 Skew-adjoint difference criterion for metric connections

Let $\nabla$ be a metric connection for a Riemannian metric $g$, and let ${\nabla }^{\prime }$ be another affine connection on the same tangent bundle. The difference of affine connections is a tensor $A=\nabla -{\nabla }^{\prime }$. Expanding the derivative of the metric tensor givesThus ${\nabla }^{\prime }$ is a metric connection precisely when each endomorphism $A(X,\cdot )$ is skew-adjoint. This imposes no antisymmetry in $X,Y$; that separate condition characterizes agreement of parametrized geodesics. If both conditions hold, $g(A(X,Y),Z)$ is alternating in all three arguments.