I don't think the release cord is in front of the ball.  You're absolutely right that it's hard to tell because of the color similarity.  It does look like it is, but what I'm watching for in the images is the ball pushing through the release cord.  That doesn't happen.  The release cord appears to uncoil in a smooth motion behind the ball.  If it's doing that, it's very unlikely the ball was in front of it (and making contact).

I've experienced what you're describing on a number of occasions, with the ball feeling like it gets hung up.  There may be instances where it's a matter of the ball not clearing the pouch and release cord cleanly.  But what I've found usually triggers this problem is the cracker at end of the release cord getting tangled around the retention cord almost immediately after release.  It's usually just for a split second, but it's enough that the ball doesn't get a clean release.  It's a pretty rare thing.  I would imagine that it occurs sometimes because of bad form, but other times just as a freak occurrence.

In the GIF your throw looks good to me.  If you do continue to have the problem your describing, try out a single finger loop instead of a double.

I think I figured this out, it has to do with the direction the finger loop goes on your finger. Has anyone else experienced something similar?

This is my first braided sling(paracord round braid, not flat braid) and I assumed that keeping the braid visually straight on the retention cord would inform which direction the finger loops should sit on my hand, but this doesn't appear to necessarily be the case. The braid might cause a natural twist in the retention cord such that it wants to lay one way or the other that won't directly line up with the braid.

I thought I had accounted for this by dangling the sling open before starting throwing to ensure the pouch naturally wants to lay the correct direction for loading without any twists for a clean release when I throw.

What I hadn't accounted for is that I should actually be doing this AFTER throwing at least a couple times, since the pouch might want to twist one direction or another naturally due to all the myriad of forces while throwing.

Turns out I had the finger loops on backwards, causing the pouch to want to twist the wrong direction during release, and getting worse as I continued to throw more each session as it continued to twist further the wrong direction and train the retention cord to twist that way.

Once I put the finger loops on the correct direction(and now marked for next time), I stopped having the yanking tangles and proper rifle spiral was MUCH easier to accomplish.

I had this issue when I was starting out too.
I've always used braided slings, and since braided cords are stiffer, your new sling is probably more vulnerable to the effects of twisting.

Sling looks great, glad you worked it out!