, compensation etc..
All different or at least much more complicated and advanced
If you don't understand, ask. These are
personal skills... one's control and mastery of one's body to perform a given function. For example... like running. It's running... regardless of what brand of sneakers you wear.
4. Non-technical skills. Communication, team work, situational awareness etc..
Partially different. Since focus is more on self reliance, probably very different.
Zero difference. The clue is in the name "NON-TECHNICAL" skills. Google the term if you haven't heard it before. Ignorance isn't bliss.
5. Psychological skills. Stress management, focus, discipline etc..
In my opinion: easier in sidemount. Greater feeling of control, less stress.
Totally different because of that.
Again, you fail entirely to comprehend. These are psychological
SKILLS. They are the capacities of the individual. What you are talking about are
stressors. Entirely different.
6. Operational skills. Dive planning, run-time management, ascent protocols etc
More complex gas management, and different in other ways as well.
Beyond gas management, there are no differences.....and that's allowing you to 'forget' that diving independent doubles is hardly the preserve of sidemount divers...
Your insistence on arguing is reaching borderline stupidity.... and this goes well beyond inane clutching at straws.
7. Mission skills. Specific to the specialist area, if applicable; guideline use, DSMBs, liftbags etc.
..Use of lines for overhead is not taught actively by many instructors to keep the students out of there and within 'rec diver conditions'.
Again... in an attempt to educate, I will point out the misunderstanding. Mission skills are attributable to specific tasks that the diver undertakes on specific dives. Your inability to listen, or comprehend, is reflected in your reply. IF... IF....IF... your mission is to penetrate a cave... then you learn mission specific skills; for instance reels and guidelines.
If that is too subtle for you... then consider if your mission was to survey a reef, or recover a ship's bell, or photograph nudibranch, or collect living fish samples from the mesopelagic zone...
OF COURSE these aren't taught on a basic sidemount course!?!? Why would they? What sort of gibbering idiot would expect activity specific skills on a generic recreational open-water environment course?
Sorry, but all I see "above" was incomprehension of a quite well articulated concept.