Sometimes players just lose their balance in the box and go down. They aren't trying to simulate and get a PK. What should the player do to let the referee know he's not simulating?
If it was me, I would tell the ref that I did not dive, that I know it wasn't a foul and I fell because I lost my balance. The key is to let him know that you did not dispute his call as if you thought he missed a foul call. Often times, the ref calls simulating just so he can stop more players from faking it. He is likely to rescind the yellow and not write it down in his report at the end of the game.
Don't roll 14 times like you just got shot! It's usually pretty easy to tell a "trying to stay up" vs " no contact I'm going down"
If a player falls down in the box that's no biggie, he was not fouled let play continue. The opposing team might whine about it but there's nothing you can do about it. It's quite obvious when a player is requesting a foul, usually they're very vocal or otherwise spectacular about falling. Use your judgement, be certain when they're trying to gain something they haven't earned. Don't be mean or cruel to a player when it's not needed. Heck sometimes after an obvious dive, letting it go but letting the player know he should stay on his feet is enough to stop all further diving attempts.
At the risk of turning this into a thread of diving, I will retell a short story about Graham Poll: So, Poll gets assigned this game between two teams whose forwards are notorious for diving, embellishing, and being general jerks. 4th minute of the game, one of the forwards has the ball, is dribbling in the penalty area, gets bumped, and promptly swan dives/bellyflops likes his legs have been suddenly amputated at the knees. Graham calmly stops running, gives an innocuous tweet on the whistle, signals for a kick coming out, turns his back, and runs away. The game report showed no cards for simulation, no PKs, and the post match news articles contained no mentioned of diving, dubious penalties, or disgruntled defenders (alliteration mine). Going back to the OP, if nothing happened, then do nothing. Good opportunity to insert your personality though. For instance, if the ball goes out of play and the player is still down, you might help him up and give him some words of encouragement. Or, if a defender gets grumpy, say something like, "what do you want me to do, card him for being clumsy?".
this kinda situation happend to me once (i am a GK). I went up for a high ball, caught it and lost my balance on my way down. The attacker made minimal contact, and it was very incidential. I see the ref about to slam on his wistle, so i just wave my hand at him and tell him i slipped. So hopefully in a situation like this the players can be honest
this is what any player would/should do whether fouled or not, just ask the coach Another question that is sort of related: has anyone had to card a player who WAS fouled but exgerated the the severity of the foul? so, red team gets a direct kick or pk AND the red player receives a caution for exagerating.
Being a somewhat clumsy player, I had this happen a couple of times to me during my playing days. I used to just yell out "Sorry!" to make it clear to the opponent and referee that I was accepting the blame for the fall. Always seemed to work. The idea of waving away the whistle with an explanation like "slipped!" is also a good one. If the referee is going to call a foul he'll be looking straight at you.
That's my point. I believe that is the best way to signal that you are not simulating. With regard to your point about asking the coach, unfortunately I suspect that some players are coached to "go down easily" in the attacking third. M
To the OP's question, I gotta agree that all the player needs to do is get back up and keep playing. Flops are usually pretty obvious to spot (and they have to be if I'm going to take the risk of issuing a caution for it). First, they're usually pretty spectacular in nature and look a lot different than a player who is going down but trying not to. Second, the flop is almost always followed by a look to the referee to see if he saw it and if he's going to call it. Third, if the foul is not called, the flop is usually followed by some form of dissent. If I can see the player is trying not to fall down and he's not looking at me to determine if I'm going to call it or not, that is the best way to signal to me that it was just a slip and not an attempt to deceive.