Another vote to more practice, we all start somewhere. The cage is extra weight which means whatever you hit you will hit with more energy and increases the odds and severity of breakage so I have never bothered with them.
Here was my first time jumping my Muggy, notice just how bad I was at it. After breaking quite a few parts but continuing to practice I can fly it quite well despite my binary throttle finger (I suck at throttle control and tend to jab it to full throttle whenever I can).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=occUrFLw58U