Training in a cage or ring?

You could also use the cage as multple warmups if your training in the cage.

I was researching recently into having a couple of cages built and i found one site that does a half cage/ half ring kinda deal... that'd probably suit your needs if it's only for training in!

I'd say cage. You don't even need a full cage, just a segment or a half cage like Ashley said so you can get the feel of it without taking up too much space.

Even like a cage wall would be sweet.

id take the gi. its way more important

Cage. It's a totally different element and it has to be mastered like a tool in order to gain an edge on your opponent. For example, on the open mats my Judo is almost non existent. In the cage I'm like Gene Lebell once I get them against the fence. Same for my wrestling.. knowing that I can drive without hitting an unpadded wall or another training group was a huge psychological plus in developing my single and double leg takedowns.

At Hard Knox we currently have a medium sized cage. The Cage is EXTREMELY important for learning cage takedowns, fighting for underhooks while standing, and escaping ground and pound while your head is pressed against the cage. However, this takes up a TON of our space and if we could do it all over again we would have just went with a Cage Wall.

Half cage will run $4000 two cage panels are $1800. The angles are the main thing to learn in the cage. Trapping people in the corners of the cage.The spring back is different between rings and cages. Working off a padded wall helps with takedowns. Monsterringsandcages.com said the can make anything whatever size. If you have MMA guys it helps but it is not necessary. Ive seen good fighters come out of gyms without cages and Ive seen shitty fighters come out of guys with every amenity availible.

When deciding on what to have in Elements we went with a small/medium ring over a cage and then had cage walls put around 3 sides of our 100 sq metre mat area.

Looking back I think it was a good choice. It ticks all the boxes.

I like that the ring takes away from some of the BS of wrestlers - pin you up against the cage and lean on you for 2 minutes.